Customer Reviews

On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Substantively, this is a good book. It communicates well the ethos and richness of that which is France with its emphasis on quality of life and simple joys. It has a nice mix of non fiction story telling with actual cooking recipes that the story motivates you to try. All that makes the book a good read.
It is worth reading for those reasons and I would recommend it (with my stated disclaimer below) despite the comments that follow in the next paragraph which I feel compelled to make given the book's problems.

It is actually pretty amazing that this book got published in its persent form. As another reader noted in his/her review, the writing is mostly like a first draft. The book is poor as any kind of demonstration of writing ability and style. The writing is in bad need of editing: chronic overuse of compound sentences, excessive gushing descriptions, repeated words like "drool" to convey the writer's excitement (e.g., it tasted so good it made us "drool") or phrases like "I was in heaven". The writer almost never sees any real problems in life and at every turn the world is seen as full of charm...like nothing bad could ever happen. The writer, as far as she lets on, has clearly had a charmed life...one "charmed" stage in her life seems to seamlessly transition to the next "charmed" phase...she never dwells on how phenomenal that is (if true) and how lucky she has been compared to others. As a result the writer comes across as self-absorbed, self-centered and certainly unaware! Certainly not what you expect of a good observent writer of any true depth.

Small but not inconspicuous oversights in the book make you question the editorial process, if any, it underwent. A minor problem, for example, appears in a late chapter about a ritual bike ride which the writer and friend take in spring/summer to a local lake. The writer describes how long it takes to take the bike ride and for her to get back home but mathematically the times she describe are impossible.

I still standby the recommendation of the book. I feel, however, I must make this disclaimer: I'm a great lover of France and all that is French. Given this bent and hunger, I was highly motivated. For me at least informational it was useful and feeds a key interest of mine.

Hope that this is helpful to readers and perhaps to the author herself!

This book is great for anyone who loves France and life's little pleasures. Susan Herrmann Loomis brings you into her daily routine, introduces you to her neighbors, and invites you to her table. I enjoyed fantasizing that I too have the pleasure of early morning market shopping, biking through the French countryside, and indulging in gorgeous pastries and coffees in cafes just paces from my own doorstep.

The book sometimes reads as if it comes straight from her journal notes, but her stories are so charming and the recipes so delicious that it hardly matters.

Susan Loomis fell in love with France, the French and French cooking when she was a young student 20 years ago. After an apprenticeship at La Varenne de Cuisine in Paris and her subsequent marriage to Michael Loomis, she decides to emigrate. They buy a dilapidated former convent in Louviers, France in 1994 and their story really gets underway.

ON RUE TATIN tells about the renovation of the house as well as the story of their adjustment to French culture, the friends and workmen they encounter, and the life they live as modern expatriots. Having established a reputation and published a cookbook, Loomis writes another throughout the development of this memoir and she includes some of her recipes in this volume.

Loomis is a pedestrian writer at best, so the charm of the book rests on the experiences of the author and the usefulness of the recipes. I tried one -- the chocolate cake -- and found it delicious.

Sunnye Tiedemann

Captivated by Peter Mayles descriptive works on Provence, I was eager for more. Susan Loomis's book did not disappoint. It is a wonderful read that captures the richness of her life in France.

The book begins with Susan arriving in Paris with little money. She begins an apprenticeship at a cooking school. As the book progresses Susan shares her immersion into the French culture and cuisine.

Eventually she marries,and she and her husband purchase a rundown house in Normandy with charming potential. Step by step you walk with Susan as she recounts her experiences making the home a haven for her family.

You experience Susan's delight in her friends and the joy she has relishing the French cuisine. The love and pride Susan has for her husband and small son emanates from the pages. When she gave birth to her second child, I was touched by the outpouring of love from her freinds and felt tears of joy for her!

Throughout the book the pleasures of life in Normandy captivate. And Susan intersperses the text with special recipes such as Braised Chicken in White Wine and Mustard, Tarte Tatin, and Swiss Chard Frittata.

On Rue Tatin is a wonderful book to curl up with!

I tried as hard as I could to read this book slowly and savor it as one would a good meal but as with most wonderful meals it was over too soon. My husband and I will be going to Paris and Normandy this September and will visit Louviers to see first hand the town, church and shops she so beautifully describes in her book. Even in the cold and dampness of Normandy the warmth she has for her village, its people and the food she lovingly prepares for her family and friends transport you on a mini vacation in your mind where you can certainly envision yourself sharing a meal in her courtyard or kitchen.

