Stephen Clarke: A Year in the Merde
A Year in the Merde is the account of Paul West, a Londoner, moving to Paris for one year.
Appointed to lead a project with colleagues in Paris, Paul West takes up the daunting task to be a Brit in the City of Love. And what is awaiting him there? “Great lifestyle, …, great food, and totally unpolitically correct women with great underwear. But, …, the French are hell to live with”.
Month by month the reader follows Paul’s life in Paris, his struggle at work, his failures in getting a lunch at the Champs-Elysées, and his many achievements in love. And if you know a bit of the French way of life, at each chapter you can’t help thinking: putain, it’s just as he says!
The snail, by the way, which he uses on his cover illustrations, is derived from the arrangement of the arrondissements of Paris: starting with the 1st arrondissement in the very centre of the city and taking its course in circles up to the 20th.
Appointed to lead a project with colleagues in Paris, Paul West takes up the daunting task to be a Brit in the City of Love. And what is awaiting him there? “Great lifestyle, …, great food, and totally unpolitically correct women with great underwear. But, …, the French are hell to live with”.
Month by month the reader follows Paul’s life in Paris, his struggle at work, his failures in getting a lunch at the Champs-Elysées, and his many achievements in love. And if you know a bit of the French way of life, at each chapter you can’t help thinking: putain, it’s just as he says!
The snail, by the way, which he uses on his cover illustrations, is derived from the arrangement of the arrondissements of Paris: starting with the 1st arrondissement in the very centre of the city and taking its course in circles up to the 20th.
A Year in the Merde is just the first of a series of Clarke’s books. He later also published Merde Actually, Merde happens, Talk to the Snail, and Dial M for Merde. I have not yet read the following books, but if they are written with the same great wit and light-heartedness, they are sure to be fantastic entertainment.
Stephen Clarke: A Year in the Merde. Black Swan, 2005. 383 pages. First published in 2004.