Meggin Reads Anna and the French Kiss

            Imagine going to school in the most romantic city in the world. The Eiffel Tower can be seen in the background, towering over life in the daytime and lighting up the night. Every time one walks the streets of the Latin Quarter, one is surrounded by people speaking the beautiful French language, and, of course, the tourists who try to understand the language that isn’t English. There are famous landmarks everywhere one turns, and the banks of the River Seine are a great place to relax and to just watch life unfold. One can see couples holding hands and exchanging a wide variety of kisses, displaying a recreation of Robert Doisneau’s famous photograph, Le baiser de l’hôtel de ville. And the scarves! Scarves of various colours and designs hide the exposed human necks. I am, of course, describing the Paris, France that is in Stephanie Perkins’s novel, Anna and the French Kiss.

            Anna is a about a girl by the name of Anna Oliphant who lives in Atlanta and just wants to have a fun senior year in her hometown with her best friend and her maybe-kind-of-sort-of-not-really boyfriend. However, her father wants otherwise. Because he feels that his family needs to absorb different cultures, he sends Anna to school in Paris (get this: the name of the school is School of America in Paris, nicknamed SOAP. Why can’t my school be named like that?). She keeps thinking, “Oh, I miss Atlanta, I’m gonna hate Paris,” when she runs smack into an amazingly attractive guy. His name is Étienne St. Clair (which is an awesome name, I might add), and to baffle the reader beyond belief, he is American and British and French. Whaaaaaat? I feel dazzled just by reading about him! Apparently, Anna also feels the same way, because she now sees Paris in a new light. Hold your horses, girls! Before you get your knickers in a twist, you should know that Étienne has a girlfriend, which complicates things for Anna. In a nutshell, Anna and the French Kiss is a romantic novel in which two people love each other but both parties don’t want to express aloud that they do. Naturally, this turns into a “does he like me?” situation that is a dominant theme in most romantic novels.

            What I love about Anna is that the story is mainly set in France. I’m taking French as my foreign language in school, and it’s the most beautiful language I’ve ever learnt. Actually, it’s the only foreign language I’ve ever learnt, but believe me when I say it is beautiful. What I’ve also learnt in French class is the francophone culture, and Anna doesn’t stray far from it. Anna loves watching movies, and Paris is the best place to escape to the cinema every night. When the weather gets nicer towards le printemps, Anna and Étienne explore the parks and go on long promenades. Ah, see? My French is kicking in already.

            Anna also involves this great big romantic chase. Anna wants Étienne, but Étienne is already taken, and yet Étienne spends more time with Anna than with his actual girlfriend. It kind of makes one think that any second now Anna is going to pick up a flower and pluck the petals off one by one, saying, “He loves, he loves me not. He loves me…”

            Overall, Anna is a fantastic book. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, to be perfectly honest. It gives off the usual cliché love story vibe that is present in romantic novels, but the way this love story is portrayed is completely different from the norm, which is why I love it so much. It’s great to finally read something refreshing for once. What really amazes me is that this is Stephanie Perkins’s first novel, and after reading Anna and the French Kiss, I’m eager to read more of her work.