My French Book List for 2008

Posted February 20th, 2008 by Jen in book reviews, france/french
15 Comments »

Why French books? Mostly because I’m enamored with France, though I’m not entirely sure why. I began to learn the language in high school, and slowly began to absorb the culture, cuisine, and history of this fascinating place. On a trip to France after college, my fate was sealed: it was all better than I had imagined. I couldn’t get over the history and romance of the land. To stand in the Cathedral at Chartres which dates back to the 12th century, to walk through the gardens at Versailles, the halls of the Louvre, the vineyards of the Loire Valley, the beaches at Normandy — it was all breathtaking. I realize that every nation has its flaws and dark places, but I simply choose to love France. I appreciated this piece from Crunchy Con about his unreasonable love of France:

My love affair with France began when I was a little boy, not even old enough to read, and I listened to my elderly great-aunts tell tales of serving as Red Cross nurses in Dijon during the Great War. Aunt Hilda was seized by a Frenchman on the Champs-Elysees when the armistice was announced, and he kissed her madly. She pretended to be scandalized 60 years later. I thought it was amazing. Just think! The old ladies sat me on their leather couch in their cabin and showed me their photo album from France in the war, and I was in heaven.

I will not read all these books in 2008, I just know it. This is an ambitious list for a busy mom like myself, with so many other things to keep up on, but this is the Year of French for me, and my book list for the year is comprised entirely of books about France, the French, set in France, by a French author, or anything a Francophile would love. Without further adieu ado, here is my list of great French books - in English- (well, I hope they’ll be great…I’ll review them as I go), an eclectic mix of serious, light, and historical books. But for the acclaimed French classics, like Madame Bovary or The Count of Monte Cristo, go here.

1. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. This is the one book on my list that I’ve read already. I just finished it last week, and will review it shortly. Wow. Here is a piece of the review from The Washington Post’s Book World:

This extraordinary work of fiction about the German occupation of France is embedded in a real story as gripping and complex as the invented one. Composed in 1941-42 by an accomplished writer who had published several well-received novels, Suite Française, her last work, was written under the tremendous pressure of a constant danger that was to catch up with her and kill her before she had finished.

Irène Némirovsky was a Jewish, Russian immigrant from a wealthy family who had fled the Bolsheviks as a teenager. She spent her adult life in France, wrote in French but preserved the detachment and cool distance of the outsider. She and her husband were deported to Auschwitz in 1942, where he was gassed upon arrival and she died in the infirmary at the age of 39. Her manuscript, in minuscule and barely readable handwriting, was preserved by her daughters, who, ignorant of the fact that these notebooks contained a full-fledged masterpiece, left it unread until 60 years later. Once published, with an appendix that illuminates the circumstances of its origin and the author’s plan for its completion, it quickly became a bestseller in France. It is hard to imagine a reader who will not be wholly engrossed and moved by this book.

2. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. There are many books in this genre of American/Brit type of adventurous person who leaves it all behind to live in France, renovate a house, or open a restaurant. This is the beginning of the explosion of the genre, and from what I hear, a fabulous read. From Amazon.com:

Who hasn’t dreamed, on a mundane Monday or frowzy Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis? Author Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in A Year in Provence, the chronicle of his own foray into Provençal domesticity.

3. Fields of Glory by Jean Rouaud. Set in the Loire Valley, this book has been beautifully translated from French; it’s the story of three generations and the memory of the battlefields of WWI. From Library Journal:

This book represents a dialog between two generations seemingly far apart: three elderly veterans of the post-World War I era from the French lower Loire Valley and their grandchildren. Set in the 1950s, the novel is mainly a journey through the memories of grandfather, grandmother, and Aunt Marie, which reach as far back as battlefields near Ypres and Verdun–the “fields of glory.” The memories are narrated from the perspectives of the grandchildren, whose initial boredom and impatience with the nostalgic stories from another era progressively become affection and understanding for the psychological urge to remember and be remembered. Rouaud was unknown even in France until he won the Prix Goncourt 1990, France’s highest fiction honor, for this novel.

4. The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos. First published in 1937, this is the story of a young Catholic priest in an isolated French village, and his diaries of his faith and failures. From Amazon.com:

In this classic Catholic novel, Bernanos movingly recounts the life of a young French country priest who grows to understand his provincial parish while learning spiritual humility himself. Awarded the Grand Prix for Literature by the Academie Francaise, The Diary of a Country Priest was adapted into an acclaimed film by Robert Bresson. “A book of the utmost sensitiveness and compassion…it is a work of deep, subtle and singularly encompassing art.”

