French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France [Paperback]

Richard Goodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2002

A story about dirt--and about sun, water, work, elation, and defeat. And about the sublime pleasure of having a little piece of French land all to oneself to till.

Richard Goodman saw the ad in the paper: "SOUTHERN FRANCE: Stone house in Village near Nimes/Avignon/Uzes. 4 BR, 2 baths, fireplace, books, desk, bikes. Perfect for writing, painting, exploring & experiencing la France profonde. $450 mo. plus utilities." And, with his girlfriend, he left New York City to spend a year in Southern France.

The village was small--no shops, no gas station, no post office, only a café and a school. St. Sebastien de Caisson was home to farmers and vintners. Every evening Goodman watched the villagers congregate and longed to be a part of their camaraderie. But they weren't interested in him: he was just another American, come to visit and soon to leave. So Goodman laced up his work boots and ventured out into the vineyards to work among them. He met them first as a hired worker, and then as a farmer of his own small plot of land.

French Dirt is a love story between a man and his garden. It's about plowing, planting, watering, and tending. It's about cabbage, tomatoes, parsley, and eggplant. Most of all, it's about the growing friendship between an American outsider and a close-knit community of French farmers.

"There's a genuine sweetness about the way the cucumbers and tomatoes bridge the divide of nationality."--The New York Times Book Review

"One of the most charming, perceptive and subtle books ever written about the French by an American."--San Francisco Chronicle

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A few years back, escaping the sound and fury of New York, Richard Goodman moved to a small southern French farming town he calls by the alias St. Sebastian de Caisson, everything about which "suggests the uneventful, and the eternal." There Goodman found a tiny plot of streamside land and set about raising a copious vegetable garden, about as uneventful an event as a seasoned New Yorker is likely to experience. He writes lovingly of tilling the soil and watching his lettuce, tomatoes, and leeks spring from the ground, but at heart his book is about the generous people he met during his stay and what they have to say about life on the land. Armchair travelers, gardeners, and small-scale farmers alike will enjoy his charming memoir. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Ostensibly about a garden kept by Goodman during a year spent in a tiny French village near Avignon, French Dirt is really an account of his response to living as an outsider in a tightly knit community. To make contact with the villagers and better understand their lot, Goodman first worked in a vineyard in exchange for firewood. The coming of spring and an epiphany in a local apricot orchard led him to borrow land, tools and expert but conflicting advice from resident gardeners for a vegetable garden of his own. The author's metaphor for gardening is that of love; he shares his initial out-of-control buying spree in the garden supply store, his devoted struggle to keep his plants watered without a hose or faucet and his raptures when the garden starts to produce. Unfortunately, this story of his short-lived affair with the garden (he left France at the end of August) is marred by self-indulgent writing and condescension toward the very villagers from whom he craved acceptance.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 203 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (April 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565123522
• ISBN-13: 978-1565123526
• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Goodman is the author of French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France, The Soul of Creative Writing, A New York Memoir, and The Bicycle Diaries: One New Yorker's Journey Through 9/11. He has written on a variety of subjects for many national publications, including The New York Times, Harvard Review, Creative Nonfiction, Commonweal, Vanity Fair, The Writer's Chronicle, salon.com, Saveur, Louisville Review, Ascent, French Review and the Michigan Quarterly Review. Richard Goodman is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Orleans.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Warm reflections on an agrarian interlude April 15, 2002

By Michael K. McKeon

Format:Paperback

"French Lessons" is a warm memoir of the author's year long sojourn in a rural village in Southern France. Unlike the recollections of other foreign visitors who have written of their experiences in France, Goodman gives scant attention to the region's food or wine.

Goodman's tale is primarily spiritual -- the satisfaction he derives from communing with nature as a gardener, and his persistent efforts to gain acceptance and approval from this close knit, closed community of French farmers. The book is reminiscent of Chris Stewart's "Driving Over Lemons" in the latter respect.

Goodman's passion about his gardening experiences does become a bit cloying, and is somewhat saccarine, with almost forced profundity. A passage where he describes getting emotional over cutting bamboo, for example, definitely makes your teeth hurt. Although I derive a considerable amount of satisfaction from gardening myself, I found Goodman's anecdotes somewhat breathless and gushing, particularly his striving to "measure up" in the eyes of a helpful, friendly, apparently very strong 20 year old named Jules.

This is a pleasant book; however, I expected more, in light of the potential. "French Dirt" is mostly a recollection of Goodman's spiritual journey devoting himself to a garden one summer.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Little Old Gardenmaker, Me July 16, 2002

By John Knight

Format:Paperback

Richard Goodman and his Dutch girlfriend Iggy rent a two hundred year old stone house in the south of France for a year. Located in a small village of about 200 without a cafe, store or any kind of city center, they have a tough time figuring out how to connect with the locals. They do make one set of friends--a Spanish couple also living the expat life there.

But finally Richard decides to trade his labor for some firewood. Through working in the fields he begins to mix with the villagers. He is very much struck by Jules, a handsome 25 year old, and through that relationship eventually secures a small plot of land and determines to grow a vegetable garden.

And that really is the focus of the book. A longtime city dweller, Richard harkens back to the Michigan gardens of his youth and enjoys discovering the adult joys of gardening. Sometimes the writing gets to be a bit much--pretty sappy. And, if the truth be told, Richard isn't really very good at growing his garden. But the rivalries among the other village gardeners, the disparate and conflicting advice he receives and the hours spent in the sun tending his garden make this a light, likable read. And truly any book set in the south of France makes for a relaxing summer read!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Help Yourself to Richard's Garden October 9, 2001

By Mary Downs

Format:Paperback

This delightful short novel explores the author (an American) and his girlfriend's endeavors to cultivate friends and fruit in the south of France. I found myself walking alongside Richard as he introduced himself to his first real friend, Monsier Vasquez, as he binged on plant buying, as he picked his first vegetable. His description of the prank in which one of the least likely villagers placed perfect red, ripe tomatoes in his garden in early June was hilarious. For anyone wanting to experience living in a small French village this book vividly plants you there!