Official Review: No Resistance 'A Very French Affair'

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Official Review: No Resistance 'A Very French Affair'

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "No Resistance 'A Very French Affair'" by C.A. Burt.]
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Official Review: No Resistance: A Very French Affair, by C.A. Burt

No Resistance: A Very French Affair tells the story of multiple relationships, set against the background of the movie industry. The pairings in No Resistance range from the first love of youth, to a long-married pair reconciling, to an adulterous affair, to late-in-life mature relationships, to the doomed romance of wartime. There are a handful of intriguing moments throughout the book, mostly stemming from the historical flashbacks, leading to a storyline where a relationship that occurred decades ago may affect some current relationships.

This book has the necessary elements to tell a compelling story– the glamour of film production, blended with several romances. Unfortunately, the novel never really takes full advantage of its potential.

I did not dislike anything about this book. The problem was that there really wasn’t much to make me really enjoy it, either. I just didn’t care about any of the couples, since there wasn’t enough development or distinction to really make me hope that any of the pairs would find a way to live happily ever after. The only moment that I felt genuine empathy towards any of the characters is when the daughter of a broken marriage expressed anguish that her father wouldn’t rejoin her and her mother.

The book takes place in a parallel universe, where Jonathan Demme and Anthony Minghella didn’t win the Best Director Oscar, and the Hollywood tabloid press is much less powerful and bloodthirsty than it truly is. In some aspects, the moviemaking process, which ought to be one of the most involving subplots of the book, utterly fails at being involving. We don’t see the creative process in full development, we only see bits and snatches of the film. The movie simply gets made, rather than created by a real artistic visionary with a real artistic vision.

In a book about multiple romances, the reader ought to be cheering on each couple, because they’re cute together or funny, or at least interesting in some way. But none of the relationships seems destined or even well-earned. The characters have sex, but at no point is there any real emotion between the two. The resolutions between the relationships do not feel earned, such as when an estranged couple tries to reconcile. At one point the wife feels a sense of relief that her husband isn’t agreeing with her on everything, but we don’t see any real resentment over her husband’s very public infidelity. It’s like the road to marital bliss has been greased, and all of the inconvenient– and very real– emotions that might disrupt the path to the preordained happy ending.

That is the problem at the heart of the book– the plot really offers no resistance. There’s no struggling or striving to earn the relationships or produce a film masterpiece that deserves awards. Things just happen, and it’s not a satisfactory outcome.


I give this book two out of four stars.

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