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A FRENCH AFFAIR

Name: A FRENCH AFFAIR
Author: Michael Kenyon
ISBN: 0-312-09295-4

by Michael Kenyon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 8, 1993

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Amusing and smart food-and-travel memoir, set largely in southwestern France. Kenyon contributes regularly to Gourmet and has written over two-dozen crime novels (Kill the Butler!, 1993, etc.). After seeing the province of Lot in southwestern France lauded on TV by novelist Compton McKenzie, Kenyon, his schoolteacher-wife, Catherine, and their three daughters lease their London home and set forth for a year or more in that region. Just what time slot we're reading about is veiled, perhaps to suggest a period more harmonious with those covered by Peter Mayle and others in the current crop of guides to France. The story skims strangely over the marriage's breakup, as if Kenyon keeps his food obsessions foremost to mask the deeper currents of what happens to him (his wife eventually runs off with a Frenchman and later marries someone else, and the author winds up with a green card teaching on Long Island and living with one Victoria, a freelance book designer). But here it's food, family, and French that bond the reader to the page. At school, the girls catch on to French so rapidly that Kenyon himself falls far behind. Since one daughter was born in the US, the family decides to celebrate Thanksgiving—but assembling a typical American holiday feast in this region demands ingenious substitutes. The French love leisurely meals with small quantities, an hour or more for lunch and two for dinner, and thus food-talk takes on infinite complexity in the text. At one point, Catherine drives 40 miles for a loaf of bread too good for the lofty baker to sell to just anyone who drops in: She has to beg for it. Also, the town band draws smiles: ``As part of the French cultural tradition...they are expected to play execrably and usually succeed.'' The wittiest, best-written French guide now on hand.

Pub Date: June 8, 1993

ISBN: 0-312-09295-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
PECKOVER AND THE BOG MAN
by Michael Kenyon

- BOOK REVIEW
PECKOVER JOINS THE CHOIR
by Michael Kenyon

- BOOK REVIEW
KILL THE BUTLER!
by Michael Kenyon

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.