From The New York Times
Unlike the flotilla of expatriates who publish memoirs of their sojourns in France, Ramsey is neither a professional writer nor an epicurean, neither an aspiring artist nor a trust-fund loafer. She’s a teacher who shops at J. C. Penney and lives with her husband, a tire designer, in Kensington Farm, “a good subdivision, full of perfectly fine vinyl-sided two-story houses, with a swim team, close to the soccer fields and good schools” in Greer, S.C.
But when Michelin offers her husband a job in Clermont-Ferrand, an unremarkable industrial hub, she’s game to relocate her three children for a four-year stint. “I wanted to understand it all, the Frenchness of this place,” she writes. “Could we be French too, just for a little while?” Could a family of Baptists, whose children attend Vacation Bible School, survive in a land of lapsed Catholics where none of the neighbors “put wreathes on their doors or fake snow on their windows or light-up Santas or manger scenes in their yards the way people did back home”? The answer, conveyed through a series of vignette-like chapters, each wrapped up neatly like a display in the Container Store, is “Not really.” A momentous tumble in a bookstore whose tall shelves are “arranged like a maze for skinny people,” where Ramsey, dressed in a “big red field jacket and clunky black clogs,” falls spectacularly over her rampaging toddler, comically encapsulates the reasons why.
In Ramsey’s eyes, her provincial counterparts are neither categorically adorable nor absurd, despite their indecipherable mutterings and behavior. Her accounts of their prosaic routines are unexpectedly engrossing. Although she can occasionally be sentimental, the mostly genial Ramsey can also be satisfyingly snippy and droll.
From The Philadelphia InquirerRamsey, along with her husband, two kids, one baby, and one very old cat, moved to France for four years, and their adventures are recounted in this delightful memoir, as Ramsey takes the mundane - such as the old woman across the street and her aged cat's health problems - and turns it into nuggets of delight.
From Publishers Weekly
First-time author Ramsey adopts a sweet but never cloying tone to tell the charming story of her family's four-year stint in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Ramsey, a young mother of three whose husband's company relocates them to France, recounts what it feels like to sell the family home in South Carolina, say good-bye to everyone you know and move overseas. Rather than tell the story chronologically, Ramsey links the narrative to everyday events recalling the pitfalls and petite triumphs inherent in each encounter. Moreover, because the family's command of French is minimal, routine tasks often become embarrassing lessons. Ultimately, Ramsey and her family embrace their adopted country's language and customs. Entering a bookstore, she finds herself surrounded by graceful young women in high heels, short skirts and stylish leather blazers, while she is "standing there in my big red field jacket and clunky black clogs… like a frumpy giant." Ramsey acknowledges telling "the whole truth, even when it makes me look ridiculous"—and this results in an endearing memoir. (Apr.)
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More Praise!
"I loved
reading Rebecca Ramsey's account of her family's sojourn in France.
French By Heart is that winning (and rare) combination of a
down-to-earth, witty voice with a sense of the mysterious and
eternal. The minute I finished the last page I started looking
forward to her next book." -Josephine Humphreys, author of
Nowhere Else on Earth
"Engaging, witty, and touching. This book is a delight." –
Bailey White