5. Blame it on Paris by Laura Florand. This is pure fun, ladies! American girl goes to Paris for study abroad, meets French boyfriend, ends up staying in France. Who doesn’t like a little French fairy tale? From Booklist:

Southern belle Laura is perfectly happy to spend her time as a graduate student in Paris gorging on chocolate, complaining about rude locals, and eschewing any sort of romance. Enter Sebastien, a cute waiter-aspiring graphic artist. What starts as a crush turns into a full-fledged relationship, and soon Laura is contemplating staying in Paris, and maybe even marrying. What follows is a sometimes hilarious and sometimes ridiculous adventure involving four weddings, two in rural Georgia and two in France. Florand’s romance relies heavily on cultural stereotypes and misunderstandings to set up humorous situations. Ultimately, it’s how well Laura and Sebastien’s families take to each other, and to helping the newlyweds, that generates the sweet surprise. This is a fun, frothy tale for anyone who has ever conjured up a dashing foreigner to sweep her off her feet.

6. God Still Loves the French by Marc Mailloux. Written by an American missionary with a deep passion for the French and a desire to share God’s love with them. From Stevan Horning, Reviewer:

Although Mailloux paints a bleak picture of France’s modern soul, he cherishes the hope that God’s power and grace continues to create beautiful souls in the spiritual desert that is France today. Proof of God’s effective love emerges mainly in the cameo portraits Mailloux gives of people he has seen convert from darkness to light. He writes with consistent humor, sprinkling each page with witty observations. No doubt he cultivates a light-hearted hope in order better to endure the exasperations of a twenty-year effort in that resistant mission field. He now broadcasts, teaches, and preaches to French-speaking Haitians, Quebecois, and Caribbean Islanders. An easy but thought-provoking read, full of truth. I have never seen another book on this subject.

7. Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by René Girard. What I really wanted to read by René Girard was a book published fairly recently in Italian, Verità o fede debole. Dialogo su cristianesimo e relativismo (Truth or Weak Faith: Dialogue on Christianity and Relativism). It’s about what Girard believes is a coming Christian Renaissance. But I can’t find the book in English. So I’m going to read this one instead. Girard presents the idea that human culture is based on a sacrifice as a way out of the mimetic, or imitative, violence between rivals. Here’s a quick review of Things Hidden. You can read an excellent interview with René Girard here.

Girard is a French anthropologist and has been called one of the most influential intellectuals of our time. For a man with outspoken Christian views, it’s amazing to me that he’s held in such high regard in French intellectual circles, and has even been named to the Académie française.

8. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. Time-travel to Paris in the 1920s - great art, beautiful women, literary icons. From Amazon.com:

In the preface to A Moveable Feast, Hemingway remarks casually that “if the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction”–and, indeed, fact or fiction, it doesn’t matter, for his slim memoir of Paris in the 1920s is as enchanting as anything made up and has become the stuff of legend. Paris in the ’20s! Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived happily on $5 a day and still had money for drinks at the Closerie des Lilas, skiing in the Alps, and fishing trips to Spain. On every corner and at every café table, there were the most extraordinary people living wonderful lives and telling fantastic stories.

9. French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. We all know the French paradox, and this book will enlighten us all, I’m sure! From Amazon.com:

Author Mireille Guiliano is CEO of Veuve Clicquot, and French Women Don’t Get Fat offers a concept of sensible pleasures: If you have a chocolate croissant for breakfast, have a vegetable-based lunch–or take an extra walk and pass on the bread basket at dinner. Guiliano’s insistence on simple measures slowly creating substantial improvements are reassuring, and her suggestion to ignore the scale and learn to live by the “zipper test” could work wonders for those who get wrapped up in tiny details of diet. She sympathizes that deprivation can lead straight to overindulgence when it comes to favorite foods, but then, in a most French manner, treats them as a pleasure that needs to be sated, rather than a battle to be fought.

10. My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme. From Publishers Weekly:

With Julia Child’s death in 2004 at age 91, her grandnephew Prud’homme (The Cell Game) completed this playful memoir of the famous chef’s first, formative sojourn in France with her new husband, Paul Child, in 1949. The couple met during WWII in Ceylon, working for the OSS, and soon after moved to Paris, where Paul worked for the U.S. Information Service. Child describes herself as a “rather loud and unserious Californian,” 36, six-foot-two and without a word of French, while Paul was 10 years older, an urbane, well-traveled Bostonian. Startled to find the French amenable and the food delicious, Child enrolled at the Cordon Bleu and toiled with increasing zeal under the rigorous tutelage of éminence grise Chef Bugnard. “Jackdaw Julie,” as Paul called her, collected every manner of culinary tool and perfected the recipes in her little kitchen on rue de l’Université (”Roo de Loo”). She went on to start an informal school with sister gourmandes Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were already at work on a French cookbook for American readers, although it took Child’s know-how to transform the tome—after nine years, many title changes and three publishers—into the bestselling Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). This is a valuable record of gorgeous meals in bygone Parisian restaurants, and the secret arts of a culinary genius.

