Tag: Stephen Clarke

I used to enjoy reading Stephen Clarke‘s Merde series.  It is funny and light.  A great read when you are on a holiday.  The Merde series is men’s answer to chick-lit.  These books don’t really have much depth.  But surprisingly, I can still remember the plot of the James Bond inspired novel Dial M for Merde when the main character Paul West has to worked with a beautiful blonde female agent M to uncover a caviar counterfeiting operation.  Or the love story Merde Happens when Paul and his girlfriend French girlfriend Alexa took a road trip to US.  Being such a big Stephen Clarke fan, I am somewhat disappointed with his latest novel The Merde Factor.  Even Merde Actually is much better than this.

The Merde Factor, I suppose, takes reference to The X-Factor.  Instead of a music competition, The Merde Factor is a poetry competition.  If you recall, Paul the Brit has a friend called Jake who is so entrenched with the French culture so much so that Jake cannot speak a sentence of English without mixing it with French words.  And he writes terribly obscene poems, probably motivated by his obscure obsession to bed women from different nationalities.

Meanwhile, Paul’s French business partner Jean-Marie is thinking of taking over the My Tea Is Rich cafe and converting it into an American dinner.  Paul, poor as always, settles for a job working with the Ministry of Culture in Paris.  At the romance front, Alexa is now his ex.  He is dating a New Zealander Marsha and is intrigued by Jean-Marie’s new intern Amandine.

The problem with The Merde Factor is, life in an office is boring.  Not even Paul’s bizarre observation of the French way of life can make such an boring work life any more interesting.  There is a severe lacking in the romance department too.  Paul’s love with Marsha is more like a given, rather then a pursuit.  His brushes with his ex are not even close to a tease.  And the romance with his new love interest comes too little, too late.  The so-called crisis at My Tea Is Rich is lacking in drama.  And the entire poetry competition – the main theme of this book – is likely to be the only material that stands out as mildly entertaining.  Good effort though, I must say.  Clever too.

If I was the author, I would cut down bulk of the first half of the book and beef up the bizarre love triangle of Paul, his ex (and love of his life), and the intern.  That that love story to the climatic ending.  I would make it even harder to save My Team Is Rich and would definitely give a more in-depth insight on the intern’s sacrifice and the ex’s heroism.  Overall, a missed opportunity to what could have been a fantastic follow up to a well loved franchise.

“Merde Happens” is part 3 of the merde series.  It helps to have read the previous installment.  Compares to “Merde Actually”, this one is funnier.  Perhaps because I have done my share of road tripping in US and I can relate the culture shock the main character Paul West has experienced.  To recap, Paul West is a British who works in France, has quite a few extraordinary love affairs with the French girls, and in this episode, he is going to America with his girlfriend (finally) Alexa and his American poet friend Jake who speaks very strange English mixed with French.  A good part of the book is spent on Paul and Alexa on a Mini in America.  It is hilarious to experience the frustration of a couple trying to read map while understanding how the road system works.  Just like in real life when – in general – women don’t like to read map and men don’t like asking for direction.  There is a fair amount of US and European history being used as a plot.  There is also some insanely hilarious moments on outsourcing.  To that end, I would rank “Merde Happens” higher than “Merde Actually” and somewhat on par with “Dial M For Merde“.  I have yet to read the first installment “A Year In The Merde”, and I am looking forward to doing so.

After reading a few of his books, I begin to see a certain pattern.  Initially the story would be like going nowhere, then things begin to get exciting and the story would reach a climax.  After which, it would be like going nowhere again (usually with a breakup of a relationship), with a rather melancholy ending that introduces plot opportunity for the next book.  This book seems to take a little dive towards the end.  But I would say, for most part of the story, “Merde Happens” is a hilarious read.  Not a soul nourishing read, but one you would want to read on a holiday and by a beach underneath a palm tree.

Give a choice, I would have started from book one of the series “A Year in the Merde” and work my way to “Dial M for Merde”.  But you know how borrowing books from a library is like.

