IN FRANCE IT WAS SPRING

by Ida Treat ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1959

Some readers will remember with delight The Anchored Heart (1940). This goes back some years ago (the '30's), when American Ida Treat married Paul, a Frenchman, and this account- largely of the summers spent in the Pyrenees- is dominated by the presence of Paul's Maman. The mother of an only son (i. e. to whom Ida could never really be a laughter), a retired opera singer still temperamentally fit, Maman finds her new daughter-in-law too phlegmatic for her tastes and relegates her to a pejorative position in the household like the "" Papa"", deceased. Their life together is amusingly annotated-with plane for a summer camp, and only one camper; with Maman's purchase of a small farmhouse (the Little Trianon) for the younger couple,and a pig- Angelique; with local superstitions- and a family feud. And there is the excitement of an avalanche, of a search for prehistoric caves and anthropological findings; of 'a ball.... Maman's last winter, and the telltale indications that she is failing, along with the death of another old friend, concludes a pleasant personal reminiscence to which Maman contributes much of her spirit and character. The market, however, is probably problematical.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1959

Categories: NONFICTION