SKU: 33096571776

Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday French

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Monsieur Mediocre: One American Learns the High Art of Being Everyday FrenchA hilarious, candid account of what life in France is actually like, from a writer for Vanity Fair and GQ Americans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the French parent, why French women don't get fat, and how to be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours increase every year, we think longingly of the six weeks of vacation the French enjoy, imagining them at the seaside in stripes with plates of fruits de mer. John von Sothen fell in

A hilarious, candid account of what life in France is actually like, from a writer for Vanity Fair and GQ

Americans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the French parent, why French women don't get fat, and how to be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours increase every year, we think longingly of the six weeks of vacation the French enjoy, imagining them at the seaside in stripes with plates of fruits de mer.

John von Sothen fell in love with Paris through the stories his mother told of her year spent there as a student. And then, after falling for and marrying a French waitress he met in New York, von Sothen moved to Paris. But fifteen years in, he's finally ready to admit his mother's Paris is mostly a fantasy. In this hilarious and delightful collection of essays, von Sothen walks us through real life in Paris--not only myth-busting our Parisian daydreams but also revealing the inimitable and too often invisible pleasures of family life abroad.

Relentlessly funny and full of incisive observations, Monsieur Mediocre is ultimately a love letter to France--to its absurdities, its history, its ideals--but it's a very French love letter: frank, smoky, unsentimental. It is a clear-eyed ode to a beautiful, complex, contradictory country from someone who both eagerly and grudgingly calls it home.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 08/25/2020
ISBN: 9780735224858
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.48lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.90d
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SKU: 33096571776

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Klara Gengler
Pawtucket, US
★★★★★ 5
Last a while. Will be buying more toys soon.
Color: Consuela the Cactus - Large, Size: Large Dog
Best dog toy I have ever bought. I have three dogs, two at the time I bought this toy. It took them over a year to break through the first layer. The flower comes off first so be careful your dog doesn't swallow it. It still has the second layer so it still looks like a cactus. No stuffing to clean up when they tear into it, which makes it far less messy than other toys. One of my dogs is obsessed with fetch so I use it like a ball inside. The oval shape makes it hard to ensure when it bounces that it will bounce straight. It's bounced into walls and other stuff that I wasn't intending it to hit. Not much of a squeak so I can let them play with it for hours and I don't get annoyed with the noise. Great toy that lasts a while.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2025
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Cassie
Pawtucket, US
★★★★★ 5
Nice Value
Color: Consuela the Cactus - Large, Size: Large Dog
Very cute! Its soft and feels like it is well made. It is a heavier toy and a tougher one. Not a plush toy. I will order again for our older dogs. Nice value for sure!
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Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2026
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Blakely McAllister
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 5
Great toy for our best boys!
Color: Consuela the Cactus - Large, Size: Large Dog
You can never go wrong with BarkBox toys and this was no exception. Our dogs like toys that have squeakers and that they can tear into. This style of toy fits the bill. The design is cute as well. I’ve had this in the house for months and, while it’s definitely seen better days, it’s still intact and they haven’t gotten to the inner layer. (Not for want of trying.) The perfect type of toy for our fur babies.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2026
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Amazon Customer
West Palm Beach, US
★★★★★ 5
Survives 7 months so far.
Color: Christmas Consuela, Size: Large Dog
It is still intact after nearly 7 months of constant play. My blue heeler normally destroys toys in just a few weeks. Consuela has exceeded expectations of survival with an extremely chewy, destruction prone dog.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2026
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D. Thomas
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 4
Short-lived but much enjoyed as a chew toy
Color: Consuela the Cactus - Large, Size: Large Dog
I bought two of these for my "granddogs" in the size for Large dogs. The German Shepherd-mix stole the one intended for the border collie-mix and had both toys halfway destroyed within a day--I'm pretty sure they didn't survive much longer after that. Much enjoyed! Maybe I should've bought the Extra Large size, because the Large barely fit in her mouth and she wanted to play tug-of-war, so there wasn't much for me to grab onto. Then the border collie wanted in on the action (she's older, so she needed help tugging!) but there wasn't enough material for her to grab onto without accidentally sinking her teeth into me instead.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2025

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