A Year to Learn the Language by Irwin Shaw. Short summary

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The main character is a girl named Louise. One day she left her native St. Louis to study French within the walls of the University of Paris. She had a friend, Roberta. They lived together.

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Louise left her hometown to study French at the Sorbonne. The lady admitted that the local literature had a depressing effect on her, and added that she missed the special atmosphere that prevailed on the banks of the Mississippi. Friends of the aforementioned student often heard from Louise while at parties that the largest river in the United States represented the Goddess Water to her. Her friend named Roberta didn’t really understand what the protagonist was talking about at times.

Louise and Roberta lived together. The latter was 19 years old and was engaged in artistic activities — filling canvases with paints according to the terms of the orders that were issued by the Paris showcases. Roberta tried as rarely as possible to look at other paintings so as not to borrow the style of painting peculiar to their authors.