Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #540592 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-21
• Released on: 2006-03-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From Booklist
Lauren Klein (now just Klein, thank you) is a corn-fed Wisconsin girl who escaped to the Big Apple, hoping to become a designer of haute couture. At age 34, she is a successful "fashion consultant," with all the trappings of living large: Tribeca loft, closet full of couture, and a French industrialist boyfriend 15 years her senior. But, suddenly, it just all feels so empty--why? Mais bien sur, because Klein isn't following her dream of moving to Paris. So, in true don't-look-before-you-leap fashion, she is on that plane to Paree in one week. What follows is a chronicle of her attempt to set up shop in a city where she doesn't really speak the language and where housing is impossible to find. Oh, and there's lots of sex, too. As Klein tells us repeatedly, the girl likes sex. (Someone should clue heterosexual men in on the subset of chick lit in which the female protagonist just can't get enough and just can't stop talking about it.) Heavy reading, no (despite the heavy breathing); but good fun for Francophiles and expats. Beth Leistensnider
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Gucci bags, Jimmy Choo shoes, and now a copy of Paris Hangover are all essential items for the upwardly mobile young woman." Sylvia Beach Whitman, owner of Paris' Shakespeare & Company"

Review

Customer Reviews

Comme ci, comme ça ... that's French for "so-so."
I casually picked up PARIS HANGOVER at a local chain bookstore having been drawn in by the seductive allure it promised with the Eiffel Tower serving as a lucious backdrop to a mysterious pair of stiletto clad female legs in pose. Add to that the fact that I'm a touch of a Francophile, so I was positive I was in for a luscious, rich, decadent, melt-in-your mouth crême brûlée kinda read.

I was mistaken. Quel faux pas!

The novel starts out strong, as if you are entrenched in the whirlwind life of Klein, a headstrong, successful thirty-something living an over-the-top posh life in New York City. Her focus seems to be aimed at incessant name dropping (which she continues all throughout the novel!) which does one of two things: pads the novel or pumps up her own ego as if to say "Oh yea? I can mention so-and-so or this place!" It gets old.

It seems as though a few parts of this book were based on her actual experiences. If they were, she outs herself as a gluttonous, drunken, man hopping, starving artist. Pretty much 80% of her book revolves around her never-ending hunt for who she calls "Monsieur Right." Seems like every chapter beins and ends with one sexual escapade gone awry, leaving our heroine heartbrokenly devastated at the hands of man. A theme trifle passé, Madame Lobe.

The redeeming qualities of this whimsical novel come in its subtle message. The way she bounces back from numerous heartaches by going out with her girlfriends, throwing herself into her artwork, speaking her mind, and essentially giving herself time to heal. At least until her bed gets cold and she needs some "Gallic charm" stemming from an insatiable desire for Frenchman. Gag me. You'd think she'd be able to shake her self imposed stereotype that Frenchmen are the best lovers/boyfriends/confidants in the world. Will she ever tire of galavanting with the Frenchies? I guess you'll have to stomach her erotic capers to reach the answer to that question when she finally reveals "the man of her dreams" and his nationality at the VERY end of the book.

One thing I didn't care for in this novel was how she organized it. She divides it into three sections a chapter (I'll let you discover what they are) which don't lend themselves to a good flow. Even if this was meant to have the voice of a handwritten journal/diary, the choppy and inconsistent plot jumps all over the place at times.

If you speak French at the junior high level or above, then you will have to disregard her numerous mistakes in French. Me thinks her missteps were intentional; however, they were a bit aggravating to me, a fluent French speaker. She may deem them endearing, but I find them annoying and silly, much like the aformentioned interminate name dropping.

Okay, okay, I admit. I've been a little churlish towards this femme fatale and her novel; however, I'm not a total hard ass, and I do realize every book has merit. Read on ...

Lobe's attention to detail is superb and shining at times. I simply love the way she describes a new piece of furniture she bought, how the weather in Paris is "parfait," or how her sense of style, or lack thereof, makes or breaks her day. If you've ever been to Paris, you will definitely find a lot to like in her place descriptions. It's almost as if you are there, right along with her.

