Bethanne Patrick

Francophilia: 'Left Bank' and 'The Feasting Season'
July 10, 2007

A colleague of mine recently left for a villa in Provence. How I hate her.

Just kidding, E.! 

But as I was getting over my intense jealousy, along came today's Shelf Awareness, with the news that John Mutter is also heading to la belle France. 

Zut alors!

If you are like me and their experience "Gauls" you (sorry, I couldn't help it), then you, like me, might be partially pacified by two July novels: Kate Muir's Left Bank (Penguin) and The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons (Algonquin).

                                                             

Both books are about France -- and both books are great reads. They're both by women, and they're both about shaky marriages, with children involved.

That might seem to be a lot to have in common, but the two novels are actually very different. Muir's book concerns Olivier and Madison Malin of Paris: he a superstar philosophe in the Bernard-Henri Levy mold, she a transplanted Texan Hollywood star in the Julia Roberts mold. When their beloved daughter Sabine disappears during a visit to a Euro-Disney type of theme park, the Malins are forced to confront the demons that keep them together, and the cultural divide that threatens to tear them apart.

In The Feasting Season, another American wife, Meg Parker, deals with her crumbling marriage to a near-alcoholic Brit by retreating to her "bunker" office and emerging only to care for and feed her two small children. When a book assignment pairs her with a smart, secretive French photographer, the games (and meals) begin: Coons, a writer for Saveur magazine and others, describes food in a truly eaterly manner. The book is serious, but a joy to read -- and there's a sequel in the air...

I guess there's something else these two books about France have in common: both of them had me at bonjour.

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on July 10, 2007 | Comments (3)