22nd February 2007
This is, in fact, the book's achievement. Susie Vereker is incredibly successful at showing how perceptions, romantic or otherwise, can be totally misplaced. She takes the standard 'types' of romance and plays with their failings when they are shifted into reality. This gives the novel a great deal of pace. It also tackles the ambiguity of moral positions, enacting for the reader the disparity between what we know is right for a character whom we have grown to love and what our standard ethical code would encourage us to believe.
Yet again Transita's version of "real life" is one situated in the upper middle classes. This isn't the first heroine who's fallen into genteel poverty in the novels I've read from this publisher. The narrowness of social scale isn't necessarily a criticism but it raises questions for me about Transita's marketing capacity. Having said that, the insight into diplomatic Paris life provides a wonderful dimension to PLAP. And even our heroine Laura, whose background is firmly within the same strata as her employer's, marvellously expresses the insecurities of being female, whether the worries derive from class, culture, or chic-ness!
I actually felt that the book could have been longer - I wanted more and deeper exploration of the serious questions which are raised in the final chapters of the book. Oliver's encounter with Julius could have been revisited to provide a context for Laura, and I felt that the visit to the empty house was a 'smoking gun' that didn't explode. Nonetheless this is a challenging and unusual read which I thoroughly enjoyed.
If you're interested in Susie's books, visit pondlaneandparis.blogspot.com ; her personal blog is at susievereker.blogspot.com
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