11. Wine & War: The French, The Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure by Donald Kladstrup. The Nazis’ looting of treasures went far beyond the works of art most of us are familiar with. From Library Journal:

Husband-and-wife journalists and contributors to Wine Spectator, the Kladstrups recount the dangerous and daring exploits of those who fought to keep France’s greatest treasure out of the hands of the Nazis. Whether they were fobbing off inferior wines on the Germans, hiding precious vintages behind hastily constructed walls, sabotaging shipments being sent out of France, or even sneaking people out of the country in wine barrels, the French proved to be remarkably versatile when it came to protecting their beloved wine. The authors craft a compelling read that shifts back and forth between individual tales of bravery, including those of five prominent wine-making families, and the bigger story of how World War II affected the French wine industry.

12. The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland. The French Revolution comes to life, with Josephine Bonaparte center stage. From Amazon.com:

Since completing high school history, few of us have managed to keep straight the details of the French Revolution. Beyond suggestions of eating cake and the effectiveness of the guillotine, this sordid time period has remained–for many–somewhat obscure. Now, through the novel The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., not only do we learn of the many differences between Robespierre and Rousseau, but we gain insight into the marriage of one of history’s greatest political couples: Napoleon and Josephine.

Standing beside the charismatic Napoleon, Josephine’s own importance and fascinating history have often been overshadowed. In a fictionalized account of Josephine’s diaries and her correspondence, author Sandra Gulland has shed light on Josephine’s pre-Napoleon life. This, the first of three books about Josephine, covers her childhood in Martinique, her first marriage, the birth of her children, her life during the revolution, and her marriage to Napoleon.

13. Murder in the Marais by Cara Black. A little French mystery to top off my list! This is the first book in the series starring detective Aimée Leduc, set in modern day Paris. From Publisher’s Weekly:

The initial installment of a projected series of mysteries set in Paris, this standout first novel introduces dauntless private investigator Aimée Leduc. The French-American, whose specialty is computer forensics, is confronted with a seemingly mundane task: to decipher an encrypted photograph from the ’40s and deliver it to an old woman in the Marais (the historic Jewish quarter of Paris). When Aimée arrives at the home of Lili Stein to present the photo, however, she finds the woman dead, a swastika carved into her forehead. Thus begins a thrilling, quick-paced chase involving neo-Nazis, corrupt government officials and fierce anti-Semitism. With the help of her partner, René, a computer hacking expert, Aimée uncovers tantalizing clues relating to German war veteran Hartmuth Griffe, the Jewish girl he saved from Auschwitz, a French trade minister and other enigmatic figures. But the data Aimée and René come up with only takes them so far. In order to understand the true motive behind the killing, Aimée must delve into history, confronting older residents of the quarter who’d prefer she leave the past alone. The suspense is high as she fraternizes dangerously with the enemy, even becoming briefly involved with an Aryan supremacist. Black knows Paris well, and in her first-rate debut she deftly combines fascinating anecdotes from the city’s war years with classic images of the City of Lights.

Are there any other Francophiles/bibliophiles out there who’d like to join me in reading any of the books listed here? I’d love some company along the way - we could have a cyber book club of sorts.

For more Thursday Thirteen lists, go here.

Technorati Tags: book list, France, French books, Thursday Thirteen

Book Review: The Heavenly Man

Posted November 27th, 2007 by Jen in book reviews, china, persecuted church, religion
6 Comments »

The Heavenly Man: the remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun
by Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway
reviewed by Jen, Diary of 1

The story of Brother Yun is inspiring, painful, seemingly incredulous, and certainly in season. The Heavenly Man details the life and ministry of this Christian house church leader in his own words, also interwoven with accounts from his wife, Deling. A large portion of the book describes the countless ordeals of intense torture that would kill any man, but these reports are offset by Yun’s testimonies of miraculous healings, visions, dreams, and many other supernatural events. In fact, that is the theme of the book: with great persecution, the Church will see the miraculous hand of God and will grow.

Brother Yun, Liu Zhenying was his given name, was born in 1958 in Nanyang in the southern part of China’s Henan Province. He spent his childhood in a farming village of 600 people, in a little mud house with a straw roof. He worked the fields like most poor children, along with his four siblings, and received little schooling.

