Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen - Hardcover

Taylor, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701173742 ISBN 13: 9780701173746

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2003

Synopsis

The story of three women, whose lives criss-cross between Paris in the 1890s, at the height of the Dreyfus affair, France again in 1941 and Canada today. The first-person narrator, a contemporary Canadian simultaneous translator, goes to Paris to research Proust and escape an unrequited love, and finds instead Mme Proust's 'unpublished diary' in the archives. Then there is Sarah, a Jewish French girl whose parents send her out of Paris in WWII to escape the round-ups; she ends up in Canada and never sees them again. She marries into an orthodox Jewish family and becomes more kosher than they are, constantly consoling herself with cooking - and we finally discover that it's her son with whom our narrator is unrequitedly in love...and he's gay. The third woman is Mme Proust herself, whose 'diaries' are fictionalised in a wonderful pastiche by Taylor, with irresistible and impecccably researched details of the mother's worries about Marcel, his late-night habits, his diet and his friends, and about the Dreyfus affair - being Jewish though completely assimilated she observes it with very different eyes from her husband's. Everything comes together poignantly and satisfyingly: the new world and the old, the Seine and the St Lawrence, mothers and sons, outsiders both Jewish and homosexual, and finally redemption through literature and cooking.

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 has tackled these ideas with tenderness and subtlety; it is an ambitious project by a promising writer" -- Toby Licthtig, TLS

"Taylor’s meticulously crafted novel is an impressive debut" -- Clare Colvin, Daily Mail

"...the parallel portraits of old and new worlds are vividly atmospheric. -- Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph

'A poignant first novel...the kind of word-of-mouth recommendation that turned Mary Lawson's Crow Lake into a bestseller.' -- The Globe

'This is a remarkable first novel -
thoughtful, versatile and an extremely good read.' -- Penelope Lively

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0701173742
• ISBN 13: 9780701173746
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432