Le Divorce

Starred review from December 30, 1996
It's no accident that the epigraph for this delightfully urbane social tragicomedy is taken from Henry James. Narrator Isabel Walker is a latter-day Isabel Archer, a charming, intelligent but naive American in Paris, who thinks herself sophisticated and analytical until her eyes are opened during the ironic, erotic and shocking events in the course of which she comes of age. Restless and unfocused, a drop-out from film school at Berkeley, Isabel is sent to Paris to help her pregnant step-sister, Roxy, through a difficult time: Roxy's husband, Charles-Henri Persand, has left her and their toddler daughter to run off with another woman. Isabel accepts a motley range of jobs in the American expatriate community--running errands, helping a famous writer with her files, serving at parties, etc.--and becomes aware of the jealousy and backbiting among the insular set. At first totally at sea because of the language barrier, she also gradually becomes aware that a chasm of misunderstandings and basic attitudinal differences lies beneath the cordial facade of Franco-American relationships. Meanwhile, an heirloom painting that Roxy brought to Paris is suddenly discovered to be an immensely valuable La Tour; under French law, it will be considered part of the divorce settlement. The tangled provenance of this painting creates tensions among the Walker family's half-siblings. The wealthy and powerful Persand family are also beset by a series of emotional involvements, including Isabel's own clandestine relationship with Charles-Henri's elderly uncle, a charming roue and political eminence grise. By the time the various strands of the plot culminate in surreal scenes at EuroDisney and the poubelles (refuse bins) of Roxy's apartment building, Isabel has become wiser about herself and the world, though she realizes that her point of view will always be colored by her Californian mindset. Johnson's (Persian Nights) control of her material is impeccable. The world of American expatriates is fertile territory for her ironic wit, which is both subtle and sharp. Everything here delights the reader: the sinuous plot with its rising suspense; the charged insights into family dynamics; the reflections on morality as perceived on both sides of the Atlantic; the witty asides on food, politics and sibling rivalry; the dialogue, which reflects both American and French speech patterns and social conventions; and the views of Paris itself, seen through the eyes of an ingenue who grows in sophistication as she begins to understand the reality that permeates this city of romance.

August 4, 2003
The voice of Tony Award–winning stage and film actress Neuwirth, who is well known for her Emmy-winning role as Dr. Lilith Crane on the television sitcom Cheers, embodies the wry humor and sarcastic wit of Johnson's accomplished coming-of-age tale. Pretty, young Isabel Walker, a California film school dropout, heads to Paris to help her pregnant, poet stepsister, Roxy, whose husband has just left her and their three-year-old daughter for another woman. Ostensibly there to "babysit" and support Roxy through her crisis, Isabel becomes embroiled in plenty of dramas along the way, including an affair with an elderly relative, a family fight over a valuable painting and a climactic scene at EuroDisney. Neuwirth's dry tone and sharp narration bring out the humor in this National Book Award nominee. While Johnson has an undeniable knack for capturing character quirks, satirizing the expatriate experience and detailing amusing "American imperfections," it is Neuwirth's vocal abilities that truly draw out all the warmth and weirdness of Isabel's voyage.