All You Need to Be Impossibly French: A Witty Investigation into the Lives, Lusts, and Little Secrets of French Women

I have been enjoying this book. The writing is funny and informative for a dedicated Francophile like myself. I love the encounters with B. (Whomever he may be).

This book is a good read along with such takes on French women/French chic such as Debra Olliver's Entre Nous, and French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano or Chic and Slim by Anne Barone.What I found fascinating was the way many of her observations agreed with the other books, while on a few other things, she was completely different.While the other books are almost an unqualified hymn of praise to all things french and female, this book is much more balanced in it's observations.We see some women who startle the author by wearing running shoes, eating snacks, drinking Coke, and wearing multicolour hair in complete denial of the french chic myth.The books I mention, plus this one, were written in different times, except perhaps Mireille's book which was published at a similar time, but harks back to Mireille's childhood and upbringing in France of the 50's and 60s. So the observations come from different decades.The similarities are astounding and many, while the differences could be either sampling of a different social group within France, or very real social change or perhaps a more honest and balanced view.I thought she had very well thought out comments on relationships for example. The lack of trust, the control issues etc.I now want to read Edith Wharton's French Ways and their meanings, as that would be from a completely different era, and generation.Similarities would speak to a common ethos, a female point of view that spans generations, and a very French understanding of femininity and life.I really enjoyed the book, and her sense of humour.I did not enjoy the references of her visit to the sex toys section of a lingerie shop. The theme she explores of should she stray outside her marriage or not, with a tempting french man was also more than I wanted to know. Those were the only things that bothered me in the book and perhaps that is cultural or socio economic. She is British. As she points out, they are more apt to discuss such things, and assume that everyone else will enjoy a vicarious visit. I did not.However in the context of what she discusses, it was somewhat in keeping as a sociological comment. And I suspect that the theme of temptation is one of many a device to keep it light and humour filled, which the book most definitely is.I would buy it again. But I wouldn't leave it lying around for teenage boys to make ribald remarks about either.

All You Need to Be Impossibly French is an entertaining and enlightening read. But after finishing the book, I was very glad to have been born elsewhere. French women do not sound like they have much joie de vivre. To the plus side, French women take pride in their appearance and can even make jeans and a t-shirt look smart; they are thinner than American or British women and do not drink to excess; they have a tremendous amount of family and government support so that they can raise their children, and use sex both for pleasure and exercise. To the negative, they are suspicious and spiteful where other women are concerned; do not seem to have much of a work ethic; have few real friendships outside their families; and have no problem going after other womens' husbands. Oh, and they smoke like crazy.After reading this book, and the even better-written "Almost French," I've concluded that it's best to pluck the admirable things about France and Frenchwomen -- the interest in good food, appearance, decor and the family -- and forget those that would only be damaging to our self-esteem. Some of our puritanical American and buttoned up British traits aren't so bad, by comparison.

This reads like a typical article in Cosmo (the Doxy's Digest) puffed up into book length. Frith Powell is witty, and occasionally sharp-eyed. She doesn't mince words about the Frenchwoman's self-absorption, competitiveness, and lack of interest in female friendships; these qualities come across as quite cold. But Frith Powell also blathers on obsessively about the Frenchwoman's thinness, disciplined cultivation of her appearance, "waxed legs," perfect haircuts, and all the other surface adornments whose fault is just that: they're surface. Frith Powell adds that Frenchwomen regard their intellects as further tools of seduction. Frith Powell's own intellect seems all over the place, as she adds a number of dubious (or sometimes just plain false)historical details about long-dead Frenchwomen to prove her theories. The writer Colette, for example, did not "dance drunk on tables" in her sixties. By that time she had severe arthritis and would have had quite a problem clambering up there. Nor did Colette "marry her son-in-law." She had an affair with her stepson, which is bad enough, but not quite the same. Frith Powell makes a number of other careless mistakes. If she was going to bring up these examples, she should have bothered to get them right.

I really liked the book, I found it to be an easy read, funny, informative and quite inspirational. Actually, I liked the book more and more as I kept reading it (except the chapter on lingeree - the author went on too long about the importance of wearing matching lingeree, etc - I did not think this topick deserved so much attention, but oh well, perhaps it does - afterwards I did go and buy myself a nice lingeree set! And new creams, and make up. ;)). I read this book on the bus on my way to and from work and looked forward to my bus ride every day - not a normal thing for me. I also purchased the other "more famous" book ("French Women Don't Get Fat"), but I thought it was a bit boring (I still finished it and can't say it was bad, just not as consuming). The latter talks mostly about diet while this book is much more entertaining and covers all aspects of French women lives. I am lending the book to everyone I know now, what a gem!

Good price

Extremely disturbing insights into the french psyche. The President and First Lady may be about to return France to its glory days. It will be fascinating to see the changes to french society.

Best “how to be French or fake it” book I have read so far. As a fan of French culture and the Parisian je ne sais quoi, this book hits the mark. Great combination of fun & facts.

Crass and trying too hard to be funny. Ended up coming across as ignorant and crude. Repetitive and dull...Not my tassé de thé:/

Five stars because the book is so good, but zero stars for Amazon's failure to declare that this is a US edition of Two Lipsticks and a Lover, sold under that name in the UK. How many people have wasted money on this when a simple statement by Amazon would have warned them off? And why on earth did the Americans change the original, much wittier title?