The Review of Contemporary Fiction
The Pleasing Hour by Lily KingAmy Havel
Lily King. The Pleasing Hour. Atlantic Monthly, 1999. 237 pp. $24.00.
As an American au pair in Paris, Rosie is given an opportunity to fill a difficult role in a foreign household; while clearly an outsider, she is expected to learn and deal with the weighty emotional life of the Tivot family. Constantly on guard with the elegant and elusive mother, Nicole, Rosie becomes close with Marc, the father of the three children, but when their friendship becomes questionably intimate, the middle child Lola notices the change. Rosie is sent to spend time with Lucie, an elderly member of the family living in the French countryside, who reveals the history that has made Nicole the guarded person that she is. At the same time, Rosie’s reason for taking the au pair job slowly becomes apparent; through reflections on the Tivot family’s problems, Rosie begins to deal with choices she has made in her life affecting her own family and future.
King has a real talent for subtlety; she reveals Rosie’s past as intertwined with Nicole’s in a manner that draws on their common experiences without overdoing the similarities. The tension and uneasiness that Rosie feels with the Tivots shows through her delicate dealings with the family and through her perceptions of Paris and herself in that foreign land. The conversations with Nicole truly relay the stifling discomfort that comes between two people for whom self-protection is an obsessive priority. In contrast, when Rosie is with Lucie, the tension is lifted and the two are able to piece together the damaged past, as Lucie prepares to die and Rosie looks toward rebuilding the life she thought she had escaped.
Although this is Lily King’s first novel, it reads like the work of a more established writer. She has recently begun to get some well-deserved recognition for the quality of this book, and I look forward to reading more from her as soon as possible. [Amy Havel]