Customer Reviews

Footsteps

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Susan Tiberghien's Footsteps is the finely crafted work of a gifted writer, clear mind, and sharp wit. One opens the book and is immediately in good company. Splendid writing, never once telling, every page showing, describing; the reader becomes part of the conversations. And what conversations! Madame Tiberghien, who offers the writer a bed on the eve of her own daughter's death. Madame Michel, the neighbor; would that I know her and her garlic! And you just want to stand up and cheer for Pierre Yves who planted American corn for his American wife's bizzare dining habit. It was a joy for this reader to sit at the table. I laughed. I was at home.

The writing is brilliant--I couldn't put the book down. What a picture it gives of a busy and caring life within an international context. And how much of that life was submerged
for years, until the author's work was done, raising a wonderful family.
I love the poetic vignettes. The photographs contribute images that complement the text. What a loving and dutiful wife, mother, daughter-in-law! An elegant restraint makes the few, critical passages (the mild outburst over the instant mashed potatoes for Mothers' Day!) more telling. And the quiet wisdom in finding solutions, like the second potato
peeler for her husband. Tiberghien's story of achieving a successful marriage is the sturdy subtext of this memoir. I admire the work unreservedly.

Footsteps is not only a well-written memoir - a mosaic of vibrant stories - it is, of course, revealing of the author. Having just finished Hillary Clinton's autobiography I realize that both she and Susan Tiberghien have that backbone of steel and faith, wrapped in generous love, which once belonged to the British Empire Englishwoman and now belongs to some American women. In today's world, Footsteps is an inspiring tonic.