The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles: A Novel (A Joséphine Cortès Novel)

This is the first book in the Josephine series, set in Paris. Josephine is fed up with her husband, who has been looking for work while she manages their household and their two girls, Hortense, a moody teenager, and Zoe, a shy young girl. The final straw for her is finding out about his mistress, and Josephine throws him out. She doesn’t know how she is going to make things work, particularly when she finds out that her husband and his mistress are moving to Kenya so he can manage a crocodile farm in a scheme where he is convinced he will become rich, while covertly taking out a loan that she is jointly responsible. Because of her language skills, her brother-in-law offers her some contract work in translations for his law firm, and she also picks up some translation work for a publishing company. In the meantime, her sister, Iris, who is enjoying her husband’s wealth and is bored, brags to a publisher that she is writing a book. When she is caught out, she weaves a story based on her sister’s graduate work in history and plans a scheme for Josephine to ghostwrite the book while she is the public face. We see Josephine grow and change as she develops confidence and also see how the separation affects her family as well, including some rather darkly humorous scenes at the crocodile farm.

I fell in love with the title of this book. The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles sounded fresh and intriguing. The blurbs spoke of comedy and trickery. Plus I'm always a sucker for a great cover. This foot the bill on all accounts.Josephine and Iris are sisters. Josephine is the frumpy one with an unemployed husband who rarely attempts to look for work. Iris is a glamor girl, living a life of luxury with her wealthy and successful husband who is a lawyer. Jo studies the medieval life in the twelfth century, while Iris becomes easily bored with her fast paced twenty first century social circuit. When Iris lies to a well known publisher about a new book she's writing, she taps Jo to write her out of a jam.The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles is full of crazy characters and twisting sub plots. For the first half of the book, the reader is kept engaged by this. After that the story flattens out and nothing anyone says or does seems very believable. I have to agree with several other reviews I've read, that alot was lost in translation. Funny in French isn't necessarily funny in English.If you're looking for something light and easy, this book will fill the bill. But if you're looking for a book with depth and emotion, The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles is definitely not it.

Katherine Pancol's "Joséphine" trilogy sold like Paris street-vendor crèpes in France, and now the first of the three books has been translated into English. The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles introduces us to ugly duckling Joséphine Cortès, who has always been treated dismissively by her snobbish and stylish mother, Henriette, and by her sister, chic society wife, Iris.Joséphine is a poorly-paid history researcher and mother to teenage Hortense, who is a mercenary Iris-in-training, and sweet little Zoé. When Joséphine's husband, Antoine, leaves her to run off with his mistress to an African crocodile farm, Joséphine is in dire straits. What to do to keep her family fed, housed and clothed?The answer comes out of left field. Iris, a sharp-elbowed competitor among Parisian ladies who lunch, has been feeling like the spotlight isn't highlighting her enough, so she announces to her set that she's writing a historical novel. The spotlight swivels to her, alright, but it's all little too hot with expectation when a publisher acquaintance expresses keen interest. The solution is for Joséphine to use her 12th-century historical knowledge to write the novel, which will be credited to Iris, and Iris will slip the proceeds to Joséphine.It's a good plan until the novel becomes a runaway success and word of the book's real provenance starts to leak out. This description makes it sound like a straightforward story, but there is a huge cast of supporting characters who provide their own subplots, like Joséphine's stepfather Marcel, who runs a successful home goods business and takes refuge from his ice queen wife, Henriette, with his voluptuous and warm-hearted secretary; Joséphine's neighbor and friend Shirley, who has a mysterious past in England; Hortense and her cold-blooded tactics intended to ensnare men and get ahead; Antoine and Mylène's adventures on the crocodile farm; and nearly a dozen other characters. Even Joséphine's novel's heroine, Florine, is a character in this book--and one with a life that would put any soap opera to shame.When I picked up this book, I was a little nervous about Joséphine's character, because downtrodden characters in books are often so passive that I want to shake them and tell them to grow a backbone. But Joséphine isn't like that. She does stands up for herself, at least verbally, and has some very choice words for both Antoine and her mother. I cheered for her all through the book, and looked forward to seeing the meanies get their comeuppance.This is a fast-paced, funny and poignant story and, as with the best stories, I couldn't wait to find out what happens next. There were a couple of weak points, like young contemporary children being interested in Marlon Brando and John Lennon, and one subplot that strains credulity, but these were easy to forgive.The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles is perfect for a movie. The Cinderella-ish plot is tailor-made for the screen. Of course, if Hollywood gets to it, Joséphine will be played by somebody like Julia Ormond and you'll only know she's an ugly duckling because she won't be wearing eyeliner or Hermès scarves. But I can live with that.I wonder how long it will take before we see English translations of the other two books in the trilogy? The second is called La Valse Lente des Tortues (The Slow Waltz of Turtles) and involves a serial killer striking Joséphine's neighborhood, while the third, Les Écureuils de Central Park Sont Tristes le Lundi (Central Park's Squirrels Are Sad on Mondays), has Joséphine battling writer's block until she finds a 1960s diary about a young man who is mesmerized by Cary Grant when Grant is in Paris filming Charade with Audrey Hepburn. I'll look forward to reading these, which have also been huge bestsellers in France.4.5 stars

Very Gallic! Not sure what else to say...some parts of the plot were just weird!

thanks

this book had me gripped till the end, I am desperate to get hold of the other two in the series translated to english. anyone able to help?

fine

Loved this book but can't find the 2 sequels translated into English. Very frustrating.