I have read most Lily King's work. She is an excellent writer. Having recently read the first novels of 2 of my favorite authors and found them just okay, I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. It is the story of Rosie a young au pair in Paris and her dealings with the French family she works for. There is the couple plus their 3 children. King does a great job of getting into everyone's head. Her language is wonderful and the way she weaves the story in the present and into back stories of the characters is excellent.The book was 250 pages but it seemed longer because the descriptions were so dense. The timeframe is probably the late 70's which is sometimes a challenge given the cultural changes since then. Normally when I like an author I usually don't recommend her/his first book but this one is a good place to start with King. A strong recommend. ( )

Across the water, streetlamps blinked on, then hung unsuspended and haloed pink in the fog. Grainy daylight drained out slowly through the long kitchen window. This was the start of the devastating time of day, when, if you turned on the overhead, the texture of the walls and the edges of objects became too vivid and you found yourself straining to remember one thing that had ever brought you any joy, but if you didn't and just let the window continue to blacken, sick and slow, it felt like being lowered into a grave.

This is Lily King's first novel and it's baggy in the way of first novels, with entire chapters failing to tie into the rest of the novel and a certain unfocused meandering that is absent from her later work. That said, it is still recognizably King's work, with fine writing and a keen eye for detail. Here, Rosie, a young woman who recently gave her baby to her sister to raise, goes to work in Paris as an au pair, living in a boat moored on the side of the Seine with a family of five, including a daughter close to her own age. Rosie hasn't yet come to terms with recent events, which color her time in Paris. She has a tense relationship with the mother and an easier one with the father, that develops into a flirtation as the year progresses.

The novel stays primarily with Rosie's story, but has chapters devoted to individuals in the family she works for, some which tie to the larger story and others that do not. The chapter that least propels the story forward is also the best one, involving the young son and the family's visit to have tea with a priest. I suspect that were King to write this book today, it would be a tighter and better balanced work, but it was still a pleasure to spend time with King's writing and a melancholy young woman struggling to figure out the world around her. ( )

Fabulous! Accurately captures the abject loneliness of being an au pair in a country where you don't speak the language and you have no friends. Character portraits are excellent, setting descriptions are short but exquisitely detailed. You can feel the weather, the barge, see the vineyards, the lavender. Even though its partly a coming of age story, its so much more. An "adult" book. ( )

really enjoyable read. likeable, easy to relate to characters ( )

Lily King’s first novel, The Pleasing Hour, is the third of her four novels I have had the distinct pleasure of reading. King grew up in Massachusetts and received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University. She has taught at a number of schools and colleges. Lily has also racked up a number of regional awards as well as a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Award.

Rosie anguishes over her sister Sarah’s inability to conceive a child. Rosie seems a bit shy, but she hatches a plan to help her sister, whom she dearly loves. She doesn’t date, but she selects an equally shy young man, and after a few dates, Rosie convinces him to sleep with her. Two weeks later she finds she is pregnant. She tells Sarah and her husband she wants them to keep and raise the baby. Rosie lies to her boyfriend and convinces him the baby is not his. She goes through counseling and insists on giving the baby to her sister. After the birth, the baby is taken away from Rosie after holding him briefly, but she has only has a fleeting moment of regret. As the narrator, Rosie barely mentions the baby. Then Rosie abruptly answers an ad for a jeune fille – an au paire – in a small town, Plaire, France, and she abandons her plan to attend college. She neither speaks nor reads French. With the help of the children Rosie cares for, she slowly learns to speak and read and do the shopping for the family.

The Pleasing Hour is an apt title for this novel. Numerous times I would read a passage, put the book aside, and turn the page over again in my mind. These passages were “pleasing” in more ways than one. Rosie had no friends, but Nicole, the mother of the family, makes a call, and a jeune fille , who worked for a friend, called Rosie and offered to take her out on the town, King writes, “The metro stop was unmarked. a sudden flight of stairs descended beneath the sidewalk. A monthly pass came with the job, and I had used mine twice. I slid the orange ticket through the meter in the turnstile and hurried down the hallway marked Gare d’Austerlitz. There was only one line at this stop, so the passageways were small and without vendors or musicians, though the walls were plastered with the same enormous advertisements: on the left was a poster for an Italian movie, one large breast held in a man’s hand, and on the right a yogurt ad. They were repeated for the entire walk to the rails. Spoon, lip, smirk, litter, wind corridor, wrist nipple, wind, sign, trench coat, slouch. I let English flood inside me as I rounded the corner” (50). This brings back memories of my first time in the Paris Metro.

Rosie also spends a chapter describing each of the children she handles, as well as Nicole and Marc, the parents. As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Rosie is nursing a crush on Marc. Nicole seems withdrawn from Marc, who works long hours in a hospital. The family decides to take a vacation to Spain, and they invite Rosie to come along. At first Rosie seems reluctant, and she deliberately leaves her passport at home. As they approached the airport, she announces the missing document, but Marc turns around, goes home, and gets her passport. Lily King’s novel, The Pleasing Hour is definitely a wonderful way to arm chair travel. 4-1/2 Stars

--Jim, 3/16/17 ( )