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    French Lessons: A Novel
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    French Lessons: A Novel
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    French Lessons: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    French Lessons: A Novel

    Written by Ellen Sussman

    Narrated by Kathe Mazur

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A single day in Paris changes the lives of three Americans as they each set off to explore the city with a French tutor, learning about language, love, and loss as their lives intersect in surprising ways.

    Josie, Riley, and Jeremy have come to the City of Light for different reasons: Josie, a young high school teacher, arrives in hopes of healing a broken heart. Riley, a spirited but lonely expat housewife, struggles to feel connected to her husband and her new country. And Jeremy, the reserved husband of a renowned actress, is accompanying his wife on a film shoot, yet he feels distant from her world.

    As they meet with their tutors-Josie with Nico, a sensitive poet; Riley with Phillippe, a shameless flirt; and Jeremy with the consummately beautiful Chantal-each succumbs to unexpected passion and unpredictable adventures. Yet as they traverse Paris's grand boulevards and intimate, winding streets, they uncover surprising secrets about one another-and come to understand long-buried truths about themselves.


    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 5, 2011
    ISBN9780307932280
    Unavailable
    French Lessons: A Novel
    Author

    Ellen Sussman

    Ellen Sussman is the best-selling author of On a Night Like This and editor of the anthology Bad Girls. She lives in Los Altos Hills, California.

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    Reviews for French Lessons

