LEADER 00000pam  2200361 i 4500 
003    DLC 
005    20190603123905.0 
008    181227s2019    nyu           000 0aeng c 
010      2018059867 
020    9780735224834|q(hardcover) 
040    LBSOR/DLC|beng|erda|cLBSOR|dIMmBT|dUtOrBLW 
042    pcc 
043    n-us---|ae-fr--- 
092    BIO|bSOTHEN 
100 1  Sothen, John von,|eauthor. 
245 10 Monsieur mediocre :|bone American learns the high art of 
       being everyday French /|cJohn von Sothen. 
264  1 New York :|bViking,|c[2019] 
300    xvi, 270 pages ;|c24 cm 
336    text|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|2rdamedia 
338    volume|2rdacarrier 
520    "Americans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the 
       French parent, why French women don't get fat, and how to 
       be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours 
       increase every year, we think longingly of the six weeks 
       of vacation the French enjoy, imagining them at the 
       seaside in stripes with plates of fruits de mer. John von 
       Sothen fell in love with Paris through the stories his 
       mother told of her year spent there as a student. After 
       falling for and marrying the French waitress he meets in 
       New York, von Sothen follows his mother's dream and moves 
       to Paris. But fifteen years in, he's finally ready to 
       admit his mother's Paris is mostly a fantasy. In this 
       hilarious and delightful collection of essays, von Sothen 
       walks us through real life in Paris--myth-busting our 
       Parisian daydreams but also revealing the inimitable and 
       too often invisible pleasures of family life abroad. 
       Through these essays, you'll learn about what to do when 
       you unwittingly commit yourself to two weeks of vacation 
       with friends who ration snacks down to the gram and who 
       mock you mercilessly for sleeping in; how to react when 
       French men turn to you, the American, for fashion tips 
       such as where to find a Maine trapper vest; and how to 
       tell if you're being invited to a super-exclusive secret 
       society of intellectuals or, alternately, a weird sex 
       club. Relentlessly funny and full of incisive observations,
       Monsieur Mediocre is ultimately a love letter to France--
       to its absurdities, its history, its ideals--but it's a 
       very French love letter: frank, smoky, unsentimental. It 
       is a clear-eyed ode to a beautiful, complex, contradictory
       country from someone who both eagerly and grudgingly calls
       it home"--|cProvided by publisher. 
600 10 Sothen, John von. 
650  0 Americans|zFrance|vBiography. 
650  0 Authors, American|y21st century|vBiography. 
651  0 France|xSocial life and customs|y21st century.