Five Days In Paris (Danielle Steel) (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
ttttFive Days in Paris reviewtI read Five Days in Paris by Danielle Steel. To begin, I honestly did not like this book very much. It was a very boring book, and the way Danielle explained and introduced new plot was horrible. She would explain the concept bluntly and upfront. Everything was given to you, and to make it worse, she wouldn’t merge the information with what one of the characters was saying or thinking, she would break the fourth wall and say it directly. Horridly boring way to get information, and it turned this simple 270 page book into what seemed like a 700 page nightmare.tThis book is a romance novel. I have no real reason why I chose this book. I needed a book, and this one looked more interesting than the other books out of my selection. It really didn’t seem all that bad before I started reading it. The book is about a man named Peter Haskell, a president of a pharmaceutical company about to release a “miracle” drug, and a woman named Olivia Thatcher. Olivia is already in a very bad relationship with an overly-ambitious politician. Olivia is very confused; she doesn’t love the man she is married to anymore. tThe protagonists are Peter and Olivia. The multiple antagonists are Olivia’s husband, a crazed politician, and Peter’s father-in-law, Frank, who wants to release Vicotec, a potentially dangerous drug that supposedly kills cancer (which is why “miracle” is in quotes up above), for the money rather than for the safety of the people with cancer. There are no other significant characters in this book. tPeter goes to Paris to do a campaign sort of thing for his pharmaceutical company, but more for their creation, Vicotec. This drug was designed to kill cancer, but it had crazy side effects and killed the user of it sometimes. While staying at a hotel, someone threatens the hotel with a bomb, which forces everyone to evacuate. This includes Peter and Olivia. Peter noticed Olivia walking away in the dark by herself, and without thinking, catches up to her and they talk for a very long time about their lives. Olivia runs away in the near future, and Peter is the only one that really cares for Olivia, so he decides to track her down. They have a very limited time together in Paris, a mere five days, so Peter has to act fast to find her.tMore problems arise after Peter gets back to the States. His insanely greedy father-in-law pushes for Vicotec’s release, thinking only of profits. Peter is very confused and overwhelmed with emotion. He thought his life was perfect, but Olivia makes him realize that it isn’t. Olivia is in a marriage with a man who she doesn’t love anymore, and runs away. Being in each other’s presence makes them both happy and they truly enjoy the time they spend together. tThe strange thing is, is that Peter is also married, with children. He really gets caught over this because he can’t decide over his currently failing marriage and his children, or a girl he doesn’t know very much. Things get slightly hectic, but it never builds up too high.tThe main conflict for this story is hard to decide. Peter is just a flesh bag full of twisted emotions and daunting problems. To settle for a single conflict, it would be man vs. self. Peter must decide who he loves, who he wants to be with, and he has to do this in a short amount of time, while under pressure. Most of the book really goes over how bad of a mental state he is in. tA possible theme for this is,”keep moving forward, and don’t let anything get in your way.” Peter was having a very bad time making up his mind and stopping his dad. He was overwhelmed with emotion and he was afraid that Vicotec would be released. He went full on into his problems, and took them out one at a time. He didn’t stop or slow down; he kept going. No matter how much harder it got for him, he kept moving. His problems were resolved after complete hardships, and he was satisfied with the results he got. tThe author has a very distinct and boring writing style. She explains everything upfront, directly, boringly, and she repeats herself too many times to count. She does not use many large or sophisticated words either. This book was extremely boring to read. It felt like it took much longer than it really did to read it. It was hard to get motivated enough to start, and when I reached my goal for pages read for the day, I didn’t hesitate to close it up and forget about it. I definitely do not recommend this book. Besides being boring to read, it was very predictable, and its story was clichéd. Twilight had a better storyline (now that’s saying something).
