France

by Jonathan Miller

An essential guide... the French will complain.' Andrew Neil'The French are savvy, sophisticated, elegant - Right? Wrong! The French:…* lecture the world about haute cuisine yet they eat more McDonald's hamburgers than anywhere else in the world; * roll their eyes at foreign culture even as CSI is their most watched TV programme; * pretend to be literary even as Fifty Shades of Gray is France’s best-selling book, ever. In 2000, Jonathan Miller moved to France. Soon he discovered the hilarious truth. The French live in a feverish state of fantasy. People are paid to pretend to work, pretend to strike, and generally think work causes depression and suicide. Dental hygienists are illegal, yet the French exchange a staggering 184 billion kisses every year. While preaching liberté, the State forbids everything, is run by one school’s alumni, messes up over two thirds of the economy. It goes on....Meet the real French, and laugh!

Genres: France

283 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1884

About the author

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE was a British theatre and opera director, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the 1960s with his role in the comedy review Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and performers Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett. Despite having seen few operas and not knowing how to read music, he began stage-directing them in the 1970s and became one of the world's leading opera directors with several classic productions to his credit. His best-known production is probably his 1982 "Mafia"-styled Rigoletto set in 1950s Little Italy, Manhattan. He was also a well-known television personality and familiar public intellectual in the UK and US.

Reviews

[Elisabeth]

Well now ... Since I collect all books about France - sort of - I came across this one, found the title funny and ordered it. The book "reads" like a glossary so everything is somewhat (a lot) all over the place. Then, what follows is a Brit's view on the French way of life. Sure, there are differences in culture. That's because heaps of Brits can't wait to cross the water to get to France. For that exact way of life.

So, why the - almost - hostility at times? The worldfamous French Cuisine is debunked, according to Jonathan Miller, because the French ALSO like to eat at McDonalds. So I guess it is either the one or the other but can never be both? By the way, there ARE many French who agree with him and think it's distasteful to eat at McDo. But that's not only the case in France. You like the food or you don't, I guess. It is even permitted to like the McDo food AND enjoy French Cuisine ;-)

Miller's observations are at least as much stereotype as the presumptions about the French, in general. And maybe some things are true or at least have some merit.

This could have been a fun book but Miller takes himself far too serious. I always wonder .... if you hate a place that much, why would you want to relocate to there from the other side on the pond or from anywhere, for that matter?

[Mihaela]

This book was a completely waste of time and it almost disgusted me with its wannabe humor.
I expected a funny, light story about France and the cultural differences between the English and the French, but I have only found a desperate need to prove that the UK is better than France.

Some of the topics were almost funny, but I had this very bitter feeling that the author is just trying to show and even emphasize all the flaws that a French can have. And not at all in a funny way, but more of a "See, they are not that nice!" way.

I am european, not English and not French, but I have lived in both countries and I can definitely say that France, with all its flaws, it has way more to offer.

You cannot, by all means, say that the food is better in the UK. With all their McDo's, even a cheap Chinese takeaway is better than in London. What about Japanese food or affordable freshly made food instead of all the "organic" fast food chains that can only offer you a box with something they call fresh? And let's not talk about the whole art of cooking and eating, the smells and the colours of the ingredients.

Also, the French may be buying and making Fifty Shades of Grey the biggest bestselling novel, but at least they read something more than newpapers - The (free) Evening Standard is the bestseller in London. What about the libraries and the activities they offer? Who do you think it's better?

There are so many other topics - airports, working times, strikes - that I really do not agree with, but it makes no sense to spoil the book, in case anyone else wants to read it.

Maybe I am just not getting the English humor...but for me, it was a complete fail.

[peter]

Very entertaining and sadly very true

[Veronica]

Rather disappointed. Almost vitriolic in his seeming dislike of all things French, considering he lives here! Perhaps he could mention some things he does actually like and add a little more humour to lighten the tone.

[Liquidlasagna]

Definiately a strange columnist.... he's got this very snaky outlandish mean-spirited tone, to get people's attention. Yet you feel that only 1 in 45 people might actually like his sense of humor, at best.

Imagine that Joan Crawford was a man and had a love child with Andrew Dice Clay
who was actually a woman
and the jokes were written by Rowan Atkinson

this is the queasy love-child you'd have

i just remember his strange essay on the dying out of french cheeses, yet that sorta thing happenned to British cheeses, and even british beers too, so you wonder about his attitude.

........

Amazone

'Querulous and boring'

'Waste of time reading this'

"Don't waste your money. This book is garbage, a simple waste of paper, The author's pathetic attempts at humour are rude, snide, condescending and culturally myopic. He simply comes across as another in a long line of Brits complaining about the French. If he hates the country so much, why does he live in France?"


uh quere.... I mean

uhm....

complaining in a petulant or whining manner and tedious!
donut-waist-your-lettuce

........

a quote where he's better than usual

"I recently made an appointment to visit my lawyer. I was told to ignore the sign on the front door announcing that the office was on strike. It was a national day of action protesting proposed reforms to the legal profession. Instead I should knock discreetly at the side entrance and someone would let me in. The office was pretending to be on strike, while conducting business as usual. In France, not everything is always as it seems. In a country where people claim to be revolutionaries but are terrified of change, boast of their social model while condemning young people to mass unemployment, and claim to be the best cooks in the world, while a million people a day eat at McDonald’s, there is much that is paradoxical, even psychotic."

and no not the british doctor and comedy writer who did the show
The Body In Question

[Amelia.S]

Jonathan Miller’s France, a Nation on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a masterclass in cultural satire a book that laughs with, not at, its subject. Drawing from nearly two decades of firsthand experience, Miller paints a vivid, witty, and unflinchingly honest picture of French society as it teeters between elegance and absurdity. He exposes contradictions so peculiarly French that they seem almost poetic: a nation that exalts haute cuisine yet embraces fast food, that idolizes intellectualism yet devours pop culture, that preaches liberté while suffocating under bureaucracy.

Miller’s humor is razor sharp but never cruel; his affection for France’s quirks shines through every anecdote. Beneath the laughter lies a thoughtful critique of modern identity how a proud nation wrestles with globalization, tradition, and its own self image. The result is a book that’s as enlightening as it is entertaining, blending social observation, cultural irony, and human truth into a seamless narrative. France, a Nation on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown isn’t just about France it’s about the comic contradictions that make every society, in some way, beautifully irrational.

[Sonia Nguyen]

As a British expatriate in France for over 20 years, I related to this book and found it to be not only hilarious but also very true. Miller lists France's strangest habits and quirks in alphabetical order and then goes through each one with his clever, witty and funny observations. I highly recommend it to any expat living in France or considering the move!

[Heather McKay Guillemot]

I had very mixed feelings about this book. While it was factually correct, it seemed cherry picked to present a glass half empty outlook on France. His viewpoint reads as somewhat conservative in nature, which did bias some of his commentary.

I learned quite a bit, I say this as a homeowner in France . Still, was a bit of a ‘rainy day’ perspective on the country.

[mollitron]

A good, light read for stressed out GCSE French students, but little more than that. It is definitely written with a political agenda, which might merit more comment except I couldn't figure out what agenda it was.

[Stephen Selbst]

A smart and loving -- if exasperated -- look at modern French society by a dyspeptic Englishman.