Tuesday, November 2, 2010

French Fried by Chris Dolley

 

Unfortunately this felt very dated because it has taken much too long for this memoir to be published. What a surprise it was to learn this all happened in 1995, that’s fifteen years ago, come on ex-pat life has moved on so much since then! It read to me far more like a diary than a novel which I feel means it would have been far better to have been published at the time either  in a magazine or newspaper. In fact I think this would have made perfect blog reading, but I am not sure how many were around then? Looking into this I did discover an earlier online presence, see details at the end of this review.

I was really pleased when Chris Dolley approached me asking if I would like to review French Fried for two reasons. Firstly it was to be sent to me in eBook form giving me the opportunity to use my  Sony E-Reader and it is an ex-pat adventure. Although not set in Italy but France I felt there would be much that I could relate to. While there certainly was including escapades with fireplaces and tradesman, I was very disappointed as already mentioned by the era it happened in.  So much of the bureaucracy written about was way out of date and it still referred to French Francs. I assume this means that Chris Dolley has been trying for many years to get this memoir published and finally has succumbed to the e-book route. I searched for the availability of a hard copy but there does not seem to be one.

Normally a slim volume such as this would only take me a few days to read but it took me five days unheard of. I struggled because of the what felt to me like forced hilarity at times about the unfortunate situations they found themselves in, it was just too much at once. A chapter or two at a time was enough with this almost facetious style of writing, surely at the time they did not find so much humour in what was happening. I also found at times the naivety of the couple rather strange especially as they already had family living in France when they arrived.

As for the identity fraud that the couple suffered well you could not help but feel sympathetic and impressed that they solved the case themselves, but I have to say the result was rather obvious from fairly early on. I guessed who it was anyway, but that of course was easy with all the clues I had been given, not so easy for the Dolleys one realises. It is this story though within the book that makes it different from every other ex-pat memoir as it is almost (but not quite) a detective story.

I honestly think that as Chris Dolley was already an author when he wrote this that he would have been far better using the identity theft plot and writing a thriller. In fact I discovered he did in fact have this very idea himself but changed tack when he found it becoming too funny. What a shame he did not stick to his original idea. I feel badly as the author so kindly asked me to review his book and sent me the eBook gratis, however one has to be honest. I am sure his day to day life if written in the here and now, not tales from the last century maybe as a blog he would have a following.


Learn more about Chris Dolley here or on his Official Website where you will learn he is also  a science fiction author and designer of computer games. I also discovered during my research that from 2007, maybe earlier until as recently as August 2010 Chris Dolley was writing at LiveJournal about these and other experiences.

Update November 3rd, Chris Dolley has taken the time to comment here and I think the link he suggests reading is relevant and interesting so am including it as a link here

12 comments:

  1. When I first read the title of this book, I thought that it might make an ideal Christmas stocking filler for my family in France. However, on reading further, I discovered that perhaps it wouldn't be such a good idea after all! What a pity it was all so dated. And there really is no excuse to still be using French francs in a book!

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  2. Colour me confused, but if you're writing a true story about events in 1995 why wouldn't you use Francs? Euros didn't exist then. The book isn't a guide to living in France, it's an account of one family's experiences.

    As for why I didn't publish the book earlier, the family reasons are explained here: http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/07/06/shhh-i%e2%80%99ve-got-this-book/

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  3. Thisisme - Yes it would make a good stocking filler but sadly that will not work with an ebook. It is a shame it was dated but it appears there are family reasons for delay in publication, see Chris's comment below which I am off to look at now.

    Chris - Thanks so much for calling by and leaving a comment. I did not have an issue with you using FF at all, it just showed how long it all happened. I was just so disappointed that your memoir took so long to be published. As an account of family experiences it would have been more fun I thought if it was more recent. I did not see it as a guide to living in France, but things are different nowadays and maybe not all your readers would appreciate that. Maybe an up to date sequel with some recent adventures is the answer? I will go and read your link now. Once again thanks for the opportunity to review, I hope you are not too disappointed with my review :(

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  4. Chris - Very interesting and I did wonder about the relative at the time of reading, totally understand how it may have seemed! Good on you for publishing as an e-book but I still think it is a shame it was not published as a book. Your story is a lot more interesting than many others that were. I will add link to this post, I wish I had found it before.

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  5. Interesting how long it took - I will check out the link now to see why. Thanks for the review!

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  6. Talli - Yes it is as I think it is one of those that would have had much more impact if you were reading about it in real time, but that is just my opinion :(

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  7. You raise interesting points about expat books...some are timeless, but perhaps as literature instead of a genre piece. I'm glad you said what you thought about the book...honesty = best policy. :)

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  8. SomeBirds - Yes, it was strange how this particular ex-pat adventure was spoilt for me by being so dated. I am always honest but it is difficult as I hate offending authors who have I know put so much effort and love into their books.

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  9. This is a great review. It takes a brave person to do a negative review but I think you did it really well and it makes me look closer at your other reviews because of it.

    Sarahx

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  10. Sarah - Welcome to LLM Book Reviews, thankyou for calling by. As I have said before I do like to be honest so your comment about this review is really appreciated. I hope to hear from you again.

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  11. Hi - thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment on my review of this book. I'm going to put a link to your review directly from my post because I think the extra information you include about the writing of it is really useful! I'd only speculated :-)

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  12. Geranium Cat - Thanks to Chris Dolley himself but it does make for interesting reading as background info. Thankyou for adding the link to my review on your blog.

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