China became a communist nation in 1949 and thus Brother Yun was born into a spiritual and political climate that was void of all Christian fellowship and Bibles were nowhere to be seen. Mao Tsetung (Zedong) ushered in communism and death; his policies of the suppression of counter-revolutionaries centered on mass executions, and Mao himself claimed to have killed 700,000 during the early years of his founding of the People’s Republic of China. However, the U.S. State Department puts the number at several times that amount. Not only were Christian missionaries and their Chinese converts slaughtered, Mao targeted the leaders of the former government, former employees of Western companies, rural gentry, and anyone whose loyalty was suspect. His policies of forced collective ownership, including a ban on all private food production and a ban on private land ownership, led to what is thought to be the largest famine in history, resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese peasants between 1959 and 1962. Brother Yun reports that in his Henan Province 8 million people starved to death.

In 1974, Brother Yun was 16 years old. His entire family became Christians overnight when his father was healed of cancer. Yun’s mother, who had heard the gospel in the 1940s from a Western missionary, had become a Christian, but in the ensuing decades of Mao’s dictatorship, was spiritually starved. However, this one night when her husband lay dying, she heard a voice say, “Jesus loves you.” She immediately recognized the voice of God, and told her children that “Jesus is the only hope for Father.” They all prayed throughout the night, and by the next week their father was completely healed. Yun relates that this was such a powerful event in his family’s life that today, over 30 years after Jesus healed his father, all five of his children still follow God.

Yun’s mother couldn’t remember much of the Bible, but she told all she knew to her family. Yun began to long to read the words of God for himself, but this was during the Cultural Revolution when Bibles were scarce. People were allowed to read only Mao’s little Red Book, and if caught with a Bible, it would be burned and the owner would be publicly and severely beaten, along with his entire family.

A most curious series of events followed, as Brother Yun, a mere 16 years old, began to fast and pray for a Bible, such was his passion to read God’s word. He had a vision one night, in which two strangers gave him a bun of fresh bread, which they pulled from a red bag, and upon putting it in his mouth, it turned into a Bible.

His mother and father were afraid their son had gone mad, as Yun frantically searched the house for a Bible. But lo and behold, a knock came to the door, and the same two men from Yun’s vision were waiting there, and slipped through the door the same red bag, which contained a Bible. Yun later finds out that these two men were sent by an evangelist from a far off village, who had received a vision from the Lord instructing him to give his Bible, hidden underground for safekeeping, to a certain young man.

This young man was Brother Yun, and despite having only three years of education, began reading his Bible, one character at a time with a dictionary at his side. After reading through the whole Bible, Yun memorized entire chapters at a time. Within the first month, he memorized the Book of Matthew, and then on to the Book of Acts. During this time, Brother Yun received another visitation from the Lord. He felt a tap on his shoulder and heard a voice tell him “Yun, I am going to send you to the west and south to be my witness.”

Yun started preaching at age 16, and because no one had a Bible, his preaching consisted mostly of reciting the books of the Bible that he had memorized. People would stay up all night just to hear him speak, because they too longed to hear the Word of God. Within that first year of preaching in neighboring villages, Brother Yun led over 2,000 people to Jesus. Persecution was immediate. All of the new Christians in the first village where he spoke were arrested and beaten. Yun’s name was on the Public Security Bureau’s “Wanted” list because of his evangelizing.

Soon after, Yun was married to Deling, through the matchmaking of their mothers. She is a lovely Christian woman and shares parts of this amazing story as well. She recounts the story of her and Yun going to the marriage registry office to apply for their marriage license. After waiting a long time, Yun didn’t come out.

Only later was I told that when Yun wrote his name in the registry office, the clerks noticed that he was wanted by the PSB for being an illegal preacher, so they arrested him on the spot! They already knew he had been preaching the gospel all over the province. This was the start of our life together!

The pressure against Brother Yun and other Chinese Christian house church leaders mounted, and the torture and abuse at the hands of the Chinese police and other government officials is unspeakable. In his 23 years of ministering in China, Brother Yun and his family were continually on the run, he was imprisoned three different times for a total of seven years, and yet people came to Jesus by the thousands.

Woven throughout the most intense scenes of torture is always the strong presence of God. Yun shares many personal accounts of divine healings, people being delivered from demons, and other miracles. During his first imprisonment, Brother Yun survived a 74 day fast. His second time in prison, the PSB beat his legs so badly that he was crippled, yet he walked out the front doors of the prison and escaped. Yun describes that escape of May 5, 1997, walking past guards and through open gates:

Somehow the Lord seemed to blind that guard. He was staring directly at me, yet his eyes didn’t acknowledge my presence at all. I expected him to say something, but he just looked through me as if I was invisible!