    3/5

    106 ratings22 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a Reading Good Books review.Paris. The city of sex. The city of clandestine affairs. Basically, this whole book has “clandestine affairs” as a common theme. And Paris.The book is about three Americans in Paris and their respective French tutors. They are in Paris for different reasons. And all of them are looking to find themselves in the alluring and romantic city of lights. It starts with Josie and her charming teacher Nico, looking to heal a broken heart. Nico helps her find that closure and at the same time, Josie helps him realize his true love. Riley, an expat’s wife, and her tutor Philippe go into a risky relationship with themselves and each other. And finally, Jeremy’s last day with his teacher Chantal finds the student imparting more lessons to the teacher than the other way around.It is like a collection of three short stories. The book itself is fairly short, less than 300 pages so it’s an easy read. The stories are very well-crafted and fast paced. It was candid and light. For me, the French characters are more likable than the American ones. All of them are, in some way, tragic and they felt raw. Philippe and Josie, mostly. Some situations were slightly unrealistic but the writing is poetic and beautiful. And a little bit racy. The three couples end up in the same place and that’s the one thing that I didn’t really get.Paris is such a great backdrop to the story. It’s like a love letter to Paris. I picture it like I was looking through a dreamy haze. I’ve always wanted to visit Paris, to see for myself why a lot of people dream of going there. From all the books that I’ve read about it, it’s seems like a whole new world. Also, I think the French language is romantic. Maybe I’ll get my own French lessons while I’m there.In the novel, Chantal says, “But sometimes we have to run away from ourselves in order to find ourselves”. I think this is the whole book in a nutshell. And it also rings true for a lot of people. Soul-searching is pretty much getting away from life as we know it to find our true selves. Josie, Riley, and Jeremy managed to find theirs in Paris.Rating: 4/5.Recommendation: A light romantic story if you want to be swept off to Paris, even in dreams.
    • 3/5
      Tale of three interwoven French tutors and their American students during one day in Paris.Cliched plots and unimpressive characters, notably the first student who lies constantly,do not offer much focus. Details of Paris attractions kept things moving.
    • 2/5
      Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from Amazon's Vine program in exchange for an honest review.French Lessons: A Novel by Ellen SussmanFrom the back of the book: " A single day in Paris changes the lives of three Americans as they each set off to explore the city with a French tutor, learning not just about language but also about love and loss as their lives intersect in surprising ways."What I liked about this book: Not much. I really wanted to like the book. It got off to a good start, but fizzled. The book is basically three shorts stories. The first one, about Josie and Nico was the best of the three. In fact I rather liked this story. I felt that the author spent more time developing these characters and their story. I actually cared about these two and wanted to know more about them.What I didn't like about the book: As a reader, I felt that the stories surrounding the other two French tutors were just the author's attempt to turn a short story into a novel. It's as though when she finished writing about Josie and Nico she threw in some other words and characters just to fill space. I found Phillipe/Riley and Chantal/Jeremy to be flat and rather boring. It made it difficult to finish the book. In fact, had I not committed to writing a review, I would not have finished this book. I also did not like the ending. It was rather abrupt and really didn't provide an real resolution to the story.As Dorothy Parker would say: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."
    • 4/5
      Over the course of one beautiful Parisian day three Americans will each spend the day with a private French tutor. Each is trying to get away from something--an event, an intolerable situation, a rut--and each is trying to make their way to something better.Josie, a high school French teacher, is running from a broken heart; her married lover was killed in a plane crash just days before they were due to board the plane to Paris together. Her day of French tutoring, spent with the sensitive Nico, is ostensibly a chance to perfect her accent. Actually, it's an effort to get herself out of the hotel room she's been holed up in for the last week. Riley is an ex-pat, married to a husband who works long and late, stuck at home with an infant and a toddler (who speaks the language of their adopted home better than she does). She has a standing weekly lesson, with Philippe, a yummy tutor who seems worldly and sophisticated in that oh, so French fashion. And Jeremy, a woodworker by trade and a homebody at heart, is on location with his wife, a famous actress. His lessons, with the lovely Chantal, are a gift from Jeremy's wife ("I bought my husband a beautiful French girl for our anniversary," the actress tells their dinner companions one evening).Although French Lessons comes in at just over two hundred pages, the three stories unfold at a leisurely pace, visiting the pasts of each of the six characters, dwelling lovingly on the present day, speculating about the future. While the individual stories can't be said to be wrapped up neatly, still, each our three Americans (and at least two of the three tutors) gains insight into their lives and a clearer picture of where they're going. The sights and sounds, smells and tastes are wonderfully evoked and guaranteed to make you long for your own trip to Paris. Perhaps the six characters are too beautiful to be believed, but I, for one, was perfectly happy to suspend my disbelief and revel in that beauty. French Lessons is a perfectly lovely novel, sure to be a hit with both the beach crowd and the book clubs.
    • 4/5
      Character studies of 3 French tutors and their American students. Nico wants to save Josie. Phillippe wants to bed Riley. Chantal isn't sure what she wants. I liked these stories. All of them take place on one day when a film is being filmed in Paris and each story ends with the filming. None of the stories has the ending I thought it would have. Both the tutors and the students have to take their pasts and make peace with them and then decide how to handle the future. The solutions I think were the best ones in each situation. They also seemed clearer for the Americans. I would read her again. She has an interesting style of telling the story. I was never bored. I was always trying to figure out what would happen.
    • 3/5
      I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway (my first) in ARC format. The bio about the author says that she's a Stanford professor in creative writing, which made sense after I finished the book.

      Sussman has a beautiful way of painting a character portrait with a few brush strokes, powerful imagery and sensory details. She invokes a great deal of emotion in three short stories, then ties them together at the end. Her writing was impressive, but the characters were not very likable.

