Isn’t It Romantic?: An Entertainment

This is the only book I’ve ever read that reads just like a movie script — and this is a good thing! Ron Hansen has written an exciting, hilarious story that would fit perfectly on a movie screen without having to chop out any scenes. I loved it; it was entertainment at its finest.

Isn’t it Romantic? tells the story of a French couple, Natalie Clairevoux, and her fiance, Pierre Smith, as they journey across America on a bus tour. Natalie, fed up with Pierre’s loverboy ways, has decided to take the vacation of her dreams — alone. But Pierre tracks her down in Omaha, wondering what in the heck? Pierre’s cosmopolitian, European self doesn’t belong amidst Midwest corn fields, so certainly this vacation of Natalie’s must be a joke, right? Some sort of punishment for his waywardness? Then the bus breaks down in Seldom, Nebraska — population 395 — and the fun really begins. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, Natalie and Pierre are taken in by the friendly, quirky residents of this sleepy, peaceful town.

I laughed so much at the madcap scenes in this book. I can totally visualize the actions in my head in perfect detail. The citizens of Seldom are one of a kind, especially Owen, who has dreams of marketing his Nebraska wine, and Carlo, the cook at the café, who embarks on a matchmaking mission. Ron Hansen did an incredible job bringing these characters to life, and I will be looking for the movie adaptation in the future (hopefully!).