Why do we read this type of text except for a vicarious thrill and the gleaning of little details of French life? I can't understand the sometimes negative reviews here. This isn't a work of fiction and these people seem to be reading it in the wrong spirit if they expect it to be. For what it is, a chronicle of one woman/family's life in France, I found it enjoyable and would recommend it. If a few readers are by now jaded thinking it yet ANOTHER Peter Mayle, Ann Barry, et al. tale, well then they need to move on and read something else instead of expecting to find magic over and over in sameness. Enjoyable. And it has some recipes. Buy it.

On Rue Tatin by Susan Loomis is in the mold of the Peter Mayle and In Tuscany travel/food book but I found it very enjoyable, quite believable, well written and filled with usuable recipes. She tells of her training as a chef and food writer and the familys struggle to turn a run down convent in Normandy into a liveable home and working location for herself, a food writer and her husband, a sculptor. I have tried several recipes and although not detailed--you need to know how to cook a bit--they were excellent.

Written in the same vein as "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "A Year in Provence", food writer Susan Loomis charmingly describes her transition from being 100% American to being a French homeowner.

In simple but expressive language, she imparts her obvious joy of finding a house perfectly suited to her needs and that of her family--in the city of Louviers, north west of Paris in the province of Normandie. Her reminiscences regardng her assimilation into French village/city life enchant; each of the personnages comes to life--in fact, I would have enjoyed---even more so---a book double the size with more information regarding each of Madame Loomis' neighbors! In addition to detailing the work necessary to make their house purchase inhabitable, Susan recalls the sometimes difficult adjustments her young son makes in order to "fit in" to the French education system and the reluctant diplomacy required by Susan and her husband when dealing with the uncomfortable stubborness of the resident cure. Cleverly sprinkled throughout are Susan's thoughts regarding French sensibilites when compared with their American counterparts. At the end of each vignette, Loomis provides a fabulously apropos selection of recipes, simple, yet delicious which she either serves her friends/acquaintances or receives from appreciative French gourmands during the actual occurance of the chapter events. (I would have liked the recipe for the black current sorbet she speaks of at the end of the 'Paris' chapter.) The last recollection contains the lovely history of Susan's experience in a French clinic as she awaits her second child. C'est formidable!

The idea of pairing good food with wonderful memories certainly evokes anyone's idea of the good life. Recommended to all who love good food, wine, the French and are teased by the idea of at least attending one of Susan Loomis cooking sessions in Louviers.

Unlike some that have reviewed this book, all I can say is that it is a wonderful read, very interesting, engaging and well written. Like Peter Mayle, the author has found a warm and wonderful place in France and relates in detail her pleasant experinences, as well as a great deal of preferred recipes that she has found great success with in both her personal and professional cullinary life. There is nothing disappointing about this book. After just the first chapter, I was hooked and enchanted and ready to read more by Susan Loomis. A great read, a wonderful and vicarious adventure for any true Francophile or other armchair reader. Full of fun, great recipes and dozens of reasons to smile, this book is worth every penny and then some. Kudos to the author!

There are many---perhaps too many---first-person narratives about adventurous Americans falling in love with Provence, with Tuscany, with Portugal, and deciding willy-nilly to move there, to buy and renovate a house. Invariable we laugh and sigh and commiserate with their struggles with the language, the culture, the habits of the natives, the rules and regulations of the government. But many of these, to my mind, fall far short of the ideal---which should be to create a feeling of both envy and enchantment. Ms. Loomis, with On Rue Tatin, does both. This book not only tells a wonderful story but tells it wonderfully. The sights, the sounds, the scents, the tastes, of building a new life in an old, old house in a small French town---a wonderfully-humorous and never-too-self-congratulatory voyage into the fulfillment of one person's life-dream: to live, work, and write in France. If you've ever used one of Ms. Loomis' excellent cookbooks in your kitchen, you'll know how thorough, precise, and user-friendly her writing is---I've never had to struggle with one of her recipes, no matter how obscure and unfamiliar the ingredients---and this memoir (which, joyfully, also includes recipes! Try the mussels in apple cider vinegar) gives further proof to the strength of her writing talents. A really lovely little book, sure to set the romantics among us daydreaming....