      Each of the short stories focuses on extramarital affairs from different angles: the long-term mistress, the one-time fling, and the gosh-I'd-really-like-to fantasy of one character. While the intense stream-of-consciousness of each character was intriguing, the subject matter was distasteful to me, so the reading was less enjoyable.
    • 1/5
      I was just bored. I tried a couple of times and just gave up!
    • 3/5
      A story set in Paris looking at the nature of love. A light read. Three French language tutors take their students around Paris for a days lesson. Each of the students is trying to get away from something and find their way through it..
    • 3/5
      fast read. typical american view of france and french people. why do american think that all frech people think about is sex? it just shows a shallow view of paris and is just another quick summer read.
    • 3/5
      On occasion I read books with very little preconceived notions about them - an unfamiliar author, a title I've never noticed - usually because a cover or a blurb draws me to them. Such was my experience with French Lessons by Ellen Sussman.And really, who doesn't want a literary escape to Paris once in a while?That said, little impressed me about this book besides the setting and the slightly unique storytelling style. The story follows the day in the life of three French tutors - Nico, Phillipe, and Chantel. The drama between the three is set up immediately as Philippe and Chantel are lovers but Phillipe's infidelity has sent Chantel into the arms of Nico who carries a lingering attraction to her. But rather than focus on this triangle, the story proceeds in portions with a short tale of each of their separate days teaching. Nico's student is the heartbroken American Josie; Phillipe is on assignment with Riley, a lonely housewife; and Chantel tutors Jeremy, the husband of an American actress. At first the vignettes seem disjointed, but what first appears as an unconnected series of occurrences blends into a nice interwoven character drama at the end. I liked the way Ellen Sussman constructed French Lessons and the Paris setting was vividly detailed, but I had a hard time connecting with - and thus caring about - the characters.
    • 4/5
      Some might call this “chick lit,” but I think it has a bit more to it than that. I have done some pretty heavy reading lately, and when I left for a weekend in Charleston, I needed something a bit lighter.Chantel and Philippe are lovers. Along with their friend Nico, all work for a tutoring school in Paris. As is the custom, they meet for coffee before beginning a day with their students wandering around Paris, helping them learn French. Philippe has been cheating on Chantel, and she has “revenge sex” with Nico. The novel breaks down into three parts. Nico instructs Josie, an American escaping to Paris after the sudden death of her lover, Simon, the married father of one of her students. Philippe pairs up with Riley, an ex-pat American with two children, and a husband, Victor, who spends way too much time on the job. Chantel strolls about the City of Lights with Jeremy, married to Dana, an American actress making a film. At the end of the day, they all arrive at the set of the movie on a bridge over the Seine.Quite a few erotic scenes pepper the story, so this is definitely an NC-17 novel. But the discussions and the introspection elevate French Lessons quite a bit above an ordinary romance. Furthermore, the plot develops in an unexpected way for each pair of characters, and the ending has a nice twist. A nice read for a rainy, damp, fall day curled up with a cup of tea and some soft music. 4 stars.--Jim, 11/6/11
    • 4/5
      "French Lessons" is a novel of three French tutors who take individual students for private lessons through a French language academy where they work. Each chapter is a separate but related story about one of the tutors and their private lesson student. I thought the stories were interesting, as they each take place on the streets of Paris, wandering in and out of shops, museums and restaurants. The characters were fairly well developed and I liked how the stories linked/overlapped together. However, the quasi-romantic relationship each student developed with their French tutor seemed a little farfetched, especially by the third story. However, it did help to demonstrate the different morals and intentions between each of the tutors. This story was a quick, light read, which would be a good beach read, as it is not very deep, but gives the reader a romantic mini-Parisian vacation.
    • 3/5
      We enjoy looking at holiday snapshots for that moment of recognition and remembrance of fun times. So, too, I enjoyed Ms. Sussman’s ‘French Lessons’ largely for evoking lovely memories of walking the streets of Paris, visiting the Rodin Museum, climbing the Eiffel Tower, etc. For me, her descriptions of Paris were the best parts of the book. For that trip along Memory Lane, the book was an enjoyable and quick read. Sadly, after time, the same holiday photos start to lose their sense of immediacy – feeling the actual moment -- as memories fade. Similarly, the book’s stories and characters never quite felt alive for me. Of the three student/tutor pairings, I enjoyed Nico and Josie the most -- I was curious as to what happened with the two of them. If you are looking for a congenial and light way to pass an afternoon on the beach, you could do much worse.
