Rating: 
Summary: A Bold Move
Review: "French Spirits" is a well-written and -researched nonfictional account of a sensitive and cautious American man making, together with his wife, a bold move: buying and restoring a presbytery -- "a ruin" -- in rural France. It's meticulously detailed and often joyous and witty with much local color splashed throughout. The characters range from a shifty-eyed furniture salesman who turns out to be on the up and up to the village drunk who comes across by turns as sage, outdoors man, construction consultant and clown ("Hokay! Hokay!"). An award-winning poet, Jeffrey Greene has a wonderful ear; every sentence rings true, which had me devouring his tome in just a few sittings. Moreover, he has a novelist's hand in achieving narrative drive. Just when I'd feel the twinges of a yawn, e.g., when his mother prepares to move in with him and his wife, he'd exceed the reader's -- this reader's -- expectations. His mother's a character! -- in every sense of the word, as is the architect with his repetition of shop worn English -- "at the end of the day." Lots of wonderful little character tags (Jeffrey, you'd write a great novel!). Having interviewed Jeffrey Greene in his Paris apartment for a magazine feature on expat writers living in Paris, I recall my ignorance of a certain word when he told me what his book was about. I didn't have the nerve to ask him what a presbytery was (I only knew it was related to church), and he had the sensitivity not to be condescending by volunteering a definition. On that note, the epigraph by Colette is a gem. Read this fine book.
Rating: 
Summary: I've been had!
Review: Beware the spate of books on the topic of Americans/Brits living in France! Talk about publishers milking a trend! Unfortunately, not every author is a Peter Mayle or an Ann Barry. Greene's book, for example, is hopeless--- a shambles as far as organization goes, peopled by clueless, insensitive, and incompletely delineated characters (maybe that last is the good news, because the bad news is that this is a work of non-fiction.) It is about as illuminating of the French culture and countryside as a Greyhound bus tour of the Top Ten tourist sites of the Ile-de-France.
Don't be taken in by the book's title, as I was. Even we bibliophilic Francophiles have some standards!
Rating: 
Summary: Another Boomer Goes to France
Review: I admit it: I'm a sucker for a travelogue in the style of Peter Mayle or even Francis Mayes: a bit self-indulgent, but entertaining. If I cannot live abroad myself, reading "A
Year in Provence" or "Under the Tuscan Sky" is the next best thing. My delight in finding a new author in the genre was quickly dashed however. This book is a vanity piece. Why, you ask? Here's an example: the author, Jeffrey Greene, spends two chapters discussing his wedding under a pear tree in the remote village of Rogney, deep in the heart of Burgundy. Why is that vain? Because he goes to great lengths to tell us about all the folks from back home who had to fly over, the musical celebrity guests that felt compelled to perform, and how the "simple back yard wedding" turned into several days of celebration including an extended in a nearby chateau for all the guests. And all of this because everyone was so happy for him. His bride through all this is a bit player, by the way, which is a good thing as I don't think Greene, and his ego could legally marry a third person. Perhaps the most gratuitous bit a fluff in a book so filled with fluff that it could fill a pillow, is the vows at the wedding itself: the various friends that officiate quote Greene's own poems along with the standard liturgy, and CS Lewis. When Greene is not talking about himself, he talks about the village drunk/idiot. Given the choice, I would rather spend time with the drunk than with the author. When you write this sort of book, you are supposed to be an observer, not the topic, and this is why this book fails: Greene goes to France, and tells us nothing about the experience, only about himself.
