Author: Elizabeth
Ross
Date: Available now
Publisher: Delacorte
Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher via
Edelweiss
My grade: A-
When Maude Pichon runs
away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as quickly
as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad. The Durandeau
Agency provides its clients with a unique service—the beauty foil. Hire a plain
friend and become instantly more attractive.
Monsieur Durandeau has
made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when the Countess Dubern needs a
companion for her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect
foil.
But Isabelle has no
idea her new "friend" is the hired help, and Maude's very existence
among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a secret. Yet the more
she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is tested. And the longer her
deception continues, the more she has to lose. (Description and cover from www.goodreads.com)
Initial Reaction
Is it really so hard to give me some closure, people??????
Cover Story
It’s a pretty cover, but I’m not so sure it really reflects
the novel. I mean, Maude is supposed to be not so pretty. There’s another cover on the Goodreads page
that I like better. It has a girl in a
dress with the Eiffel Tower, which is also an important element in the
book. I like it better. Of course, I love the title and that’s what
attracted me to the book.
What’s the Story?
This is a retelling of a short story by Émile Zola called
“Les Repoussoirs”. I’ve never read the
original, but now I’m going to google it and see if I can find it
somewhere. Come to think of it, we never
read any Zola in my French lit classes.
How is that possible?
Anyway, Maude is the protagonist and I liked her a lot. Girlfriend has some gumption! She took off from her small village so she
didn’t have to marry the gross old butcher and she ran away to Paris! She tries her hand at several jobs and
eventually realizes that this repoussoir job is just better since she’ll make
more money and really do less work. Now,
a repoussoir, in English that would be a “repulser”, is an unattractive girl
who is hired by a socialite to accompany her to events so that she looks
prettier. At first, Maude was horrified
by the idea, but she eventually gets used to it.
This is an interesting book because it looks at how Maude
has to navigate 2 lives: her real life
and her socialite life. It made me very
nervous and anxious because I was always afraid that the 2 lives were going to
overlap and there were some places where that happened and caused some
misunderstandings.
The characters in this book were just fabulous. Now, that doesn’t mean that they were all nice,
but they were all interesting, even the most wicked ones! Isabelle’s mother was one of the worst, but I
was constantly waiting for her to drop the next ax. I really grew to love Isabelle and in many
ways, I liked her more than I liked Maude.
My favorite character by far, though, was Marie-Josée. I felt both proud of her and sympathetic for
her. She may not have been the most
beautiful person on the outside, but she was one of the most beautiful people
in the novel because she was so lovely on the inside.
Which is sort of the point of the novel, right? French literature is full of these social
commentaries and even though I haven’t read it, I’m sure Zola’s original story
is no exception. This little glimpse
into the lives of these girls who are willing to take a job as an ugly foil in
order to get by speaks volumes about Zola’s position on rich society. As a reader, I grew to love the repoussoir
girls and loathe most of the society people.
As a Francophile, I loved this book. The descriptions of Paris are spot on and it
was fun to have the building of the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop to the whole
thing. The juxtaposition of modern
progress versus the stagnation of the upper classes was a perfect storyline for
this backdrop of turn-of-the-century Paris.
I loved all the descriptions of Paris and could imagine myself right
there in the streets, eating crepes with Maude and Marie-Josée!
The only complaint I have with this novel is the
ending. I know that authors don’t want
to suffer from Breaking Dawn Syndrome and have everyone live happily ever
after, but there was NO closure for me at all.
It felt like the novel just sort of…… stopped. And let’s face it; I knew that Maude was not
going to meet some wonderful society gentleman who would her station in life to
marry her and make all her dreams come true, but I would like to know a little
bit more about what eventually happened to her.
::sighs:: I suppose I’ll just
have to write my own closure chapter.
The Soundtrack
À Paris by Yves Montand
Aux Champs-Élysées
by Joe Dassin
Cœur de Parisienne by Rufus Wainwright
I Love Paris by Les Negresses Vertes
The Shadows of Paris by Elsie Bianchi
La Romance de
Paris by Charles Trenet
Sous le Ciel de
Paris by Edith Piaf
The Final Grade
My final grade for this one is an A-. It lost some points for the non-ending
ending, but otherwise, this book was très magnifique!! Run read it and then get busy planning your trip
to Paris! Or at least cooking some
crepes in your kitchen……
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