Re: (OT) Ping: Ric Zito


"ric zito" <address@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1hgwsdl.v74dfn197ou9iN%address@xxxxxxxxx
Probert <nick.wf1commdept2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ric,
thought this might interest you - if you don't already know about it.

Just finished reading 'A Year in the Merde' by Stephen Clarke. It's a
very
funny and astonishingly myopic account of a young(ish) Brit's year living
and working in Paris.

I've read it. 'Fraid to say, I hated it. Well, not hated exactly, but I
was groaning with dismay almost all the way through. I'll admit it was
very funny at times, but then again it was full of unflattering
stereotypes and easy targets from start to finish - which is OK if they
were tongue in cheek, but often they weren't.

This Clarke guy dumps on the French from page 1 onwards, but if you look
a little deeper you find that the story is pure fiction, completely
invented : he's a self-avowed Francophile and he's actually been living
here for over ten years. So there can't be that much wrong with the
place :-) It's kind of a shame to bite the hand that feeds him in that
way.

Now you mention it, I do remember reading - or hearing - how pissed off
Parisians were about this book. Though I'd forgotten it was this book ;-).
And, I've got to admit, he is extremely rude about Parisians in particular
and the French in general. But it's still funny - though I'll read the
second book with a more jaundiced eye.


Stuff like that whole chapter on the dog*** in Paris. Yeah alright,
there is some.

Try Béziers during the August open season! As one of my kids put a couple of
years ago - she'd just got into Winnie The Pooh - walking in Béziers is a
bit like Christopher Robin trying to avoid the cracks in the pavement. But
the consequences are far more disgusting. And that's leaving aside the
concurrent conversation, that developed into a theme of that holiday, of the
difference between *Winnie The Pooh* and dog poo... still, I suppose you've
got to be a 7 year old with an over-indulgent father to really enjoy that
one.

Mind you, last year the city centre was noticably clear of piles of poo -
though that may have had something to do with the Tour going through the
city later that week. (Or is that too cynical ;-)).


But he exaggerates to a huge degree. It's like visiting
London and then saying that you can't walk ten yards without tripping
over a homeless person. Or Rome, and pickpockets. A little unfair :-)

Interestingly, there are many more books by Brits looking at France than
vice versa. It all started years ago with "A Year in Provence".

I seem to recall Mayle's book having a pretty similar reaction in France,
though 'A Year in Provence' was far less incendiary, and not as funny.


I'm
fascinated by the Brit-Frog relationship. It's ancient, complex and very
interesting. Like two half-brothers, who both love and hate each other,
but who are more similar than either of them care to admit.

I agree absolutely. I think we've (the Brits) far more in common with France
than the US, and I say that as a regular visitor to both countries and as
the grandson of a US citizen and the husband of an American wife. Though
various disparate bits of my family ancestry add up to somewhere between 1/4
and 1/8th French.

But there's that awkward period with Napoleon - and it's just too recent to
be forgotten ;-).

We've far more in common than we're prepared to admit - more so than some of
France's land neighbours. After I left Paris, I spent the second half of
that year in Barcelona - and their relationship (the Spanish - not so much
the Catalans) was far more sulphurous. Though that may have had something to
do with a belief in Spain at the time, that France provided a safe bolt-hole
for ETA bombers.


There are two other books I'd highly recommend, although these are more
factual and research-oriented :

"That Sweet Enemy"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0434008672/sr=8-1/qid=1150259390/ref=pd
_bbs_1/002-6052011-6921647?%5Fencoding=UTF8

"Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402200455/qid=1150259445/sr=2-1/ref=pd
_bbs_b_2_1/002-6052011-6921647?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

That is a book I've long meant to read and forgotten to buy. And I'll be
adding it and "That Sweet Enemy" to my 'to buy for Greece' list for shopping
on Saturday - assuming Waterstones in Oxford have them in stock.



Both great reads.

--
Cheers,
Probert.



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