Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen - Softcover

Taylor, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099441985 ISBN 13: 9780099441984

Publisher: Vintage, 2004

Synopsis

Marie Prévost is a contemporary Canadian who sets off for Paris to research Proust and escape a failed romance. Sarah Bensimon is a young Parisian Jew who marries into an orthodox family and takes refuge in her kitchen, recreating a kosher version of classic French cuisine. The third woman is madame Jeanne Proust herself, fragments of whose 'diaries' are recreated with impeccably researched detail - as she worries about Marcel, his late-night habits, his diet and his unsuitable friends.

All these strands are brought poignantly together - the new world and the old, the Seine and the St Lawrence, mothers and sons, outsiders and insiders - in this intelligent and beautifully judged debut novel.

About this title

Review:

Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen, the complex first novel by Globe and Mail drama critic Kate Taylor, threads together three related stories. In one, Marie, a simultaneous translator from Montreal, escapes to Paris after a failed love affair, where she begins translating the diary of Marcel Proust's Jewish mother. The second thread consists of the fictional diary entries themselves, which are excellent evocations of the period, with Mme Proust in a constant state of anguish over the health of Marcel, her extravagant invalid son. The third element is the story of Sarah Bensimon, a 12-year-old girl sent by her Jewish family from Paris to Toronto for safekeeping during the Second World War.

The novel offers moments of fine writing and a fascinating view into the intimate world of Proust through his doting mother's eyes, as well as the wider world of turn-of-the-century Paris, including commentary on the Dreyfus affair and its destabilising affect on the Proust family. However, the connection to the third element of the story is far too weak to justify its inclusion. Marie, it turns out, has fallen in love with Max, Sarah's son, who somewhat resembles Marcel Proust in looks and sensitivity. Only in the final 20 pages does the relationship between Max and Marie come alive, even as Marie realises it is truly over: "I have found the cure for heartbreak. It is literature. But then I have not discovered anything that the son of Dr Proust did not know a century ago." Madame Proust has the makings of a marvellous novel. As it stands, though, Taylor's attempt to bring together her divergent storylines is as ambitious as her character Sarah's project of cooking classical French cuisine according to Jewish dietary restrictions, but less successful. --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca

Review:

"Taylor's meticulously crafted novel is an impressive debut" (Daily Mail)

"Tenderness and subtlety: it is an ambitious project by a promising writer" (Times Literary Supplement)

"The parallel portraits of old and new worlds are vividly atmospheric...contains a lot to admire" (Sunday Telegraph)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0099441985
• ISBN 13: 9780099441984
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480