    • 1/5
      Not exactly a waste of time, but close. Decent writing......poignant stories with a lot of gratuitous sex...and no real point. Mostly about infidelity, and seriously misplaced loyalty. Three French tutors with no story at all. Too bad....the writer knows how to tell a story but just didn't have a good story to tell.
    • 3/5
      I was lucky to receive an ARC of FRENCH LESSONS from a Goodreads contest, and being the sucker that I am for chick lit and France, I was eager to read it. I finally found myself picking it up and jumping in, and the first thing I noticed was the writing style – third person, present tense, and a distinct leaning towards the poetic and literary. The immediate problem – this style of writing immediately seems more forced than effortless. In my experience, this literary lilt is much harder to pull off than your normal, everyday prose, and I feel that Sussman didn’t pull it off like I hoped she would.The story follows three French tutors and their American clients over the course of a day in Paris, further linked by the filming of a movie on the Pont des Arts in Paris. The story is told mostly in the form of three linked vignettes connected with two short before and after scenes amongst the tutors Nico, Chantal, and Philippe. Their clients are Americans Josie, Riley, and Jeremy, in Paris for various reasons, but all suffering from relationship issues, person problems, identity crises, etc. Having visited Paris in January (for 12 hours on a day trip from London) and having taken two years of French in high school, I wanted to love this book. Instead, I only kinda sorta liked it.Why, you ask? I felt no connection with the characters. Any of them. They all seemed like two dimensional characters that I couldn’t see as real. I didn’t feel them or believe in them. And, being so short, the story didn’t really give us any closure for many of the characters, and happy endings were in short supply.Sussman has a tendency to use French language to convey things to other characters, except one teensy weensy problem… The characters understand, but the reader who hasn’t had a French class since 2002? Ehm… I had Google translate open on my computer ready and waiting and I was still confused.But something about this book kept me intrigued and I finished it relatively quickly considering I was reading other stuff at the same time. It was interesting, the imagery of Paris stunning and alluring, but I couldn’t connect with the characters and their stories. I was more invested in discovering more about the City of Lights than the people inhabiting it. I think Sussman might have missed the boat a little on this, but she still delivers an interesting, light summer read that mixes literary fiction with a beachy flair that makes this ideal for the pool.VERDICT: With characters that aren’t easy to connect to but a fascinating story to set the scene, FRENCH LESSONS doesn’t quite achieve what it sets out to, but for a beach read, it’s fairly good.♥♥♥ - THREE HEARTS
    • 5/5
      French Lessons tells the story of three Americans, each of whom discover something about themselves in one day in Paris. Each of the three has hired a private French tutor for the day, and the novel is broken into 5 parts--an introductory part with the tutors, a section with each of the three students, and a final section with the tutors. Althought there is only a loose connection between all three, common themes of love, loss, and finding your place run through each of the stories. I really enjoyed this novel. I found each of the three stories to be emotional tales that pulled the reader in from the beginning. Everyone knows or has known someone like these characters, and it's easy to be sympathetic with their lives. The author's use of short snapshots of these people's lives gives us just enough to see what they are going through, and to keep us wondering what will happen to them. Although the central theme is love, it's not an entirely happy love, which keeps the story feeling authentic. I would recommend this novel to others but with a caveat--there are some graphic sex scences that a reader should be aware of. Not romance novel stuff, but it's there. I did think these scenes helped in the overall context of the story, but I think a warning is fair!
    • 4/5
