A SEASON FOR THAT

The transformation of a Minnesotan family in rural France.

In his tender debut memoir, tax preparer and food journalist Hoffman recounts his family’s adventure of living for six months in Autignac, a village of 800 people in rural Languedoc that, at first, seemed decidedly not as magical as he had hoped. It was not picturesque, like Provence; above all, it wasn’t Paris, where he had spent nine months during college. “I don’t know what I’m doing here,” he told his wife. “This isn’t the trip I expected. It isn’t the trip I wanted it to be. It’s not the village I wanted it to be. It’s not the climate I wanted it to be. It’s not even the French food I wanted it to be. We’re just here.” But as time passed and he, his wife, and their two children—14-year-old Eva and 9-year-old Joseph—got to know their “new, unfamiliar neighbors,” they settled into the rhythms of the place, from the fishmonger’s weekly visits to the seasonal changes that presented them with succulent ripe apricots in summer and sweet wine grapes in the fall. Hoffman describes in sensuous prose his delighted discovery of new aromas and tastes, including aromatic herbs, briny oysters, and pungent cheeses. Even a homemade vinegar, “filling my sinuses and wringing my salivary glands, changed the definition of whatever I had previously understood ‘vinegar’ to mean.” With the help of neighbors and shopkeepers, he learned to cook coq au vin, rabbit, beef daube, mackerel, and anchovies. “The kitchen,” he writes, “had begun to feel like the center that held this all together, and I craved my nightly aproned shift.” If food is central to Hoffman’s memories, so are the warm, embracing friendships that enriched each member of the family.

A collection of engaging recollections.