Rating:
Summary: Another Boomer Goes to France
Review: I admit it: I'm a sucker for a travelogue in the style of Peter Mayle or even Francis Mayes: a bit self-indulgent, but entertaining. If I cannot live abroad myself, reading "A
Year in Provence" or "Under the Tuscan Sky" is the next best thing. My delight in finding a new author in the genre was quickly dashed however. This book is a vanity piece. Why, you ask? Here's an example: the author, Jeffrey Greene, spends two chapters discussing his wedding under a pear tree in the remote village of Rogney, deep in the heart of Burgundy. Why is that vain? Because he goes to great lengths to tell us about all the folks from back home who had to fly over, the musical celebrity guests that felt compelled to perform, and how the "simple back yard wedding" turned into several days of celebration including an extended in a nearby chateau for all the guests. And all of this because everyone was so happy for him. His bride through all this is a bit player, by the way, which is a good thing as I don't think Greene, and his ego could legally marry a third person. Perhaps the most gratuitous bit a fluff in a book so filled with fluff that it could fill a pillow, is the vows at the wedding itself: the various friends that officiate quote Greene's own poems along with the standard liturgy, and CS Lewis. When Greene is not talking about himself, he talks about the village drunk/idiot. Given the choice, I would rather spend time with the drunk than with the author. When you write this sort of book, you are supposed to be an observer, not the topic, and this is why this book fails: Greene goes to France, and tells us nothing about the experience, only about himself.
Rating:
Summary: A charming and spirited look at la belle France
Review: I have read just about every book on restoring homes in France and Italy. (Non, I'm not a voyeur or dreamer.... I have done something similar in SW France & wanted to check out others' experiences.) In my view, Jeffrey Greene's poetic and self-revealing (without being self-centered) memoir of his experiences with his neighbors (as well as his family members) and his presbytery is simply the best of the genre. He treats his new acquaintances in the Burgundy village in the same way he approaches his building restoration: with delicacy and good will. Greene's vignettes (e.g., one can SEE the car secured with boards and covers by the village square and the woman who leaves it there)add up to a loving portrait of a place and a time. Greene is a poetic observer who gives us, his readers, a feeling -- and understanding -- for his world. Thank you!!!
Rating:
Summary: A memoir in France
Review: I just finished reading this book. I have never wriiten a review , but I do feel compelled to after reading some of the other reviews posted here. For me, this is a memoir, not a travel guide. I admire anyone who is willing to share his life experiences with me--I find it a most generous act. I feel like writing to the author to thank him for his book. He brought the area and the people to life for me. I am studying French; so the sentences in French (don't be alarmed, he supplies a translation just following) were fun for me to figure out. I liked learning about Henri IV's locks, and learning about the author's childhood. I love a good memoir--and particularly, one by someone who is not famous except in his own circle. I would encourage anyone who feels the same to buy, or borrow this book--and order "Eyewitness France" if you want a travel guide. This book is a lovely eyewitness to a man's life.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I loved this book. It is not egotistical at all; it writes of an area less explored than Provence or Tuscany; and the author has a knack of bringing his characters alive; the house itself is so well described one feels one has walked through it. There was not a chapter I found dull, and I devoured it in a sitting. Greene doesn't laugh at the locals, or sneer at the imagined "quaintness" of Europe. You can't do better than this for travel narrative.
Rating:
Summary: ONE BORING BOOK
Review: I was expecting a true romance story filled with intrigue and adventure, but instead I got a boring lifeless story that could put any heart-thumping human to sleep. I have never been so frustrated with a book as I have with this one. I wanted the story to move forward from page one, but till the end the narrative just got slower, slower and zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Rating:
Summary: Living in France Vicariously
Review: It's not often that a poet buys a run-down presbytery in France and shares with his readers the total experience of adapting to a new way of life. In this book we meet the charming, eccentric villagers of Rogny; we relate to the frustrations that come with any renovation; and we share in the plans for the wedding that miraculously takes place amid the rubble of reconstruction. This book is beautifully and entertainingly written, and this reader hopes for a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Living in France Vicariously
Review: It's not often that a poet buys a run-down presbytery in France and shares with his readers the total experience of adapting to a new way of life. In this book we meet the charming, eccentric villagers of Rogny; we relate to the frustrations that come with any renovation; and we share in the plans for the wedding that miraculously takes place amid the rubble of reconstruction. This book is beautifully and entertainingly written, and this reader hopes for a sequel.
|
