French Lesson, Ellen Sussman, 3 Stars
Reviewed August 2013
Nico, a sincere wannabe poet, who is secretly in love with another tutor, races off to meet his student Josie. She is a 27 year old French teacher working in California. Josie has just lost the love of her live and due to its clandestine nature, she has no one to mourn with. Over the course of their day, both Nico and Jose, through French lessons and wandering around Paris, reveal their struggles to each other and the process of healing begins.
The second story revolves around would be musician Phillippe and his ex-pat student, Riley. Riley is the mother of two very young children and a very ambitious husband. Walking along the streets of Paris, the City of Love, Riley realizes that love has been hard to find for quite some time. The two have a brief and pivotal encounter, leaving Riley to realize how much she has truly lost and that she must go find happiness, and knows where it truly exists.
The third tale is about Chantal and Jeremy. Chantal evokes the image Americans have of Parisian women and Jeremy finds himself intrigued, event though he loves his wife. All the while they walk through Marais, shop at markets, have tea in a mosque converted to a tea shop, he finds himself wondering about her.
Brilliantly the three couples end up at same location in Paris, but remain unseen to each other. It is here that the three Americans find solution and the three Parisians decide to travel the path to their real destiny's.
This is a well written novel loaded with sensory delights. Short, poignant, heartbreaking and hopeful.
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