Customer Reviews

French Seduction: An American's Encounter with France, Her Father, and the Holocaust

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed this book. The information on French culture and history was interesting, especially since I am considering a month-long trip to Paris sometime soon. I also like how the author wove her personal biography into the mix which enriched and enhanced the read. And, I admire how eloquently she presented her mixed feelings about French history and the France of today and her recognition of their unapologetic antisemitic and racist attitudes. Who knew? The chapter entitled "Mother" was my favorite. Recommended to anyone interested in hearing the experience of an insightful and sensitive American expat intellectual currently living in France.

I found the author a fine companion for the few hours it took to read this small book. The writing is good, sometimes moving, without being overwrought. I have spent a lot of time in France, mostly in Paris, Normandy and Alsace, also in the Champagne region, but not recently. I try to follow developments there in the press and welcome the more personal touch this book exemplifies. I was so taken with some passages that I read them aloud to my wife, whose father was French. Bravo Ms. Lipton!

Preparing to visit Paris for the first time, I searched for writing on the city and its culture. Most of what I found were gastronomical travelogues (and A Moveable Feast). Then I found this insightful, engaging book.

I am one of those who cannot articulate my reactions to paintings,though I studied film production and "get" the performing arts and literature. Ms. Lipton's approach to art history helped me understand why I liked Monet when I was twelve and then gradually didn't any more. It didn't seem like I simply changed preferences; the impressionists just don't jive with who I am or the evolution of my value system as I matured. But I didn't know that's what it was.

The blend of art history with memoir with travelogue is remarkably well done. The best part for me was that in the enquiry into her enduring love of France despite its treatment of the...deracine, is it?...she didn't abandon herself. There were paragraphs and sections others might have written with more neutrality instead of passion and self exposure. Or anger. I imagine she made some very brave line edits.

And when I finally did see Chagall's ceiling at the Opera House, the sight was couched in a better appreciation for what a triumph that painting really is.

Let me admit upfront that I was not aware of Eunice Lipton before reading this. I saw this book at my local library and was intruiged by the title. That turned out to be a mistake.

The book's title "French Seduction: An American's Encounter with France, Her Father and the Holocaust" (233 pages) lead me to believe that this book would be about just what the title implies. And there is some of that, although the "Her Father" aspect is mostly misleading, as there are some, but not nearly enough, insights on the author's relationship with her father (just about as many observations as with her relationship with her mother, actually). Furthermore, there are endless deviations on art, including a whole chapter on Impressionism, for no apparent reason, but observing "But to paint only sunny days, again and again and again, was, well, compulsive. The myth of a sunny Paris is mighty and Impressionism has contributed mightily to it". I did like the dissertation on Albert Camus' book "L'Etranger" (The Ousider): "Is The Outsider a new religious parable that tells of a man who does not sufficiently honor his mother and therefore must be put to death?".

The author does come back often to the anti-Semitism that exists in France, overtly or under the current, and it is clear that she (as a Jew) is grealy troubled by it, but at the same time still wanting to be in France (she splits her time between Paris and NY). But in the end, this book was just all over the place, and I had trouble at times making myself reading through the book. An interesting, yet flawed, book.

Having previously read and enjoyed books on French national identity and the Holocaust, and also being from the Catskills, this book had a unique appeal for me. I don't know that it would appeal to others in the same way, but I was very drawn in by this book. It felt like a good conversation over coffee with a very worldly person.

of views on feminism, French anti-semitism, father-worship by the author and mother-worship by the French, art and art history, contemporary problems and solutions on North African race-relations in France, Proust, French kings and Madame Pompadour, "voluptuous" models, resorts in the Catskills, Riga, French food, and almost anything else you might like to throw in the mix. I could not "get" exactly why she was writing this book.

I really don't like panning a book. She's probably a very good writer when she stays "on-topic".

The hype for the book indicated that it was an insight into the factors leading to French antisemtisim by a Jew in France. It is not. It is rather a a semi pretentious autobiography and a boring one at that. I` say semi pretentious because the emotional feelings the author shares seem to be deeply felt but this effort should have remained a private diary...it is not a teaching vehicle in my opinion.I give it two stars for wanting to please.