Le Divorce

By Diane Johnson
Read: November 2008
Rating: Mmph.

Right, so. I saw the movie ages back and don’t remember much about it except that I liked it more than my mother did, and she thought it was very disappointing.

The book is… strange. I wish we’d read it in one of my writing classes because it pulls all kinds of strange loop-de-loops, like switching past/present, and sliding in and out of script-style.

I’m not sure why I kept reading. I certainly wasn’t on the edge of my seat, like some people. In fact, it did a lot of meandering. But not unpleasant meandering. Just sort of bemusing.

Isabel, our main character, is a young woman who dropped out of film school and has come to France to help her expat sister with her second pregnancy. Famously, she arrives on the same day that Roxy’s husband leaves her, and thus Le Divorce begins. But the divorce itself becomes a background issue, something Isabel is just sort of keeping tabs on. One would think she’d be highly involved, as this is her sister and they’re living in the same building. Isabel babysits her niece, joins them for weekly visits to the in-laws and is otherwise involved in Roxy’s life, but she’s sort of disconnected.

She has her own thing going on. An affair with a man in his 70s, a statesman–and the uncle-in-law of her sister. Isabel claims that this relationship helps her to mature–certainly it matures her taste. She begins to read great works of literature, is taken to fancy restaurants and the opera. What was most disjointing is that the narrative voice sounds like a woman much older, aged like good wine, who has continued to build on this knowledge. But there is no sense of how far in the future this narration happens, and so we’re left with that sage voice talking about her flippant California youth, and her semi-matured French life… without any reflection on how much further she has to go.

Instead, we get a big blowout finale, almost deus ex machina, taking the messes out of the characters’ hands. This doesn’t seem to bother Isabel, that control is effectively ripped away from her and everyone else. Rather, she gives in to her baser instincts–greed for money. She wants her piece of the sale of Roxy’s infamous painting (considered mutual property by French law, and thus must be sold) so she can buy her lover a gift to rival all the things he’s done for her.

There’s plenty of bitching about the French. Particularly their legal system and the favoring of French citizens over Americans, even if they’ve become French citizens. This is disturbing, as the law is, in an ideal world, supposed to be impartial to such things. There are plenty of examples of Isabel projecting what the French think of Americans. She talks about people appearing, on sight, as French or American. This could be interesting, but becomes a bit tired and bitchy after a while.

All in all, I don’t think the Isabel that ends the story is the same as the Isabel who narrates, and that bothers me. She’s let her younger self get away with acting poorly, even though she sounds much older and wiser now.

Wholly dissatisfying.