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Newest General Fiction Reviews (view source)

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{{newreview

|title=The List of my Desires

|author=Gregoire Delacourt

|rating=3.5

|genre=General Fiction

|summary=Jocelyne is in her forties, married to Jo, and mother to one stillborn little girl and two twenty-something children who have grown distant from her with time. She owns a haberdashery shop in the small town where she lives, and she's writing an online blog which is growing in popularity. Although there have been bumps in the past, with her violent husband struggling with their little girl's death, the early death of her mother and her father's debilitating stroke her life is now reasonably stable and at the start of the story she seems, on the surface, to be happy although one suspects that beneath the veneer there are unresolved issues for Jocelyne.

|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297868357</amazonuk>

}}

{{newreview

|author=Barbara Delinsky

|summary=American graduate Kate leaves the States for a job in Paris, working for a [[The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger]] style boss, world famous photo-journalist Lydia Schell. She’s lived in France before, so she thinks she knows what she’s letting herself in for. She doesn’t. So while the title doesn’t refer to the language itself (she is beautifully fluent even before she arrives), there are many lessons for her to learn, from how to act as a go-between for Lydia and her husband Clarence (and his graduate students), to how to handle the handsome Olivier and the ''bon chic bon genre'' boys, to where to source the lavish ingredients her employer needs for dinner or how to make a proper timeline. The Berlin Wall is about to fall, the continent is buzzing, and Kate is a part of it, for better or worse.

|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007446268</amazonuk>

}}

~~{{newreview~~

~~|author=Tim Parks~~

~~|title=Sex is Forbidden~~

~~|rating=4.5~~

~~|genre=General Fiction~~

|summary=Tim Parks's ''Sex is Forbidden'' is narrated by twenty-something, Beth. She's working as a volunteer server at a Buddhist retreat called the Dasgupta Institute where she has been for the last nine months although the book covers one ten day cycle of retreat. The Dasgupta Institute imposes bans on attendees, although the conditions are slightly less onerous on the servers who, nevertheless are expected to join in the meditations. There's no talking, no writing, no mingling of the sexes and no physical or even eye contact. One day Beth, still a rebel at heart, wanders into the men's side where she discoverers an attendee is keeping a diary where he is contemplating his moment of crisis and she is hooked. The revealing of the past that has driven both Beth and the mysterious diary keeper to such an austere retreat is part of the intrigue of the book, but while there is an inevitable focus on introspection and new age thinking, Beth's tone is delightfully sceptical and feels very authentic. It's almost impossible not to feel for her plight and to admire her approach.

~~|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099565897</amazonuk>~~

}}

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