When I arrived at the main iron gate leading out to the courtyard I discovered it was already open! This was strange, as it was usually the most secure gate of all.

After many trials and long periods of agonizing separation from his family, Brother Yun finally escaped China and now lives in Germany with his family. The last several chapters of The Heavenly Man are his reflections on the Western church as well as a description of his new focus on the Back to Jerusalem movement.

I understand why many people are deeply moved by this book. Reading about a man a world away who has to beg, pray, and fast for months just to get his hands on a Bible, while I have ten on my shelf, makes me a bit uncomfortable. Brother Yun has some sharp words for the Western church:

On some occasions I’ve struggled while speaking in Western churches. There seems to be something missing that leaves me feeling terrible inside. Many meetings are cold and lack the fire and presence of God that we have in China.

……..

When I’m in the West I see all the mighty church buildings and all the expensive equipment, plush carpets and state-of-the-art sound systems. I can assure the Western church with absolute certainty that you don’t need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek. The pursuit of more possessions will never bring revival. Jesus truly stated, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15.

The first thing needed for revival to return to your churches is the Word of the Lord. God’s Word is missing. Sure, there are many preachers and thousands of tapes and videos of Bible teaching, but so little contains the sharp truth of God’s Word. It’s the truth that will set you free.

……..

When revival came to believers in China, the result was thousands of evangelists being sent out to all corners of the nation, carrying fire from the altar of God with them. When God moves in the West, it seems you want to stop and enjoy his presence and blessings too long, and build an altar to your experiences.

I’m trying to keep perspective here, because I realize that different nations have different battles and their own unique burdens, and it’s not always fair to make direct comparisons. However, Brother Yun’s experiences in China have much to teach us in the West.

Brother Yun’s incredible ordeals in China have led him to a deep desire for not only Chinese brothers and sisters to know Jesus, but all the world. In chapter 24 of The Heavenly Man, Yun describes the Silk Roads, key trading routes that first brought herbs, spices, treasures, new religions, and invading armies in and out of China. Some accounts say that Christianity first traveled down one of these roads from Jerusalem to China just decades after the resurrection of Jesus.

It is the goal of Brother Yun and the Back to Jerusalem movement for the gospel to travel full circle, out of China and back to Jerusalem. The nations along the Silk Roads are home to the three strongholds of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, with more than 90% of the people groups who haven’t heard the gospel living here. Yun describes meeting Simon Zhao in 1995 in Central China, a believer who spent 31 years in prison for his involvement in the first Back to Jerusalem movement in 1950:

The Lord had already placed the Back to Jerusalem vision in my heart, but after meeting Simon Zhao it became the primary focus of my life. I came to understand clearly that the destiny for the house churches of China is to pull down the world’s last remaining spiritual giants: the house of Buddha, the house of Mohammed, and the house of Hinduism, and to proclaim the glorious gospel to all nations before the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!

You need to understand that when we speak about “Back to Jerusalem,” we’re not saying that Jerusalem is the main goal. We are not planning to rush there for a big conference! Jerusalem was the starting point for the gospel two thousand years ago, and we believe it will circle the whole world and return to its starting point. Our aim is not merely to evangelize the city of Jerusalem, but the thousands of unreached people groups, towns and villages located between China and Jerusalem.

Fascinating. The Heavenly Man, the remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun is a powerful book that I recommend to all Christians wanting to challenge their Western faith and enlarge their Christian worldview.

This review is part of the Chrysalis November Christian Book Fair.

Weekend Reading, Traveling

Posted November 2nd, 2007 by Jen in book reviews, carnivals
7 Comments »

My husband just finished reading The Heavenly Man, the remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun. I’ll be starting it next, because I need to have conversations with him; this book has changed him. Marital communication tip: if your spouse ever says a particular book or movie was very impacting, do yourself a favor and read it or watch it.

I’ll be reviewing The Heavenly Man right here when I’m finished, so be on the lookout. This is for the November Christian Book Fair hosted by Chrysalis, and you can click here if you’d like to submit your own Christian book review.

Several blog carnivals to visit if you have time this weekend:

The Carnival of Family Life
The Carnival of Homeschooling
The Christian Carnival
Festival of Frugality

I just might get away all by myself this weekend to catch up with old friends, including my dear friend K. who just had a baby! As long as there’s no snow on the mountain I would have to drive over. I don’t drive by myself in the dark or in the rain or in the snow. Kind of limiting, isn’t it? I just have terrible night vision, and especially with moisture in the air - the glare just freaks me out.