"There are lots of French people who are not at all hypocritical, inefficient, treacherous, intolerant, adulterous or incredibly sexy … They just didn't make it into my book."
Wikiquote has quotations related to Stephen Clarke.
A Year in the Merde is a comic novel by Stephen Clarke[1] first published in 2004 under the pen name Paul West. In later editions, the author's real identity was revealed. In France, the book title is God save la France.
Paul West is in fact the first-person narrator, a 27-year-old Englishman, single and unattached, who is recruited by a French entrepreneur and given a one-year contract in Paris to plan and organise a chain of tea rooms which his employer wants to open in the French capital.[2] The novel covers fictional events of that year, starting in September 2002 and ending in the summer of 2003.[3]
Set at the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, A Year in the Merde is about the cultural differences between the British and the French, which are somewhat heightened by the war, especially by the opposing views on the invasion held by Blair and Chirac respectively. The French reaction to the strong anti-French sentiment in the United States is also captured in the novel.[4]
The book also brings out the ambivalent attitude of the French towards the citizens of their capital, Paris, which is treated almost as a foreign country. The character Paul in his attempts to assimilate (mainly to improve his sex-life) also contrasts other aspects of French society, in particular French bureaucracy and higher education, with the "system" in Britain.
A sequel, Merde Actually (In the Merde for Love in the USA), was published in 2005. As it suggests, the title is based on the film Love Actually[citation needed]. A second sequel, Merde Happens, was published in the UK in 2007 and was released in the US in the summer of 2008. A fourth book 'Dial M for Merde' was released in the UK in September 2008.
^Knoblauch, Mark (5 January 2005). "Literature". Booklist. 101 (17): 1560.
^"A Year in the Merde". Kirkus Reviews. 73 (4): 207–208. 15 February 2005.
^Shenoy, Ravi (4 January 2005). "A Year in the Merde". Library Journal. 130 (6): 115.
^Adams, Michael (8 January 2005). "A Year in the Merde". Magill Book Reviews.
and 21 Related for: A Year in the Merde information
contemporary artists. It was visited by the main character inthe novel Merde Actually, the sequel to AYearintheMerde. In 2013, erotic artist Namio Harukawa...
farmhouse. In Notes from a Small Island (1995), American writer Bill Bryson described a farewell tour of Britain. 2000s: InAYearintheMerde (2004) English...
worldwide exploitation. Currently Friedl is preparing the international productions AYearintheMerde, Honky Tonk Pirates, Prototype, Cathy's Book and Fatherland...
2019. The tour associated with the release was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group bid farewell with a 7-track EP Rupture 2 Merde, a single...
Kate Christensen – The Epicure's Lament: A Novel Stephen Clarke – AYearintheMerde Susanna Clarke – Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Wendy Coakley-Thompson...
renamed to be "Jacques Merde, the Dead French Terrorist" (Jacques Merde meaning "Jack Shit"). In 2003, Dunham released Dear Walter..., a collection of questions...
from the omnibus Tokyo!, for which he had made a commissioned short film (Merde, which featured the original appearance of the character Monsieur Merde),...
cities were naming streets after human waste. In medieval Paris, several street names were inspired by merde, the French word for "shit". There were rue Merdeux...
needed] is a French actress. Brochet has appeared in films such as Cyrano de Bergerac, Le temps des porte-plumes, 30 ans, Une journée de merde! and Tous...
occurs in writing, on the eve of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). "La garde meurt mais ne se rend pas" and "Merde!" ("shit", figuratively "go to hell")...
flight. Inthe French audiobook "Les Enfants de Merde" a chair with ceiling fans attached to the back called a "Uang Who" is a reference to the mythical...
à Rennes". Generations (in French). 2023-03-01. Retrieved 2023-06-30. "L'arrêté interdisant à Freeze Corleone de se produire à Rennes suspendu, la ville...
video blogger, who appeared ina few of Le Velcrou's videos. In December of the same year, Cyprien created "Super Mega Noël", a short humorous film about...
streets after human waste. In medieval Paris, several street names were inspired by merde, the French word for "shit". During the Hundred Years' War, Paris...
propagandist Joseph Goebbels. She also appeared as a translator inthe Leos Carax segment entitled "Merde" inthe feature film Tokyo! "BBC - Films - Web Access...
also saw the release of the Bangalter produced track "113 Fout La Merde" for French hip hop group 113. Bangalter can be seen dancing inthe music video...
and 'Oscar'. Carax was born Alex Christophe Dupont in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, a commune inthe suburbs of Paris, France. His mother is American and...
Laurel in Our Relations (1936) Denis Lavant as Mr. Oscar, the beggar, motion capture actor, Monsieur Merde, Father, the accordionist, the killer, the killed...
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