How Well Do You Live?

''Yes, I have a homeland. The French Language.'' - Albert Camus

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Something very strange happened while I was reading this book. Usually, I have a few things on the run (too many books; too little time?), and this was added to a stack that often threatens to crush me in my sleep. I would skip from one to other, often disappointed, confused and enlightened...but rarely entertained (the cold and the darkness outside probably played a role, as did the constant running around from contract to contract). And I really don't care what any intellectual in any academic setting claims, you need to be entertained when you pick up a book.

I found that here with Ms. Yandell and her memoir of her time in France.

And it all begins with a glass of wine...

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''We always like to get outside of ourselves, to travel, when we read.'' - Marcel Proust

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On her first voyage, ''in the lowest possible class on one of the last crossings of the elegant ocean liner the SS France,'' she is approached by a waiter with an offer of wine, her first taste, and stumbles on a moment that made me think of Proust's own self-discovery through a madeleine:

''For the French on the ship, the purpose of the voyage seemed to be the pleasure of the journey and of one another's company... The French had an intriguing, relaxed insouciance about them, I thought. Something we might be missing.''

That we, as you might guess, is America, and the nation has often looked to Europe to discover itself. And Ms. Yandell does so with great gusto, trial and error, and love for the world that opened up around her.

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''It is human nature to think wisely and act absurdly.'' - Anatole France

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If I have any criticisms of Ms. Yandell's book, it is the fact that it often skirts on clichés and stereotypes that I have long given up on. There are chapters named ''Sleeping with Baudelaire'', ''Art Matters'', ''Small Pleasures'', and ''Taking It Slow''. France has long been seen as a country with a culture that follows its own rules; rules that many of us are encouraged to follow:

''The French clearly savor the pleasures of the physical: engaging in sports, sex, and laughter.''

And...

''Depending on what moves you or draws you in...France is filled with opportunities both to dance and to watch others dance.''

And...

''To try to assemble the puzzle pieces of the French joie de vivre, it might be helpful to consider what it means to be French.''

Ah, now we are getting into a bit of a critique of the culture: noted attitudes on their individualism, despite the sameness of the fashion and the criticisms she faced for being out of step; the love of fine food to the point where her own gastronomical efforts are derided (it is interesting what you can do with a kitchen and a menu); the etiquette to follow for events that seems to shift with the mood of the people involved (one wedding ceremony seems drawn straight from the best years of Luis Bunuel's filmography).

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''I don't want to show, but to give the desire to see.'' - Agnes Varda.

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My complaints are very few, and maybe unfair. Cathy Yandell, now a professor of French Renaissance literature and culture and the recipient of the title of Knight in the Order of Academic Palms from the French government, has written a very charming book that might be a good friend to you on a commute as you consider taking a step away from the rush of life and wander into the France of her memories:

''I've never counted the number of times I've gone to France for visits or longer stays, but each time I leave, I am moved as I walk through the spaces I inhabited at ages nineteen, twenty-seven, thirty-five and beyond. The association of places and events, like superimposed layers of a medieval manuscript, remains firm...All of us fortunate enough to have at least dabbled in the French joie de vivre can keep it --- in our lives, in our imaginations, or in our dreams.''

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