Is it really Super in Cannes?

Ever dreamt of emigrating to France? In the U.K. it seems like it is a dream that  most people entertain every once in a while. Paris is just on the other side of the Channel and if you then drive south for a few hours, you'll be in the beautiful Provencal countryside where a smell of lavender is in the air and where all the women are gorgeous in that French way. At least that seems to be the perception and it definitely is the vision that Paul and his wife Jane from J. G. Ballard's novel "Super-Cannes" have when they up sticks and move to Cannes.

Jane is a 27-year-old doctor who married Paul, an older man and a pilot, while he was in the hospital after a nasty flying accident. When she is offered a role as a resident doctor at the prestigious Eden-Olympia business park just outside Cannes, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Leaving a grey, miserable London behind and pursuing the possibilities that a great laboratory and lots of funding will provide. Paul, the protagonist of the story, is happy to tag along. He is head over heels in love with his teenage doctor, as he calls her, and he is still recovering from the accident and is hoping that the sun and the lazy days by the poolside will do him good.
As they settle into the pace of life at Eden-Olympia, a modern piece of paradise where all you need is inside the gates, Paul starts to become restless. In his restlessness he begins to ask questions - what happened to the doctor who previously held Jane's position? Why did he suddenly (?) snap and murder ten people in a shooting spree? And were they victims chosen at random or were they carefully selected?
Early on it becomes clear that there is more lurking beneath the surface of paradise than visible to the naked eye but what it is and how it will impact the lives of Jane and Paul remains hidden until the last pages of this thrilling novel.

"Super-Cannes" is exceptionally well-written. If you are one of those people who like mystery or thriller novels but hate the fact that the majority of them are thrash, written by people who are not exactly good at writing... then "Super-Cannes" will be for you. It is so subtle and elegant, yet despite the sunkissed setting, it sent shivers down my spine. It is so scary and the reality that Paul is trying to navigate is so distorted that he loses sight of everything but the mystery.

Read it if: You like stories about what happens behind the facade. If you like a well-written psychological thriller.

Paris, je t'aime

Like delicious French patisserie? Enjoy a bouef bourguignon? A good glass of red wine? Feeling slightly hungry now? Then you - like me - will be drawn to "The Little Paris Kitchen: Classic French Recipes with a Fresh and Fun Approach" by Rachel Khoo. 

It is a cook book with a twist. It is written by Rachel Khoo, a gorgeous young lady (watch out Nigella), who left her native London and her steady job to become a chef in Paris. And not just any old chef. This girl opened a restaurant in her tiny flat, cooking for a maximum of two diners at a time in a seriously spartan kitchen. And she became a hit with fashionable Paris. 

Such a hit that she now has her own show on the BBC. I have just watched the first episode and it was mouthwatering. I am up for cooking salted caramel chocholate fondant (it was called something far more poetic in French!) right this moment and feel tempted to spend a large amount of money on cook books and kitchen paraphenalia! 

So "The Little Paris Kitchen: Classic French Recipes with a Fresh and Fun Approach" by Rachel Khoo is going straight on my TBR!! 

Review: "Bonjour Tristesse" - The troubled teenager

I read this beautiful little novel on a sunny Saturday last week. It is set in a summer decades ago in the south of France and I read it lying on the floor in a patch of sunshine. We have panoramic windows in our flat and when the sun shone through them, it was warm and golden so that when I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine that it was summertime in France and not early spring in Scandinavia.
"Bonjour Tristesse" by Francoise Sagan is a classic, one of those books that have popped up on my book-radar several times over the years and after reading a review of it by Simon at Stuck in a Book, http://stuck-in-a-book.blogspot.com/2011/02/from-mouths-of-babes.html. You should read his review, it is as always well-written.

Now there were several reasons why I wanted to read this:
1) It is set in France in the summer, the perfect escapism for someone like me who is craving sunshine
2) It caused a lot of controversy when it was published in 1954.
3) The author was 18 when she wrote it and it has become a classic

Cecile is a precocious teenage girl who lives with her Don Juan father Raymond whose goal in life seems to be staying forever 25. Togther they drift through a life of hedonism, partying and enjoying entertaining dinners. Raymond has a string of lady frinds that Cecile happily tolerates until the day one of the these relationships ends in a marriage proposal. Suddenly Cecile sees her days of indulgence disappear and be substituted by a life of routine and deference to her new step-mother. Therefore she concocts a scheme with her lover Cyril to scare off his fathers fiancée by tempting him into the arms of another woman.

This coming-of-age tale is brutal in its honest portrayal of Cecile. She is a selfish girl with little thought for anything but her own entertainment, however, as she is confronted with a different way of life where intelligence and cultured manners count more than good looks and youth, she sees the shallowness of the life that she is used to and it unsettles her. She is constantly veering between fighting and embracing change, not sure what she really wants to do with her life and in the end somebody else ends up paying the price for Cecile's actions.

I enjoyed reading it even though I found it difficult to like Cecile. It reminded me of one of my favourite films: "Pauline a la Plage" but where Pauline is a likeable clever young women who refuses to be caught in the games of the adults, Cecile is the opposite.
However, I think it will serve well as an antidote to much of the bad YA fiction on the market at the moment. It is not long so will not be too daunting for teenagers to read and I think it is an appropriate reminder of the consequences of not thinking about the consequences, wrapped up in a beautiful language and wonderful descriptions of the joys of summer in France.