Fleur de Leigh in Exile: A Novel
by Diane Leslie
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Book Summary Information
Author: Diane LeslieEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-04-06
ISBN: 0743226097
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of Fleur de Leigh in Exile: A Novel
Book Review: Fleur De Leigh In Exile
Summary: 4 Stars
Fleur De Leigh In Exile is a novel by Diane Leslie, this book is the sequel to the book Fleur De Leigh's Life of Crime. This book is a story of the fifteen year old Fleur who got sent to a bad and cheap boarding school called Tucson Rancho Cambridge in the middle of no where. Her mother is an actress and likes to tell Fleur what to do. Also her high class friend Daisy comes to the same school. Things go bad but in the end they it is all good. I would recommend this book to other readers. You should read the first book first so you know the background of Fleur and her life. The writing quality is very good. I like the style of writing. The woman's issues that are addressed in this book are issues of acceptance by the girls in the new school, and academics. When fleur first gets to the school she in not accepted, and she doesn't like it. While being showed around the dorm by the other girls one of them said, " Gosh! Wow! You aren't a snob!(10)" That girl didn't like Fleur because she was wealthy and had different customs then them. The other girls need to learn how to respect Fleur and her differences. An example of an issue of academics would be when Fleur was asked to pick a book from the library, "To be honest, I chose Noblesse Oblige because it was the least batter book on the shelves.(36)" They had the problem of using old weathered down books and not being able to use new and good books. Women should be aware of this book because it will teach them good life skills. Overall this book was very good and is a good book for teenagers.
Summary of Fleur de Leigh in Exile: A Novel
Diane Leslie's first novel, Fleur de Leigh's Life of Crime, chronicled young Fleur Leigh's glamorous misadventures in 1950s Hollywood. "Très charmant indeed," Entertainment Weekly praised this Library Journal and Los Angeles Times Best Book of 1999.Fleur de Leigh in Exile finds fifteen-year-old Fleur in diminished circumstances. She transferred mid-semester to Tucson's Rancho Cambridge West -- the cheapest boarding school in all the United States -- where frail students convalesce in the arid clime and dine on the mess hall's "adobe melt." "Think of yourself as a conquistador," her B-movie actress mother urges, but Fleur's eyes are widened to the evils of prejudice and the burdens of combating it.
After a night of dorm-room high jinks, Fleur and friends band together as the "Four-Letter Four." Sentenced to a civic-minded punishment deep in the desert, the "doomed do-gooders" encounter a grave situation far removed from Fleur's upper-class upbringing. Serious issues abound, but in Diane Leslie's world even the most painful moments are tinged with comedy.
Diane Leslie's writing is "enchanting, believable, and wickedly funny" (Denver Post). Witty and fresh, Fleur de Leigh in Exile pits Heartland against Hollywood in a tale whose courageous heroine is as endearing in exile as ever before.
There are books that never seem to belong entirely to children, but they're not strictly grown-up novels either. Philip Pullman's fantasy novels fall into this category, as does Francesca Lia Block's nutty Weetzie Bat series. For those who love books that can be witty, knowing, and innocent all at once, Diane Leslie has created young Fleur de Leigh. We met her first in Fleur de Leigh's Life of Crime, and now she's gotten herself a sequel, Fleur de Leigh in Exile. A 1950s Hollywood brat with an over-the-top radio star mom, Fleur de Leigh is a narrator of deadpan formality and quicksilver goofiness. In Fleur de Leigh in Exile, she's landed in, really, the ultimate exile: Tuscon. No sooner does she arrive at the Rancho Cambridge West boarding school school than she encounters her former best friend, Daisy, who now goes by Twyla. In proper Boarding School Fiction fashion, the novel is deeply episodic, with pranks galore, adventure-filled forays into the real world, and of course some lessons learned. All through this slightly shambling and messy plot, Fleur de Leigh observes the world around her with her customary aplomb. Of one of her teachers: "His chin seemed to form its own hairless goatee." These novels are all about an eccentric, smart young girl's voice, and Leslie maintains it seamlessly. --Claire Dederer
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