A hilarious summer read by Pamela Druckerman

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Writer Pamela Druckerman has a monthly column in the New York Time

She is better known for her best selling book “Bringing up Bébé” which was translated in twenty seven languages but Pamela Druckerman has more resources than just being a very good mother in Paris. From her columns in the New York Times she has produced yet another hilarious read, “There are no grown ups, a midlife coming of age story” on her contemporaries, the 40 year olds. How do you find your place in the world when you are not called Mademoiselle anymore in Paris’  cafés? Her book delivers street wisdom and psychology to a universal but sophisticated public.  

Nathalie Jomard has illustrated the book of the ultimate 40 year old Parisian

What I love about Pamela is that, as an American from Florida who came to Paris in her 20’s, she has taken the best of both worlds and added a lot of laughs. She should be awarded the Legion of honor for the good publicity she gives to French education and Paris life! Her latest column in the New York Times started with these words: “PARIS — I consider it a credit to my independence of spirit that despite being married to a journalist who covers soccer and raising several young soccer fanatics, I’ve managed to absorb practically nothing about the sport.”

The author, who was born in 1970 and looks ten years younger, started with a book in 2007 “Lust in translation” on different attitudes about infidelity all around the world. No doubt that the French scene inspired her. She then focused on “bébé” with three super successful titles including “French children don’t throw their food”.

The latest,”There are no grown ups” which she was signing away in Miami recently, includes wise vignettes on growing old  and using the best age in life (the forties) to accomplish everything one had always wanted to do. “Finally entering our forties is like the scene in the horror film when the heroine realizes that the monster is inside the house… I deal with getting older the same way I deal with horror films: I avert my eyes.”

One chapter is particularly funny on the present she offered her husband for his fourtieth birthday: a threesome with a friend of a friend which she describes as a “polite threesome”.  Her (British) husband is beaming and thanks her with this phrase: “It affirmed for me how much I like the female form. When you have two, it accentuates that…”

The success of  her book is about the voice, a very special Franco American way of thinking  and delivering the message. Bébé has grown up and become a teen ager, Pamela Druckerman at 48, has kept the freshness of her views on Paris society and the world. (Penguin Press)

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