After reading Madame Bovary I remembered I had a graphic novel retelling called Gemma Bovery so I pulled that out. I had heard about the writer/illustrator on a Clive James podcast where he sits on a couch with the interviewee smoking and drinking wine. Posy Simmonds was one of his many interviewees. They didn't get as down and dirty and wreathed in smoke clouds as he did with Martin Amis but I still looked up her books after.
The book is still set in France but in modern day with a bored, restless Gemma married to a weak furniture restorer Charles Bovery. She is endlessly recreating their house and her look, she obsessed with her weight. It's all told through the eyes of a local baker and manages to get in quite a few digs at the brits who come and buy cheap places in Normandy but never learn French or integrate into village life. Fun to read after the real stuff.
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