Last year, I tried reading another book by Danielle Steel called "The toxic bachelor" and to be honest, I couldn't get past page 10. The thing is Steel puts too much effort into the background in order to be done with it the first 50 pages while as I read other books, the background was put by the author all along the book and not all at once in a certain place. That defect made me get bored from the first 30 pages in this book, too. The first 30 pages were dedicated entirely to the background without any exciting event. Too much details like giving too much credibility to her books. Sometimes the reader doesn't care that much about these details. They make him bored. And that's what happened with me. When reading the toxic bachelor last year, I was struck by the materialistic nature Steel possesses. And it was repeated in this book too. All throughout the book, I could visibly touch the materialistic and unrealistic side of everything she mentionned. Any reader of hers can easily classify her as those Beverly Hills rich people who have never in their lives dropped a sweat, or ever saw a poor man. Steel in this book have made her two main characters rich. People who possess infinite money under themselves. They would talk of million of dollars like chocolate bars, not more. Even if she made Peter, the successful scientist, a person who was raised on a ranch among a poor family, that made her piece of writing seem more and more materialistic and even biased. To her, the Beverly-hills lady, all people raised on a ranch would be poor. It didn't cross her mind that it might actually be a matter of choice... maybe a person liked doing that. The other part that showed her prejudices was when a fire was ignited at the Ritz (see!) and she made her characters blame the Arabic King who was staying at the hotel with his three wives and laid the possibility of a bomb. She even made them go running away from the hotel and into their car and made them never to be seen again.On the other hand, her "love" story was too unrealistic. Too impossible. Frankly, I am not sure about other people, but even when I am reading pure fiction, I LOVE to touch the realistic side in it, and that's what I do in my own writings. This story had no realistic side. Not at all. It was too impossible even without the vampires, werewolves, revenants, or wizards. It was too impossible. I mean, two people falling in love after two days of acquaintance, and then just after that, after just five days they spent together, wanting to dump their families and husband or wife because of this small encounter? Too unbelievable. And honestly, I wouldn't have spent that much time and effort on it if I knew this more the beginning. One last defect is that Steel talks too much between conversations. It is like two people are conversing, she has to go around writing a full page paragraph after one sentence, and before knowing what the reply of the other person was... which made the whole book more and more dull.After all, I did a little like the book. There were certain places where I could read 10 pages without even feeling a thing. Yes, I enjoyed some parts, but I would never recommend this book to anyone. I don't regret reading it, because I don't like prejudices or prejudgments. I wanted to taste more of Steel's work to know exactly why is she getting all the fame. But I would never ever, not after this book, find myself reading again one of her works.
What do You think about Five Days In Paris (Danielle Steel) (1995)?
Five Days in Paris by Danielle SteelGenre: RomanceThe course of life can be changed in just a few short days. This is exactly what happens in Five Days in Paris. Peter is a well to do businessman in the pharmaceutical world. While on a trip to Paris for testing of their new drug Peter meets a woman, Olivia, whom he finds very intriguing. Peter is married and has a great family (or so he thinks); his father-in-law owns the company that he works for. Olivia is the wife of a high-reaching politician. Both of them are vastly unhappy. In the five days that Peter is in Paris he comes to some shocking revelations about his life, with the help of Olivia. How will his life change…or remain the same…when he returns home?This was another one of my audio book endeavors. The exposition of the book was very, very long. I felt like it dragged on describing Peter’s background and early life experiences. There really was no action that occurred. This description would end up being important to the main plot of the story but I almost turned it off because it was quite boring. Once the main part of the story was reached, I enjoyed the story of Peter and Olivia. It is not your typical romance, quite unconventional. I could see the ending coming a mile away but thought that it was very well played out. I’m not sure that this author is my cup-of-tea but my first experience was ok.3.5 out of 5 stars (the writing was good but a little less exciting than I usually look for)
—Heather
رواية لطيفة وخفيفة تناولت فيها دانيال ستيل موضوع مهم وهو استغلال شركات الادوية للمرضى من جهة وخيانة زوجية من جهة اخرى السرد كان لطيف والعبارات بسيطة جدا اعتقد بانها رواية تصلح للمبتدئين في القراءة او كاستراحة بعد كتاب دسم باختصار جدا هي عبارة عن فلم اجنبي .....⬇نبذة عن الاحداثتتحدث الرواية عن بيتر هاسكل وهو شاب نشأ في عائلة فقرة تقطن في احدى القرى وتعمل في مزرعة يحب فتاة من طبقة اجتماعية مختلفة يكمل دراسته الجامعية في سبيل تحقيق احلامه والتخلص من حياته السابقة في القرية ولكنه يرفض ان يكون ذلك على حساب كرامته ومبادئه لذلك يرفض الارتباط بحبيبته كاتي ثم تمر فترة زمنية معينه ويعود ليلتقي بها في حفلة ويتأجج الحب من جديد وهنا يعرض عليه والدها الذي يملك شركة ادوية العمل في الشركة في سبيل تقريبه من ابنته وبعد ذلك يتزوج منها ثم تبدأ جولة من السيطرة والفتور من قبل كاتي بعد ان اصبح لديهم ثلاثة اولاد فكاتي مرتبطة جدا بوالدها واصبحت علاقتها بوالدها على حساب زواجها بعد ذلك يبدأ الصراع بين والدها وزوجها حيث يعمل زوجها على تطوير منتج يساعد مرضى السرطان على التخلص من المرض وبامكان المنتج ان يصبح في متناول الجميع وفي كل القرى ويبدأ النزاع بين فرانك والد كاتي الذي يرغب بفرض اسعار باهضه للمنتج وترويجه قبل الوقت المحدد قبل التأكد من صلاحية الاستخدام البشري عندها يسافر بيتر الى باريس للتأكد من صلاحية المنتج للاستخدام واجراء اختبارات عليه في مختبر باريس وعندها يتعرف على زوجة سيناتور وهي اوليفيا تاتشر ويعجب بها ويصبحان على علاقة ويتناسى زوجته وبعد ذلك يقرران العودة كل الى حياته السابقة يعود بيتر الى غرينتش بعد حصوله على نتائج تفيد بأن المنتج قاتل ولايصلح للاستخدام عندها يتشاجر مع فرانك الذي يتعرض لنوبة قلبية اثر ذلك عندها تطلب كاتي من بيتر مقابلة لجنة الاغذية والعقاقير ومساعدة والداها في ترويج المنتج والقيام بتجربته وحين يذهب لمقابلة اللجنه يرفض الخضوع لزوجته ووالدها ويخبر اللجنه بأن المنتج غير جاهز للاستخدام ولدى خروجه من المقابله تتركه زوجته وترحل وهي غاضبه بما يدل على انها قررت الانفصال عندها تظهر اوليفيا من جديد ويرحلان معا ....
