Stephen Clarke is acerbic, insulting, un-PC and mostly hilarious."- San Francisco Chronicle "Highly entertaining.Clarke renders the flavor of life in Paris impeccably: the endless strikes, the sadistic receptionists.Clarke's eye for detail is terrific."- Washington Post "Those who enjoyed Clarke's first book will certainly delight in his newest production."- Library Journal "This memoir is full of comic misadventure and misunderstanding, but underlying it is a deep affection for France and its people. Praise for Stephen Clarke and In the Merde for Love: "Call him the anti-Mayle. He is the author of Talk to the Snail and the international bestseller A Year in the Merde. Just in time for spring in Paris, find out if Paul finds the perfect French mademoiselle or if it all ends in merde! Stephen Clarke is a British journalist who has written comedy sketches for BBC Radio. What is the best way to scare a gendarme? Is it really polite to sleep with your boss's mistress? And why are there no public health warnings on French nude beaches? Paul discovers how to judge a French vacationer by the rustiness of his bicycle opens his English tearoom and finally understands why Parisian waiters are so cranky. This "anti-Mayle" will have readers chortling over their croissants and café au lait while Paul West struggles to solve the mysteries inherent in life in France. On Nutella, he says, ""Teenagers and jobless graduates turn to it with a spoon in times of stress."" This quick summer read is a rollicking, self-mocking, and brazenly uncouth meal of bonbons coton.The latest episode in Stephen Clarke's almost-true account of his adventures as an expat in France is just as winning as the first. Clarke doesn't gloss over the racial tensions in Paris, and an occasional editorial voice can be heard, as when the protagonist laments ""the dire state"" of Britain's railways. A chef with the Breton name of Yann Kerbolloc'h and the French seaside resort town of Ars are sources of great mirth, as are bum jokes, see-through nighties, the many names for male genitalia (dongler, todger, zizi, pair of walnuts and a chipolata, and ""what I hoped was an adequate bump in my surfer shorts,"" to name a few). After ""accidentally screwing someone else,"" Paul must prove himself to Alexa, the woman he loves, and many shenanigans ensue.
Clarke's alter-ego Paul West, a 27-year-old Englishman and culinary school graduate turned entrepreneur, opens a tearoom in Paris. Clarke, a British journalist working in Paris, offers fans of his international roman a clef bestseller A Year in the Merde a novel-sequel that mixes adolescent humor with occasionally astute observations about an expatriate's life in France-with happy results.
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