PDF Download I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany, by Mark Greenside
PDF Download I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany, by Mark Greenside
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I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany, by Mark Greenside
PDF Download I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany, by Mark Greenside
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Review
"One of the nicest of the trillions of books about France." -- Diane Johnson, author of L'Affaire, Le Mariage, and Le Divorce"This tale of how one man accidentally becomes a thoroughly integrated member of a French village is funny, insightful, and winningly self-deprecatory. (My favorite character may be the nervous insurance agent.) And Mark Greenside's version of rudimentary spoken French is actually a good demonstration of how to communicate in a language you don't know!" -- Lydia Davis, author of Varieties of Disturbance: Stories and translator of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust"A light, lighthearted, occasionally very funny romp through a region of France not well represented in the travel literature. With his fresh eye and self-deprecating wit, Greenside sketches a wry, cautionary tale for all those of us who are tempted by adventures in foreign real estate." -- Michael Sanders, author of From Here, You Can't See Paris: Seasons of a French Village and Its Restaurant"Mark Greenside has written a sweet, evocative book about the pleasures and perplexities of buying and owning a house in a small town in France. It's a funny, enlightening journey. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the trip." -- Richard Goodman, author of French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France
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About the Author
Mark Greenside is the author of the short story collection I Saw a Man Hit His Wife. His stories have also appeared in several magazines, including The Sun, The Literary Review, and Cimarron Review. Greenside lives in Alameda, California, where he teaches and ispolitically active, as well as in Brittany, France, where, he says, he still can't do anything without asking for help.
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Product details
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Free Press (June 2, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416586954
ASIN: B003BVK37A
Product Dimensions:
8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
134 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#6,145,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The usual book about buying a house in France. Annoyingly the author states again and again and again throughout the book that he does not understand a word of French, even after years of living there several months each year. Take a French course for heavens sake.
I’ve read lots of travel memoirs and this is one of the best. Mark Greenside does a brilliant job of bringing us, the readers, along with him as he navigates the strange new world in which he finds himself. His stories are hilarious—the inevitable mishaps of an American abroad combined with a delightful self-deprecating sense of humor. We watch Greenside fall in love with France and I was touched by the way he describes how his life there has changed him for the better.Thomas Jefferson is supposed to have said, “Every man has two countries, his own and France.†He must have been thinking of someone like Mark Greenside when he said it.
Really loved the book! An interesting story, well told. Loved the part about arriving at the house in the village, meeting the neighbor, his experiences trying to communicate in French, his reason for going to France. Loved the part where he bought the house almost against his will! Actually, loved the whole book and have read it twice! Funny how an event can cause your life to veer off in an entirely unexpected direction that changes everything that comes after!
Hysterically funny, witty, heartfelt - I just love this book!It's written in a very relatable way - especially if you've travelled abroad and have encountered the many blunders and culture shocks that the author writes about.To the reviewer who commented on the author's inability to speak French after so many months/a year...so what?! Anybody who's tried to learn a foreign language knows that even if you do get a grasp of the language, the locals will always speak much faster and with more vocabulary than you can keep up with.Two thumbs up for this book!
To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald's wry comment about the rich being different from the rest of us, the experiences and adventures of humans in middle age differ from those of our youthful days. For one thing, we know ourselves better and are more resilient to change, perhaps more forgiving. For another, we don't take it all so seriously. That wisdom is the great gift Mark Greenside shares with us in this delightful book. Whether or not we've had the same experiences as he, we can follow along without holding our finger underneath the words. There are moments of humor, wisdom, insight, naivete, joy, and yes, DUH! - it's all here, cast in the French countryside, brimming with life and beckoning us to give it a try, not to remain stuck in our usually boring, often dreary, day-to-day "la vie sans passion." Give it another go, Mark signals us in sharing his own adventure. I haven't regretted it, and neither will you, he advises. The book works as perfectly as an armchair travel narrative as it does a do-it-yourself guide.Another distinctive feature is that Mark's adventure takes place in Brittany, which is a little under the radar for most Americans who think of France as either Paris or its southern regions. We learn a bit of this Western region's geography and scenery, but I found myself on the web because I wanted to learn more, see more. I wished Mark's ancient stone house were on Zillow because I would love to see it. Once Mark buys his maison, he begins experiencing many of the contractor relationships familiar to any homeowner, but with a French-cultural difference: apparently the contractors aren't out to take advantage of him. I was reminded of my first experiences touring Germany: when buying something, I had no idea the amount the clerk was asking for, so I stuck out a handful of money and he or she removed the [ostensibly] correct amount. So it was with Mark, where the costs were always fair and the work quality always excellent. In the process, he shares a great many wonderful relationship experiences, which I shall defer mentioning and instead urge you to read about herein. One spoiler alert: iin the course of events, Mark does become pretty fluent in French!One more thought. Traveling together as a test of a relationship is a popular truism. Mark goes to France on a vacation with a woman he's been dating, but their relationship doesn't survive. I couldn't help thinking of how I had the same experience, traveling with a woman to Paris for a week. I thought I was crazy about her, and she about me. We went everywhere, did everything: the Rive Gauche, Sacre Coeur, Louvre, opera, countryside - but then, toward the end of our trip, a most bizarre event drove a spike through the heart of our relationship and it was over. Perhaps if Mark and I had been French we would have laughed, poured another glass of wine, forgotten the rift and kept the relationship on a steady course, but we did not. And so we carry this shared memory and life-lesson learned as older, wiser, middle-aged men.
What a charming, funny book. Felt like an invisible houseguest as he braves home ownership and all its woes with the added challenge of another language and culture.
He doesn’t really talk much about Brittany- only about hiring contractors. Might as well read A Year In Provence. I had hoped to learn something about this Celtic area which is different from Paris France.
This book was so enjoyable to read that I did not want to finish it .. I just wanted to stay in the French village forever! The writer does a really good job at taking you both visually and emotionally into his world during his French adventures. You truly feel as if you are a part of the story, practically able to smell the fresh baked bread every morning, experiencing everything right along side him. Mixed with humour and enthusiasm, I found this book to be very interesting and cannot wait for more from this author. Reading this was like going on my own French vacation, right from my reading chair in my livingroom. Well done, Mr. Greenside! Merci for sharing your French adventures!
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