The Years by Annie Ernaux review – a masterpiece memoir of French life

Annie Ernaux is long overdue to be recognised in Britain as one of the most important writers in contemporary France, and this edition of The Years ought to do the trick. Originally published there in 2008, it was immediately heralded as Ernaux’s masterpiece, her brief Remembrance of Things Past. It has been expertly rendered into English by Alison Strayer, who captures all the shadings of Ernaux’s prose, all its stops and starts, its changes in pace and in tone, its chatterings, its silences.

The book spans the timeframe from the author’s birth in 1940 up to 2006, and moves from her working-class upbringing in Normandy to her years teaching French literature in a lycée, living in the Parisian suburb of Cergy, raising two sons and eventually divorcing. But it is not a straightforward autobiography; rather it is told in a choral “we”, which sometimes shifts into the third person, so the author appears as “she”. This is as close in as it gets. In so doing, Ernaux puts paid (hopefully once and for all) to the idea that memoirs by women are about the small-scale, the domestic. She shows it is possible to write both personally and collectively, situating her own story within the story of her generation, without ever confusing the two. She reflects on the book she is writing even as she writes it, resolving: “There is no ‘I’ in what she views as a sort of impersonal autobiography. There is only ‘one’ and ‘we’, as if now it were her time to tell the story of the time-before.” [ . . . ]

Continue at THE GUARDIAN: The Years by Annie Ernaux review – a masterpiece memoir of French life | Books | The Guardian

Anthony Bourdain’s Greatest Triumph Was Calling B.S. on French Food

It took more than a century but who can now seriously believe that French chefs have no equal? Bourdain’s one-man odyssey to Parts Unknown finally put that to rest.

It’s strangely poignant that Anthony Bourdain should end his life in France, because nobody did more than he did to end the long hegemony of France over international cuisine.Few of those who followed him on CNN as he relished exotic entrails, smelly noodles, the most inflammatory spices, will have realized that not so long ago all these pleasures were virtually shut out of any chance of recognition as serious food by the belief that only France could decide what counted as world-class dining [ . . . ]

Continue at THE DAILY BEAST: Anthony Bourdain’s Greatest Triumph Was Calling B.S. on French Food

Where to Eat French Food in Boston

French food – especially in its most buttery and decadent forms — is a treat, and there’s nothing wrong with treating yourself to a little continental magic from time to time. Who doesn’t love a plate of stinky cheese, cassoulet, or beef bourguignon?Also worth remembering: Not all French food is heavy. Provence is famous for the vegetable casserole ratatouille, you can’t think Côte d’Azur without thinking tapenade, and the favorite dish of the Marseillaise is a fish stew called bouillabaisse. You can eat a pound of butter while eating French, but you don’t have to.

Tip: While this map focuses on full-service restaurants in Boston proper, the Boston area also features a number of outstanding French bakery and cafe options worth exploring. Start with Cafe Madeleine in Boston’s South End and then move beyond the city to Ma France in Lexington (a French grocery shop with baked goods, charcuterie, cheese, and lots more), Clear Flour Bread in Brookline (serving French and Italian breads), and Mamadou’s Artisan Bakery in Winchester and Arlington.

Here’s where to eat like the French without getting on an airplane [ . . . ]

Source: Where to Eat French Food in Boston