Posy Simmonds writes and draws the fall & rise & fall again of a British woman living in the French countryside. The story is told after the title character's death through the eyes of a local baker who has followed Gemma and stolen her diaries, allowing him to connect the dots. In it, we discover that Gemma was a dumpy & generally unhappy woman. She hated her house, she hated the countryside, and she hated her husband, Charles Bovery. After going on a spending spree for a new wardrobe and losing weight, the bored Gemma starts a love affair with a young student in town, but fails to think of the consequences that may follow. Simmonds has created something more than just a modern retelling of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Instead, she has detailed the annoying & sometimes humorous behavior of the well-off and inflated middle-class.
