Isn't it Romantic? Isn't it Fun!

I finally posted a review on Ron Hansen's book Atticus, which I wrote about here a few weeks ago. It took me a while, both because life has been busy, but also because I had rather mixed feelings about the book. Writing the review made me realize that the story had more "staying power" than I realized -- it had stuck with me in the interim. Through the writing of the review, I think I clarified my feelings about it and realized how much I actually liked it.

Our local library had a copy of what I think is Hansen's latest, so I picked it up last week. It's called Isn't It Romantic? and he subtitled it an entertainment. Entertaining it is! In fact, I had a hard time putting it down...I don't think I'd read a funnier novel in a long time. It's completely and utterly different from Atticus -- I'm incredibly impressed that one novelist can tread such different fictional terrain so well. While Atticus dealt with some profound themes (and heavy ones) and was pretty ambitious in the way it mixed genres, Isn't It Romantic is a straightforward, lighthearted comedy. Almost a comedy of manners. It's also very much what Orson Scott Card would term a "milleu" story, with characters from one place/culture being plopped down in the middle of another culture. That's where much of the humour lies.

The best I can come up with to describe the "feel" of the story is: Garrison Keillor meets Robert Altman. (I thought I was very clever to come up with that combination, until I realized that Keillor and Altman have met already, in the recent feature film of *Prairie Home Companion* which I've not yet seen.) Sophisticated urbanites from Paris find themselves stranded in the small town of Seldom, Nebraska (where I'm sure strangers seldom visit), population 395. Natalie and Pierre, the French couple, are already struggling with plenty of stress in their own rocky relationship. In fact, Natalie has been considering breaking off their engagement. She has always been fascinated with American culture, so she takes off on a kind of pilgrimage to see the American heartland by bus -- but Pierre chases her down. They agree to be the "king and queen" of the town's summer revel -- a kind of carnival. The town always tries to get a visiting couple to be king and queen, but they're especially excited to have a French couple because the town's founder, many years ago, was French.

What follows are three really zany days of cultural clashes and romantic entanglements. If it sounds fluffy, it is, but it's wonderfully written fluff. I kept finding myself chuckling aloud, and some scenes were so funny I had to read them to Dana. (They read great out loud too.) Probably my very favorite scene is when one of the townies, a Cornhusker fanatic named Owen who owns the gas station/garage, traps Pierre (whose family is in the wine business back in France) into tasting his own wine vintage. Turns out he's been making his own wine for years, and contrary to appearances, is rather expert in viticulture. What a wonderful job Hansen does, building up Owen's scruffy, earthy, football fanatic redneck sort of personality, and then giving him this secret sophisticated passion. When he starts spouting wine knowledge, your mouth drops along with Pierre's. And it's howlingly funny when Pierre finally takes a sip of the wine, expecting to have to spit it out, only to discover it's pretty amazing stuff.

I loved this book! I wonder if Hansen first envisioned it (or even wrote it as) a screenplay. I've almost never read a novel that seemed to play out before my eyes so much like a film. In fact, ever since I finished it, I've been trying to cast the main roles. I've decided George Clooney should play Dick Tupper, the rancher in town who finds himself enamored of Natalie. I've cast Kirsten Dunst as Iona, the young waitress at the diner with an eye on Pierre, and Carlo the cook should probably be played by Lyle Lovett. Pierre and Natalie are harder to cast, though I've just about decided on Johnny Depp for Pierre. Maybe (maybe?) Natalie Portman for Natalie...I wish I could think of a young enough French actress for the part (she's about 26). Julia Ormond would have been perfect 20 years ago. Still can't place who should play Owen, though I've considered Matt Damon.

At any rate, in the midst of a long and busy week, this slim novel provided some lovely, lighthearted fun. I may have to read some of Hansen's other work now, just because I'm really curious about what else he's done. Not an author one can pigeon-hole easily.