Tag: The Little French Bistro

The Little French Bistro by Nina George: A Review

“Emile sat awkwardly beside her on the cold stone floor. He had known Pascale for his whole life. He had seen her in her prime, during her golden age of strength and beauty, and had enjoyed every stage. He knew every woman she’s ever been.” – Nina George, The Little French Bistro

This book has all the charm of a novel set in a small, French village: there is fresh food, fashion, art, a flock of nuns and just about every kind of love imaginable. Broken hearts, unrequited love, one true love, new love, dying love, rekindled love – you name it – The Little French Bistro has it.

The main character, a German woman in her early sixties named Marianne, goes on a bus tour of France with her odious husband, Lothar. When the group is dining at a restaurant in Paris (and Lothar is busy flirting with another woman), Marianne decides she can stand her life no longer and escapes the restaurant to make her way to the Pont Neuf to throw herself off and drown in the Seine. It is the first choice she has made for herself in decades and it exhilirates her to know that she is ending her life on her own terms. Except … she is rescued from the river and rushed to hospital. While confined in the hospital, Marianne finds a little tile with the image of a tiny Breton village, Kerdruc, painted on it and takes it as a sign. She escapes once again, this time to find the village on the west coast of France and drown herself in the sea. When she reaches the village of Kerdruc in Brittany, she finds that day by day her desire to die is replaced by a desire to live. George fills the village with a cast of charming characters who help Marianne to discover who she really is. There were aspects of the novel that reminded me of Joanne Harris’ novel, Chocolat: an outsider coming to town, a handsome young man (but this time he’s more biker than gypsy), a whiff of magic from time to time. But George’s heroine is a little sixty-year-old lady from Germany who arrives with only the clothes on her back and no faith in herself yet eventually she rebuilds her life.

George admits she loves to write about feeling but for me at times, this aspect of the book was overdone. Literally every character – I mean every character – is either in love, falling out of love, wishing for love etc. etc. Because her characters span such a wide range of ages, I think George is trying to show that romantic love is an important part of the human condition throughout our adult lives. Since the love stories are often unconventional, there are times when her characters end up in situations that left me amused or sympathic but I did find it a bit heavy-handed at times.

What I love about this book (See? Love – it’s everywhere) are George’s descriptions of Brittany. I knew nothing about this region of France before reading the book and now it’s on my bucket list. Locals call the region “the end of the world” because it sticks into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s history is old, like giant paleolithic rock structures old (think Stonehenge). The people have their own language – Breton – and can trace their roots to Celts and Druids. In fact, the Bretons consider their history linked with the peoples of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which makes the connection between Nova Scotia (new Scotland) and Cape Breton (Breton, as in Bretagne, as in Brittany) kind of apt. And Kerdruc is a real village where George happens to live part-time. She describes the region with so much affection for its people and its culture and the land itself that Brittany almost feels like a character in the novel rather that just the setting. She weaves Breton folklore, supersition and language into the book to give the reader a sense of how distinct it is from other regions of France. I admit I was completely charmed by her descriptions.

So if you are in the mood for a love story (or a lot of love stories all at once) or maybe just a quick trip to France without every leaving your living room, you might want to check out The Little French Bistro.

 

 

November Line Up

While I am usually happy with my home on the east coast, if there is one month I feel a little less than grateful, it’s November. It’s dark, cold, wet, dreary, gray – I could play this game for a long time, folks. So for this month, the theme is “Get Me Out of Here!” If I can’t escape the magical weather combination of drizzle and sleet that November brings in real life, at least I can travel via book. All of this month’s selections are set in other places so maybe you’ll find one in here too to help you beat the November blahs.

November 3: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. I first picked this book up because I loved the cover (I know what you’re thinking but let’s all admit, sometimes beautiful books actually do have beautiful covers). The concept behind the story is really interesting: one hot summer day in 1969, four siblings in New York City visit a psychic who tell each one the exact day they will die. The rest of the novel is divided into four parts, one devoted to each sibling as Benjamin reveals how the prophecy influences each of their lives. The story zigzags across the US as the siblings move away from their childhood home in NYC in pursuit of their dreams.

November 10: The Little French Bistro by Nina George. I really enjoyed George’s other novel, The Little Paris Bookshop, which hooked me with the idea of a bookshop in a canal boat that goes floating around the rivers of France. It was totally charming and sweet, oh, and there were recipes in the back of the book for all the French food George writes about in the novel. What’s not to love? In her new novel, George’s main character, Marianne, packs it in after she can stand her unhappy marriage no longer and leaves Paris for the Brittany coast. And there are recipes again, so I will let you know if I try any…

November 17: Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. This is a recent Reese’s Book Club pick. I will admit, I really do love Reese Witherspoon. She is amazing in HBO’s Big Little Lies (if you haven’t watched it, read the book first, it is so good) and she does a lot to promote all things bookish. I also really love Cuba. The country, the people and the culture are beautiful and the island’s history is fascinating so I was sold on this book. The story is set between 1958, in the years before the revolution and in Miami in 2017 and follows two women, Elisa, a member of a wealthy Cuban family who is forced to flee during the revolution and Marisol, her granddaughter, who eventually returns to Cuba to scatter Elisa’s ashes in the country of her birth.

November 24: Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce. This novel is set in London during World War II. The main character, Emmeline, dreams of becoming a war correspondent. Instead, she ends up answering letters for Mrs. Bird, a renowned advice columnist. Mrs. Bird tells Emmy to throw any letters that involve Unpleasantness straight into the garbage but Emmy ends up reading them and answering them in secret. This book is supposed to be both funny and moving, so I am really looking forward to it.

So there we are, the continental US, France, Cuba and England. You can take your pick but while the November rain pours down, I am going to be somewhere cozy with a good book and I hope you will be too. Let me know if you plan on picking up any of November’s books!