      I took seven years of French and spent some of the summer after my senior year in high school in France. My daughter wants to take French as her foreign language when she gets to high school. We definitely find a mystique about France, the French, and Paris in particular. If I ever get there again, I want to walk through the city with a French tutor at my side and completely immerse myself in the Paris experience. In the meantime, I can read books about this fabled city.Opening with an introduction to three French tutors and their complicated personal lives, the book is followed by three distinct stories and then a final chapter on the tutors. This structure allows Sussman to examine love in many different aspects and at various stages: beginning, disappointed, forbidden, waning, and steadily constant. Nico, a poet who has just discovered that he is going to be published, is in love with fellow tutor Chantal, holding the memory of their night together close to him. But Chantal is with Philippe, a handsome but morally casual fellow tutor, and her evening with Nico was a bid for attention or revenge or something from Philippe. Tangled as their lives are, these three French language tutors are about to meet up with three very different Americans and the emotional baggage they have lugged to Paris.Nico is assigned to Josie, a high school French teacher who has come to Paris grieving and newly pregnant. She was supposed to come to the city with her married lover but she is unexpectedly alone and finding it difficult to put one foot in front of the other. As she and Nico wander Paris together, working on her conversation, he becomes acutely attuned to her fragile emotions, supporting her as she faces the death of love and the uncertainty of her future. Their easy, flirtatious, and comforting banter allows for the emotionally charged revelation of her affair and its terrible end. Her pain teaches Nico even as she learns from it herself.Philippe has a standing tutoring session with Riley, an American ex-pat struggling with her situation and floundering in her marriage. She has two small children, one of whom is an infant, and an emotionally unavailable husband. She cannot find anything positive in her life in Paris, feeling alone and friendless. For a change, she and Philippe go out into the city instead of their usual lesson in her home and because of Riley's low mastery of French, they remain isolated from each other, conversing at cross-purposes and without complete understanding. Riley exists fully only to herself, continuing only to be one of many women in Philippe's orbit and even as she realizes that this is the way in which she has come to live her entire life in Paris, she does not fight against it, simply acquiescing, loveless and resigned.Chantal is on the final day of her walking tour tutoring session with Jeremy, the husband of an international film star in Paris on location for a movie. He has tagged along with wife Diana but is an outsider to the film world and so has stayed occupied by taking these lessons, building his confidence in the spoken langauge. He finds that he is attracted to his beautiful tutor but as he fantasizes about her, he also knows that what he has with his wife is special. As Jeremy learns that a steady, comfortable kind of love is not one to forsake, Chantal has her own revelations.Sensual and intriguing, the novel takes place over the course of only one day in Paris. It is tied togther both by the French tutors but also by the presence of the movie being filmed in Paris, with each of the characters seeing in the day's movie scene a reflection of themselves and of the day they've had. There is graphic sex, some jarring and discordant, but in many ways that is its function in the story. There is loss and longing woven throughout the connected stories but there is also love, residual, real, and undying. The writing is flowing and easy and I absolutely devoured the story in one sitting. Sussman has captured Paris and its feel beautifully here and has created wonderfully human characters who experience a full range of emotions, involving the reader and pushing her to think and reflect on this messy life and our relationships within it.
    • 4/5
      During the course of one eventful, enlightening day in Paris, three French tutors and their students each reach a turning point in their lives. The tutors are Nico, Chantal, and Philippe. Nico loves Chantal, and she loves Philippe, who loves whomever he is in bed with at the moment. Chantal and Philippe have been together, though not exclusively on his part, for a year. When Chantal can no longer tolerate Philippe's sexual wanderings, she spends one night with the smitten Nico. The one day in which the book is set begins with complicated emotions and friendships in doubt, and thus the three tutors set off to meet their students. Nico is enchanted by his pupil, Josie, who is mourning the loss of her older, married lover who died along with his son in a plane crash. He was supposed to be with her on the trip to Paris, and now she is alone, pregnant, and being flirted with by her handsome French teacher. When Philippe finally beds his married student, Riley, he discovers that he wants to do more than just teach her to speak in French! Riley, however, has a moment of clarity, and realizes that she truly no longer loves her husband. She also wants nothing more from Philippe than the casual sex he so freely offers. Chantal's student is Jeremy, who is happily married to his movie star wife, but undeniably attracted to his lovely tutor. When Chantal takes him to her flower-filled houseboat on the Seine, he struggles within himself, searching to keep his life on the right track. There are beginnings and endings, regrets and redemption, and wonderful little bursts of the Paris experience, all lived out in just one day. This is an absorbing, quick read. The pace is perfect for the one-day timeframe of the story line. Settle in with a pot of Café Noisette, a plate of fruit and cheese, and a delightful little box of patisseries from your favorite bakery. Enjoy your "French Lessons".Review Copy Gratis Amazon Vine