So I have read book four of the series, “Dial M for Merde” in October.  Since I have got hold of book two and three, I figure that it is better to read “Merde Actually” before its sequel, “Merde Happens”.

Paul West, a British who has an ambition to open a tea house in Paris, still seems to have all the luck in his world to date beautiful girls, though does not seem to be lucky enough to date the one he loves.  No doubt, the Merde series are targeted primarily for guys.  Like the chick-lit for the ladies.  I am unsure if girls would find Stephen Clarke’s books an offence to read.  Buy hey, it is true.  Most of the time, we guys are drugged by endless sexual fantasies.  What makes the Merde series such a good read, I think, is that the main character Paul West while getting his fair share of steaming activities does at times say or do the ‘darndest’ thing that jeopardizes the ‘opportunity’.  Just like … well, what real life is, really.  Since I have read the fourth book before this one, I would say “Dial M for Merde”, from the story development point of view, is more entertaining, in a suspense and thrilling sort of way.

To be honest, I am a little bit confused by the story characters (because I am not reading the series in order).  In “Merde Actually”, Paul West has spent a holiday living under Florence’s mother’s roof (due to an unfortunate road accident that renders them with no car).  And then, living under her father’s roof. Thereafter, he focuses on setting up his restaurant in Paris and the two break up due to ‘long distance relationship’.  Then comes Paul’s ex-girlfriend Alexa whom I suppose is Paul’s love of his life.  Majority of the humor still revolves around the common misunderstanding between the French and the British – linguistically and culturally speaking.  I can understand why the French loves Stephen Clarke’s book because it is not condescending to the French culture.  In fact, the story becomes really funny when Paul – who is soaked in French culture for so long – returns to working in London.

The Merde series rank high as books to be read in a relaxing holiday, or on the plane.

Some say that the correct way of reading this series is to start with “A Year In the Merde”, then continue with “Merde Actually” and “Merde Happens”.  And then this one, “Dial M For Merde”.  The similar thing I would have said about Kinsella‘s shopaholic series.  But you know how it is like when you step into a library, holding and feeling a rather newish looking book, comparing to the book condition of “A Year In the Merde” that happens to be a lot more … merde, I picked the newer looking book instead.

If you have lived or traveled to France, merde is a pretty common word used, which means sh!t in English.  If the title of his first book is alluded to the bestselling autobiographical novel “A Year in Provence” and the second one is a reference to the romantic comedy “Love Actually”, “Dial M For Merde” is pretty much a James Bond inspired novel in a humorous and non-extraordinary way.  In this installment, Paul West is being invited to South of France by a beautiful blonde, M, whom he has spent a night with.  M has a mission in France.  She – together with a bunch of scientists – is set to uncover the caviar counterfeiting operation.  Meanwhile, Paul – whom the French often mispronounces his name as Pol – is requested by his old friend (or ex-girlfriend?) Elodie to cater for her wedding dinner.  But helping Elodie to gain acceptance into her fiancée’s rich family is going to be a mission on its own.  On top of that, Paul has volunteered to assist M in her mission starting by locating a type of fish called sturgeon and infiltrating the … French commando unit.  The story gets more bizarrely hilarious as it unfolds.

Knowing a little bit of French and understanding a little bit of French culture would further enhance the reading experience.  Because this book is set in France, with Paul being mistaken in all sorts of ways, got himself stuck in all sorts of situations.  Having said that, it is not a must.  The author has done a pretty good job to translate most of the French phrases.  A perfect book if you are traveling or you want to read something light and entertaining.  I found the following paragraph taken from the book pretty funny.  Let’s see if you can guess the name of the saint the author is referring to.

Filling an ante-room was a gilt-framed painting of a semi-naked young saint getting arrowed, his attacker shooting at him from no more than half a yard away.  The archer was a pretty bad shot, too, because most of the arrows were embedded in the legs and arms, with only one hitting the torso, provoking a faint trickle of blood on the porcelain-white skin.  Amazingly, the saint was looking only mildly pissed off with the guy taking pot-shots at him.  I would have been furious myself.  But I guessed that was why he was a saint.