Amazon.com Review
The act of writing a first novel has a lot in common with being an au pair. Each is often accomplished by a young, overeducated woman who believes she is the center of the universe. This can make for dull reading, and sometimes for unattended children falling down staircases. But Lily King's fine first novel--about an au pair--neatly avoids the solipsism that often plagues coming-of-age stories. In The Pleasing Hour, 19-year-old Rosie has fled New Hampshire for France after undergoing an anguishing loss: she surrendered her newborn son to her infertile, married sister. Rosie is literally hollowed out, unable to see beyond her own pain. "Nothing in my body felt right. It seemed to be ringing with pain but there was no part of me that I could point to and tell her, Here, here's where it hurts." In Paris she moves in with the Tivots: the unassuming, shambling father, Marc; the glamorous and unforgiving mother, Nicole; the beautiful daughter, Odile; the merry daughter, Lola; the momma's boy, Guillaume. Rosie steps into the highly polarized atmosphere of the Tivot household, unconsciously upsetting its equilibrium by throwing in her lot with Marc and Lola. And when the family heads off to Spain for vacation, the power balance shifts palpably, since Rosie is the only one who speaks Spanish. Even Nicole grudgingly admires her. What's more, Rosie notices Marc regarding her with the "relentless curiosity he'd had in his eye since we landed in Spain." On Mallorca, the two consummate their relationship, and the betrayal forces her to see beyond her own worries to the entrenched pains and allegiances of her host family.
King cleverly iterates this message in her narrative. She occasionally, deliberately, allows each member of the Tivot family to voice the story, and this opening-up of the narrative allows the world to flow into a novel whose themes might otherwise seem petty. In the end, the author doesn't perpetrate the dull crime of youthful self-involvement--she comments on it. We care for Rosie from the start, but we like her a lot more as she comes alive to the people around her. --Claire Dederer
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly
A year in France brings a young American new reserves of sympathy and maturity in this poised, accomplished first novel. Nineteen-year-old Rosie, King's sensitive narrator, arrives in Paris on the first day of the school year, set for her job as the Tivot family's au pair. The other au pairs (in French usage, filles) are cosmopolitan students drawn to French culture. Rosie, however, has come here to flee her past: she became pregnant as a deliberate act of charity, giving up her baby so her infertile sister could have a child. But that decision has only heightened her omnipresent sense of loss. Her months with the Tivot family on their houseboat bring her new and difficult human connections: to the inquisitive, needy 12-year-old Lola and her younger brother, Guillaume; to their unhappy, astringent mother, Nicole; and to their father, Marc, with whom the reserved Rosie gradually falls in love. After Lola catches Rosie and Marc holding hands on a family trip to Spain, Rosie is sent to a small town in Provence to care for Nicole's Aunt Lucie, in her 90s. In chapters interspersed with Rosie's own story, Aunt Lucie fills in the background of Nicole's family, a grim account of inheritance and treachery during WWII. Expertly constructed, full of surprises, superbly paced and sweetly sad, King's book hardly reads like a first novel; her skilled observation and careful narrative voice prevent the wartime plot from seeming sensational, and keeps Rosie's saga of melodrama. In fact, the seamless integration of theme, plot and voice produces a rare sense of intimacy. Rosie's final discoveries about France, about families and about herself through Lucie, Lola and Nicole take her on an inward journey readers will feel privileged to share. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
King tells this haunting tale of surrogate histories and maternal betrayals with a narrative that slips among time, place and points of view; to her credit, she manages to perform this juggling act without breaking a sweat. -- The Los Angeles Times, Mark Rozzo
Lily King's splendid new novel, The Pleasing Hour, consists of one beginning after another, all so assured that it's hard to believe the book itself is her debut. -- The New York Times Book Review, Jacqueline Carey --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
YA-Only gradually do readers learn why Rosie, an 18-year-old American, has been caring for the three Tivot children on their family houseboat. Raised by an older sister now happily married but infertile, Rosie became a surrogate mother for Sarah. Only after giving birth did she realize what she was renouncing and, in heartbreak, fled to France. The book opens with the teen in rural southern France, her stint as an au pair behind her. She is companioning an elderly family friend of the Tivots, and she acquaints Rosie with their background. These weeks in the countryside with the nurturing woman provide the girl with a more mature view of her experience. Resentment, self-consciousness, and confusion give way to acceptance and understanding of her relationships with this family. The story then flashes back to Rosie's first day on the houseboat. She is aware at once that the cool sophisticated mother, Nicole, is disappointed with her. Odile, more nearly Rosie's age, is inclined to her mother's aloofness. Lola, the middle child, offers immediate affection and the younger boy is accepting as well. Beautifully written, with complex characterizations, the book creates the ambience of France in both city and country scenes. King is particularly successful in revealing Rosie's past and present insecurities. Of special value to teens is the examination of the young woman's strengths-her loving nature, her willingness to sacrifice, and her ability to assess her choices and move on with her life.
Frances Reiher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
With longing and sweetness, this subtle and gorgeously crafted novel takes us into a tangle of family affections. The story is an old one: Rosie, an American au pair on a Paris houseboat, falls in love first with the children she helps care for and then with their father, Marc. Their mother, Nicole, is as edgy, hard-faceted, and lovely as a diamond. As we travel the year with this family, all is revealed: Rosie's giving up the child she deliberately conceived to her cherished sister, who cannot have children; Nicole's history in a place called Plaire, where a situation similar to Rosie's shaped her and her own mother forever. The three children spring to exuberant life: little Guillaume, with his faith and his fears; Lola, who loves Rosie at once; and Odile, patterning her mother and pushing against her. Above all, there is Marc, who wants his wife to love him and finds a way to that through Rosie. It is in Plaire that both Rosie and Nicole find a resolution of sorts with their pasts and with each other. The play of French against American, of fresh hurts against old but still aching ones, of lovers and mothers, is gently woven in language of great purity. GraceAnne A. DeCandido --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
An intriguing but fractured debut about a downhearted American au pair's year in France: it's intended as a retreat from pain but instead brings her awareness of the painful burdens others must bear, and for far longer than she has carried hers. Coming to Paris to live on a houseboat was like stepping into a dream for 17-year-old Rosie, even though Nicole, the mother of her family, was a daunting, cold beauty and Rosie's French was pitifully poor. No matter. The business of shopping, preparing meals, and caring for the three well-behaved children of Nicole and Marc kept her from brooding over what she left behind in New Hampshire: a newborn, her own child, a baby shed contrived to conceive in order to give to her infertile sister and her husband, only to have a change of heart after the boy was born. As months pass and her involvement with her host family grows, Rosie ponders the dynamic between Nicole and Marc, a successful but less glamorous doctor who seems to have little in common with his wife. An Easter holiday in Spain loosens everyone up, but for Marc that means increasing his appreciation of Rosie, and they find too much time to be alone. Discovered holding hands by the youngest child, Rosie tries to bury her feelings for Marc and make amends by offering to care for Nicole's dying aunt, who lives in the southern village Nicole left in her youth and never returned to. Rosie flourishes in her new surroundings while learning the sad story of Nicole's family, and when Nicole decides to pay a visit finally to her birthplace, to lay to rest the ghosts of her past, it is Rosie she chooses to accompany her. The central character's complexity and many of the descriptive details are pleasing, but the plotting here has more artifice than artfulness, one consequence being that the children are fleshed out in the beginning only to be cut loose in the end. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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