- Hardcover: 227 pages
- Publisher: Atria Books (March 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743439678
- ISBN-13: 978-0743439671
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 399 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #611,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
When she was a teen, Rossant, whose mother was French and father was Egyptian, moved from Cairo back to Paris (where she was born) with her widowed mother to live with her grandmother in the upscale 17th arrondissement. This book charts Rossant's years in Paris and ends shortly after her marriage to an American. Although Rossant (Memories of a Lost Egypt) came of age in Paris during one of its headiest times-the 1950s-she doesn't offer much in the way of descriptions of the era. Instead, her memoir is personal, describing her struggles with her distant mother and her stern, difficult grandmother. It was hard for Rossant to get used to life in Paris: the city was gray and lifeless compared with lively Cairo; Rossant had to hide the fact that she'd been educated at a convent in Egypt (her Jewish grandmother in Paris would've been angry); her mother seemed to be interested solely in shopping and meeting men; and she had to get used to eating an omelette aux fines herbes for a snack instead of her usual semit, the Egyptian version of a soft pretzel. By exploring the wonders of French cuisine, Rossant found her way. She shares recipes throughout the book, interspersing them among anecdotes (e.g., when she butted heads with her grandmother, the cook's pain perdu [French toast] comforted her). This is mostly a pleasing memoir, but contradictions and repetitions in the text abound. These oversights will frustrate close readers, but those interested in food will still enjoy Rossant's careful explanations of meals and markets.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In the first volume of her memoirs, Memories of a Lost Egypt (1999), food writer Rossant recounted her earliest upbringing in Cairo, Egypt. In this latest book, Rossant picks up the narrative with her 1947 removal to Paris. There she lives with her exceptional grandmother, having been deserted by her mother, who returned to the author's beloved Egypt without her daughter. During the war years, Rossant's grandmother had worked to disguise the family's Jewish origins, and this induced ambivalence in the youngster's self-image. Rossant initially found French food decidedly inferior to that of her beloved Egypt. The family cook, Georgette, soon convinced her otherwise, and Rossant fell in love with Camembert, swiftly followed by the discovery of Breton crepes. Enriched by the provisions of her father's will, Rossant began to travel and to explore French cuisine. This second part of Rossant's memoirs continues the tradition of interspersing text with recipes for dishes both simple and complex, from pain perdu to a whole goose and its artfully stuffed neck. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The windows in my study are wide open; I am looking down at the garden. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The windows in my study are wide open; I am looking down at the garden. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful conclusion to a gastronomic adventure,
By A Customer
This review is from: Return to Paris: A Memoir (Hardcover)
I read this book trying to forget about the stiffling heat we're experiencing in Europe in one day. As wonderful as the first book is (Apricots on the Nile) this book is even better. Collette takes us on her journey back to Paris after being wrenched away from her loving coccoon of close family in Egypt to the great unknown. Soon however she finds solace in the kitchen & rediscovers her passion for food. Faced with many life changing decision, she recounts the events that took her all over Europe & (later to the US) on different adventures & always with food as her loyal companion. A wonderful read that ended too soon, & although I rated this book with 5 stars, I felt it ended a bit too abruptly ... but then again you alawys want more of a great book don't you?!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dinner with Colette,
By A Customer
This review is from: Return to Paris: A Memoir (Hardcover)
I loved this little book and read it in one sitting on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It made me wish that Colette would invite me to dinner! The writing swept me along throughout the journeys in her life. The recipes were a surprise bonus for me as I had never read her other books and had no idea she was known for cuisine. It was the beautiful cover that sold me! Highly recommend this book. I can barely cook, but am going to try the Agvolemono soup, a favorite from my 20's when I worked upstairs from a Greek Deli in downtown Boston.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Piaf of Food Memoirs!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Return to Paris: A Memoir (Hardcover)
.Reading _Return to Paris_ (and preparing its recipes) is like listening to a Piaf song, at once strikingly beautiful and hauntingly sad, something that commands your attention to the very end. So, dear reader, beware! For should you open the first page of this book, you may find yourself swept away to a Paris you never knew of, to return to a present made a little sadder by finding there are no more pages left to turn. I also recommend these other books by Rossant which I have read:
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