The "Ah ha!" moment of her novel comes in the final two chapters. Perhaps too little, too late, but present nonetheless. Although it felt rushed and thrown together, its message is sincere. She embarks on a real gut wrenching reality check complete with a dabble in celibacy and a healthy serving of girl power introspection. I won't reveal the outcome, that would be très gauche, but if you're willing to wade through Klein's indecisive, sometimes child like behavior, you will be surprised.

Although this book is a touch on the insipid side, it's quick. It will make you feel good about yourself because of Klein's go getter attitude when she's down on her luck, Lobe's sharp attention to detail, and the fast pace of Klein's devil-may-care lifestyle. I reccomend this book for when you're traveling, sitting poolside, or you need a quick, capricious read.

French-inspired fun
I read "Paris Hangover" because I thoroughly enjoyed Kirsten Lobe's other novel, "French Trysts: Secrets of a Courtesan." Both books are similar in that they revolve around young American women who move to Paris and embark in a series of romantic (actually, more like just plain sexual) adventures. In "Paris Hangover," Klein breaks up with her wealthy boyfriend and quits her hot-shot fashion designer job in New York City to fulfill her dream of moving to Paris. The transition doesn't go as smoothly as Klein originally anticipated. She's strapped for cash, doesn't speak the language, and is completely alone. Klein's optimistic approach to finding "Monsieur Right" leads her into a series of relationships with various Frenchmen, and she ultimately discovers that the secret to finding true happiness and fulfilment in her life lies within herself. Of course, that doesn't stop Klein from having a lot of amazing sex throughout the course of the novel (warning: this book is definitely not for prudes!). There's also a very romantic (and completely predictable) happy ending to tie everything together very nicely. Overall, "Paris Hangover" is a fun book for anyone looking for a unique chick lit/romance novel that has numerous French elements thrown in for good measure.

Sex & The City of Lights.
Most romance novels set in Paris are formulaic: an attractive, single woman travels to Paris to escape her dull life hoping to to find passion and to discover herself. In such novels, Paris becomes little more than a cliche. As a recent article in the New York Times recognized, people who read these books are "into the fantasy of Paris, the Paris of sophistication and magic and Champagne" (p. B25, New York Times, August 4, 2006), and when it comes to the genre of romance novels, the "perpetual power" of Paris "to excite, transform, inspire and liberate" sells books.

Former fashion designer, Kirsten Lobe's novel is a perfect example of this Paris-romance-novel formula, with equal parts of Bridget Jones and Sex And The City thrown in for good measure. In PARIS HANGOVER, Lauren Klein (now just "Klein") is a 34-year-old, gorgeous, blond fashion consultant, who packs her ten-piece Louis Vuitton luggage set, and then says adieu to her Mr. Big industrialist boyfriend and to her TriBeCa triplex for a new life in a 550-square-foot garret in Paris' St. Germain district, to explore "the mysterious world of Gallic men." (Never mind that she doesn't speak the language; the girl likes sex.) Klein is a composite of both the lovelorn and the love-seeking Carrie Bradshaw and the uninhibited Samantha Jones capable of bedding the hottest guy in the room. Through a series of journal-like entries, the first-person narrative follows Klein's sexual exploits from the Café Flore to the Jardins Luxembourg in her search for Monsieur Right. Along the way, and while immersing herself in Parisian culture and manners, she encounters one romantic French disappointment after the next. Yet Klein remains open to the possibility of finding love among the ruins. It is only after she discovers something about herself that Klein finds what she is really looking for in Paris. While PARIS HANGOVER is not Proust, Lobe's hip, witty, and funny style and her fashion designer's eye for haute couture make this romantic-memoir-type-novel an entertaining read.

Readers interested in this genre might also consider: CAPTURING PARIS, Katharine Davis; LEFT BANK, Kate Muir; SALAAM, PARIS, Kavita Daswani; THAT SUMMER IN PARIS, Abha Dawesar; and WEEKEND IN PARIS, Robyn Sisman.

G. Merritt