Hardcover, 64 pages
Published Nov. 18, 2022 by New Directions.
Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge’s, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite, so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests. One should cultivate weavers of tweed in the Outer Hebrides but have the cloth made up in London; one should buy linen in Ireland but have it made up by a Thai seamstress in Paris (whose genius has been supported by purchase of suitable premises). All this and much more she has learned, governed by a parent of ferociously lofty standards. But at 17, during the annual …
Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge’s, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite, so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests. One should cultivate weavers of tweed in the Outer Hebrides but have the cloth made up in London; one should buy linen in Ireland but have it made up by a Thai seamstress in Paris (whose genius has been supported by purchase of suitable premises). All this and much more she has learned, governed by a parent of ferociously lofty standards. But at 17, during the annual Ramadan travels, she finds all assumptions overturned. Will she be able to fend for herself? Will the dictates of good taste suffice when she must deal, singlehanded, with the sharks of New York?
Never read DeWitt before but apparently she’s a big deal? This lives up to the hype. I’m a petty bitch and this was licks fingers DELICIOUS.
Part of the publisher’s slim hardcover fiction series that “aims to deliver the pleasure one felt as a child reading a marvelous book from cover to cover in an afternoon.” Truly marvelous. If they’re all this good, I feel a strong urge to buy every single one.
Dryly funny and endearing. I read this in one sitting last night and I've been thinking about how fun it was throughout the day
A quick, fun, and very interesting read. It would be mauvais ton to spoil it by divulging details of the story, but I will say that this New York Times article recommending the book certainly helped me appreciate it.