    • 5/5
      Sometimes, I find that writing reviews is a chore even if I liked the story but in the case of French Lessons,by Ellen Sussman, I want to write about this feel good book. The story starts with the three tutors, Philipe the lover, Chantal that loves Philipe ,and Nico that loves Chantal. Oh, my.It is the beginning of the week and they have received their assignments as private tutors. They sit together at the sidewalk café and speculate about their students. The chapters follow each tutor’s assignment and it starts with Josie and Nico followed by Chantal and Jeremy. We walk the streets, buildings, and parks of Paris and in doing so we learn the secrets of funny, sad, and interesting characters.The theme speaks of personal values and do we pursue new ones or live with our comfortable ones.
    • 4/5
      French Lessons was a welcome surprise.Encompassing the lives of six people (three French, three American), French Lessons focuses on the impact of strangers and the impact of one very important day.Ellen Sussman got the idea for French Lessons from her husband. Working in Paris on their anniversary, Sussman bought her husband lessons with a French tutor to keep him occupied and interested. The tutor turned out to be beautiful. The idea for her story was born.But French Lessons doesn’t focus on love. Instead, it focuses on letting go. Sussman deals with characters in conflict, and each of the six characters is at a crossroads. Except for the self-indulged Phillippe, each character realizes that by letting go of their preconceived notations, by letting Paris and their lives in, life itself is better.This novel is, I should say, very sexual. Set in the city of love and lights, Sussman goes all in and discusses the sex lives of each of her characters. Never over the top, French Lessons added sex as a component of these characters’ lives. Right where it should be.French Lessons makes you want to travel, to meet strangers, and to spend a little time alone with yourself. It is a wonderful escape book that might help you come back to yourself better than before.
    • 4/5
      A light, enjoyable look at life in the City of Lights. The organizing conceit is a group of French tutors; the narrative is loosely structured around their romances. Though written by an American, the spirit of the novel is quite French, and the charm of the language shines through.
    • 5/5
      There are three semi-short stories that are the main meat of this book. The stories are intertwined by the prologue and the epilogue of three french tutors. The stories involve each of the tutors and their students as they spend a day in Paris together. The French tutors names are Nico, Phillipe, and Chantal. Each of them have very distinct and different personalities. So do their students. I wouldn't say that the book is plot heavy. There is a plot, but it's actually not the main focus of the book. I definitely feel that it's more of a character study, as the focus is on the characters themselves, their lives and interactions. A few of the characters are likeable, but for the most part I found that most of them weren't and they all were extremely damaged and flawed. You would think that this would lend the story to being extremely realistic and feeling very real-life, but on the contrary I felt that the story was very far-fetched and unbelievable. This is not necessary a bad thing though, it just made the story seem more of a realistic fantasy. And I think this is what the author intended. It attempts to be a romantic plot but at the same time has a way of disgusting the reader in certain parts of the stories. None of the characters are happy in their current relationships you see, but by the end of their stories they have come to a revelation of some sort. The imagery in the book is beautiful and Paris makes a great setting for this type of story. I only wish that I knew more about Paris and it's streets and landmarks. I think it would have made the book even more magical for me. It's true that I don't normally read books like this. But when I entered the Goodreads Giveaway, there was something about the summary that drew me in. And I am glad that I won, because sometimes it is refreshing to read things out of your comfort zone. It helps widen the horizons. In the end, I think it was a great book, definitely interesting, but also slightly depressing. It's a fairly quick read, entertaining, and ultimately quite poetic.