Customer Reviews

A Place in Normandy

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

 

 

De gustibus non est disputandum, I suppose, but I really don't see why so many reviewers were so enraptured by this book. As a painter as well as a writer, Nicholas Kilmer has a flair for description and a talent for metaphor. But I never felt more than the smallest connection to his Norman home and the train of friends, relatives, tradesmen, and ancestors who marched through it during his few days of residence.

More to the point, I left the book without even feeling like I knew much more about Normandy than I did before I arrived. Unlike Peter Mayle's year in Provence, Kilmer's week in Mesnil seemed to open few doors to a broader understanding of the region and its people.

I think the comparison to Mayle is instructive because of the popularity of the foreigner-buys-a-house-in-France genre, lately expanded to Tuscany and other parts of Europe. Though American, Kilmer isn't entirely a foreigner: the house in Mesnil has been in his family for three generations. And so the reader could hope for some insights -- some sense of connection -- deeper even than the fish-out-of-water tropes of the other books. But I didn't get that at all. It felt more like the author's thought process was "People are writing books about houses in France; I have a house in France; therefore I will write a book." Unfortunately, the book turned out to be far more about collapsing bathroom floors and the mystery of the missing silver tray than about a passion for Normandy or even for a house. Does Kilmer really love the place? Or will he buy it from a sense of family obligation? I haven't the slightest idea.

I am going to be visiting Normandy in a few weeks, so I hoped this book would form a suitable introduction to the place and the people. Unfortunately, unless I end up standing in the author's upstairs bathroom, I'm afraid this book won't have much relevance at all. And I find that disappointing.

I found this book delightful, and so have passed it on to several people, all of whom think it is a great read.

Nick Kilmer's lush, exuberant prose takes the reader through an eventful week, during which, by means of flashbacks and vignettes, we experience his dithering over the purchase of his family's wonderful house in Normandy. He will have two gardens (one in Cambridge and one in Normandy), two roofs that need attention, piles of books and letters and projects and paintings in every stage of finishment, and one wife who cannot say no, and cannot say yes, to this expensive disaster that is his family's ancient home. Pleasantly meandering, we visit stone-age Normandy, the days of the war, the ancient farmer's wife in whose arms (he tells us) his grandfather died, newly baptized (but still staunchly Republican ...) A fine read, growing better with each rereading. Let's have more from this writer.

The account of a week in an ancestral Normandy farmhouse is very funny, but it may require some familiarity with neglected French country houses for the reader to get the full effect of Kilmer-s predictament. I laughed out loud all the way through this delightful book and enjoyed the writing style which evokes the ambiance of the setting very well. Sensory memory of apple orchards, damp linen sheets, goose poop, old books is magically brought forth in words. I enjoyed the self deprecating narrative of a hapless descendent of a beloved, but eccentric family trying to decide whther to "throw himself(and his own generation)under the wheels of happiness" as Christopher Fry would put it...and take possession of this house and it-s many stories.

The first trade edition, printed on acid-free paper, has goodreproductions. I'm up-grading my rating to an 8.
The New York Times recommends this book for Christmas giving. Although the publication date is 1997, the publishers have decided to release it early.

Kilmer comes from a line of poets and artists on both sides of his family. His extramarital affair with an ancient farmhouse in western France is erudite, witty and passionate. It is at once meandering and suspenseful. Wentworth Foster

This book is particularly interesting to me because I share many of my brother Nick's memories. I delight in his sense of humor and his eloquent style.

The first hardback trade edition, printed on acid-free paper, has excellent black and white reproductions. The New York Times recommended this book for Christmas giving. It's a keeper, and still widely available as a used or collectible book.

To see many images of paintings by our grandfather, F. C. Frieseke (Frederick Carl Frieseke), do an internet search. Also search for more Frieseke books here at Amazon.com.

Miriam A. Kilmer
Rising Dove Fine Arts and Services

Quite frankly, I wish I hadn't bothered to buy and read this book. I read dozens of travel books each year and this so far is this year's least satisfying. The main story line is an account of four or five extremely boring days the author spent in Normandy trying to decided whether or not to keep a beloved family house. As far as I could tell (though by the end I admit I was skimming the book, desperate to rid myself of it), he and his wife never did come to a decision.

The best part of the book were the family photographs and stories. The author's grandfather seems to have been an Impressionist painter of some note and Kilmer's mother spent her childhood in the house in the 1920s. Aside from this period flavor, though, the book didn't seem to do anything well. There were long rambling descriptions of laundry problems. There was an unconvincing cast of characters, none of whom seemed to have a personality (other than appearing to be generally weird.) The author seemed to have little understand or appreciation for French culture or food. In the end, I had no idea who the author really was, why he was telling the story, or what I was supposed to take from it. I really hate being this critical of a writer's honest effort, but on the other hand, I want to spare others the boredom I just endured. Buy MFK Fisher, Ruth Reichl, Susan Herman-Loomis, Peter Mayle, AJ Liebling, even a Sebastian Faulks novel if you want to read something interesting about France--but don't buy this.

After rebuilding ancient houses with Mayle in Provence and Mayes and Mate' in Tuscany I was rather disappointed in a repetitious recital of the problems with the floor, the rain, the plumbing, and the flotsum and jetsam lying around the farm waiting to be decomposed or resurrected as some antique. I kept wanting them to get on with the building/restoration and the unique characters the Killmer's would have to deal with to restore the home.