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Title: At Home in France by Ann Barry ISBN: 0-345-40787-3 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 11 March, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Extraordinaire!
Comment: Having begun my reading of France with Peter Mayle's 5-star rated "A Year in Provence" I was dismayed that I could not put a finger on what it was about his book that made me not care for it.
After reading "At Home in France", I now know what it was lacking - HEART! This book by Ann Barry is written with feeling. She starts the book by actually letting us know about her inner self and family background, so we can see her perspective when we read the book.
This book hooked me from the beginning with Barry's charming descriptions of her home and her neighbors. It lets us get a glimpse of what living in this area of France is really like, and I am glad to say that it warmed me to the French, who I had previously understood to dislike Americans.
The book is filled with travel anecdotes, including stays at local castles. Also included are luscious descriptions of French food/dining (WARNING: this book will make you very hungry!). The main part of the book I enjoyed was the domestic details - housekeeping and cooking with a half refrigerator and two-burner stove.
This book is also written with a great sense of humor. The funniest part of the book is about bats. (Sorry, you'll have to read the book to find out what I mean!)
Rating: 4
Summary: Falling in love with France
Comment: Ann Barry's vignettes about her life in France are a gift to those of us who dream of living a more simple life. Tales of home improvements, neighbours, and regional idiosyncracies are enchanting and triumphant. As Ann discovers the pleasures of owning a home in France, so does the reader. I recommend this book to anyone who loves France, experiencing new cultures, and opening their mind to possibiliites beyond those we are taught. BTW - I understand she died from cancer.
Rating: 5
Summary: Enjoyable, Warmly Human, Ultimately Bittersweet and Moving
Comment: I was very moved by this memoir and would recommend it to anyone (it feels far more immediate and emotionally rewarding, for instance, than Frances Mayes' "Under the Tuscan Sun").
Unlike some that explore the same territory here (culture shock, setting up housekeeping in a foreign land, quirks of the locals, history of the region and its landmarks, discovery of cuisine and surroundings), there is subtle artistry in the way it's written, gentle looks into the basic human goodness of the French people in her circle, and knowing that the author died of cancer in middle-age before ever seeing this book published brings a bittersweet feel that grows as the last page nears (mentioning in passing in the final chapter, for instance, that she will skip a planned trip to a spa that year due to an event taking place in the village and that the spa will always be there next year has a strong resonance, as you immediately realize and want to call out protectively to her, Yes it will be there, but you will not]).
Aside from the introduction to French life and characters, I found myself more transfixed by what I saw in Ann Barry herself -- a loner who never feels so right in the world as when she is on her own, and especially when in France as her truest self, even relishing that she has no telephone and can't be infringed upon by the outside world.
Knowing that Ms. Barry will die after 12+ years of sharing her journey, I found myself not just reading the story but considering questions of self and meaning in life, and feeling a bit sad for a woman who never connected with a significant other and that the scars of childhood in a somewhat dysfunctional family were far-reaching, as is the case with so many of us. (That sounds depressing, but it's more a consistent subtext here that one attuned will see, and that, to me, enriched my interest in the work. Many people may read the book not coming away with that at all.)
If you enjoy vicarious life and episodic memoir of someone who DID IT rather than THOUGHT ABOUT IT, I can think of no finer memoir that I've read of late, and I'm sure I will continue to think about the questions this raised in me about how we live our lives and what it all means and what good we can do for this world before we leave it, and for that I'm grateful to Ms. Barry for this work.
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Title: The Grown-Up's Guide to Living in France by Rosanne Knorr, Roseanne Knorr ISBN: 1580081452 Publisher: Ten Speed Press Pub. Date: July, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Living, Studying, and Working in France : Everything You Need To Know To Fulfill Your Dreams of Living Abroad by Saskia Reilly, Lorin David Kalisky ISBN: 0805059474 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: French Dirt : Story of a Garden in the South of France, The by Richard M. Goodman ISBN: 0060975059 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 August, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: On Rue Tatin : Living and Cooking in a French Town by Susan Herrmann Loomis ISBN: 0767904559 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: From Here, You Can't See Paris : Seasons of a French Village and Its Restaurant by Michael S. Sanders ISBN: 0060184728 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 05 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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