French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I HAD A GARDEN in the south of France..." (more)
Key Phrases: Monsieur Noyer, Madame Flanet, Madame Vasquez (more...)

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 203 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (April 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565123522
• ISBN-13: 978-1565123526
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #740,104 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 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 (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France (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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	John Knight "JK" (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France (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!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a garden on a sunny day..., May 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France (Paperback)

... this book is a pleasure for the senses and a gentle adventure for the spirit, chronicling the author's year in Southern France and his dream of raising a garden there. It's part travelogue, part gardener's journal, part pilgrimmage and wholly enjoyable. A feast of a book!