—Aayat Saleh
[scream] waow, Daniel Steel bener-bener menguras 'tenaga' untuk membaca ini. tenaga bukan otak. baru selesai dan jantungku masih berdebar. hm mungkin berlebihan, tapi pernahkan kalian merasakan seperti ini? jantung berdebar, nafas tertahan, dan masih ada emosi dari akhir buku walau kita telah selesai membacanya?--------------------Five Days in Paris, telah membuka mata Peter terhadap kehidupannya; pekerjaannya, pernikahannya. itu semua 'berkat' istri senator politik yang terkenal, Olivia, yang bersama-sama mereka menghabiskan berjam-jam dengan minum kopi dan mengobrol. obrolan itulah yang telah membuat Peter mengetahui bahwa sebenarnya kehidupannya tidaklah sebahagia apa yang ia kira. dan berkat Peter, Olivia berhasil keluar dari eksploitasi yang dilakukan suaminya.--------------------rasanya memang menyebalkan jika orang yang pasti ada di sisi kita, tidak dapat mempercayakan apa yang menurut kita adalah big secret. terlebih terhadap orang tuanya, dalam kasus Peter dan Katie adalah Ayahnya. Ayah Katie adalah seorang pengecut, menurutku, karena ia terus melaporkan kepada anak gadisnya itu tentang perbuatan Peter di perusahaan yang ia pimpin dan begitu pula Katie, melaporkan kelakuan Peter di rumahnya. saat bagian Peter harus berhadapan dengan FDA, aku merasa sang Ayah adalah bos penjahat, Peter adalah orang yang diintainya dan Kate adalah orang yang mematai Peter atas perintah sang Ayah. konyol memang. tapi memang itulah yang terjadi antara mereka bertiga. dan setelah Peter melepaskan istrinya, pekerjaannya, dan juga kemungkinan besar anak-anaknya, rasanya sungguh bahagia dan senang dengan adanya kemunculan Olivia yang juga telah melakukan hal serupa jauh sebelum Peter, namun Olivia masih ada Ibu yang mendukungnya. dan dengan pertanyaan classic Peter, yang sama dengan saat mereka 'pertama' bertemu, "Boleh kutraktir minum kopi?" bersama-sama mereka melangkah menuju kebebasan.tapi mengapa mereka tidak diceritakan menikah sajaaa? lalu bagaimana dengan Vicotec? tapi yang baca pastilah tahu, hal itu akan sulit untuk diceritakan dan menjadi lebih rumit lagi persoalannya dan lebih panjang. tapi pastinya kita tahu bahwa ini happy ending, dan tampaknya jawaban atas pertanyaan itu sudah jelas di benak kita dan begitu pula hal-hal pelik lainnya.aku baca tanggal 13 cuma satu atau dua atau tiga bab doang. yeah, ini adalah buku pertama yang aku baca dengan tema seperti ini, walau keadaan seperti ini, mungkin, ada di dunia nyata, tapi ini adalah dunianya orang dewasa dan begitu pula dengan pemikirannya. walau gaya bahasanya yang terkadang membuat aku bingung, "mereka lagi mengobrol dimana?", "kok tiba-tiba ada disini lagi?", "kok masih disini?" ya, kebingungan itu adalah tentang tempat, lokasinya, dan alur yang terkadang masa depan dan masa lalu bercampur, begitu pula dengan sudut pandangnya. memang ini sudut pandang orang ketiga, namun misalnya yang sedang berbicara itu adalah Peter namun ternyata Olivia-lah yang mengatakan itu semua. ah, pokoknya kadang bingung.
—Red
