Merde!: The Real French You Were Never Taught at School

Written by ""Genevieve,'' who is identified only as living in Switzerland, this humorous look at French argot claims to be a ``survival guide to understanding everyday French as it is really spoken.'' While there is certainly much for the casual reader to enjoy and much for lovers of France to commit to memory, the book falls flat. The fun of learning slang in a foreign language is understanding the sometimes mystifying, often amusing, literal meanings of those expressions. For example, according to Genevieve, an innocent, naive person is a oie blanche, a white goose, and to make love in a slow, conventional way is faire l'amour a la papa, make love like dad. Unfortunately this guide only erratically provides such literal meanings, making the book of full value only to those whose French is in good shape already or who are willing to paw through a conventional dictionary while reading this. (March)