The English take on the French: formidably droll with a touch of the wacko.
An outsider attempts to win over his new neighbors with his gardening skills in this pratfall-filled tale of expatriatism.
Sadler (An Englishman in Paris, 2003) is English. Those around him are country French, and they are not impressed. He has just moved into a farm in the Loire valley owned by friends. While the cottage is passable, the garden is an Amazonia of six-foot-high lettuces. But Sadler has eyes on winning the village garden contest to prove his worthiness among the august peasantry. And his heart is purely taken with the French countryside: “a less stressful, more ancestral, old-style, slow-cooking, gently unfolding France that I have always found attractive: la France profonde.” He is being sincere, but this is as serious as this author gets. Sadler is far happier savoring the food and wine, or serving as a foil to the natives—he knows when taking a poke in the eye is worth it to get two slaps on the back. Here is how he interprets a formal conversation with a farmer neighbor: “Elle est bien basse.” (Translation: “Too bad for you, fatface.”) “Pour être basse elle est basse.” (Translation: “Please, Aimé, don’t be a shit.”) Sadler is a genial and peculiar sort who relishes his authorial role as an old goat. Strange anecdotes pile up, highlighting his ability to come at a topic directly and from left field at the same time. He kicks an ostrich in the butt (no harm done) and wins a case of fine Chinon wine. He attends a ribald Communion lunch. He starts a perverse search for an ugly village in this region of blowsy charm. He decides to triumph in the garden contest by growing sexy vegetables like John Malkovich (don’t ask).
The English take on the French: formidably droll with a touch of the wacko.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7432-5968-8
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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