Mademoiselle Benoir

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2/01/09

Dear Christine

Brava! I've been meaning to write to you for days. You wrote a
fascinating tale of Paul and Genvieve. All the details and
descriptions of life in this remote French countryside with its
crumbling chateaux. exquisite landscapes, remote seminaries and
poverty-stricken aristocracy are wonderfully researched and
delineated....as well as antique French laws. And as a little aside I
loved the menu descriptions Also all the Parisian details and the
apartment on Rue de Varenne are great. It goes without saying that the
love affair is beautifully and sensitively written. As a movie this
would bring into the cinemas every women over 40--let alone 50 or 60!
The story has a terrific built-in audience. And you were certainly
right to have taken some 10 years off her age.

I have just been reading some of your glowing reviews and it truly is
a perfect role for Catherine Deneuve. Savvy as you are I'm sure you
have figured out how to get the story to her.
But there are other excellent aging actresses--Micheline Prell for one
although I think she has put on too much weight.. It is too bad
Delphine Seyrig is not alive--she would have been perfect. I was
amused to see the picks for Ashton Kutcher. Knowing Paul, of course,
this would not be my choice, but then I think the fictional Tim is
quite a different creation,,,and very sound for a film romance.

The letters from Shirley really sound like her. Speaking of Shirley
I'm sure you have spoken to her since George died. The hardest time is
still ahead of her. With the diminution of living with sickness, next
comes the dead silence. I fear that loss is something from which none
of us escape.

It was a pleasure meeting you. I had a most enjoyable evening and we
certainly had a few laughs. Hopefully we can meet another time when
you are in New York. Shirley said she is planning George's memorial
concert for May. Will you come in for that?

My sincerest thanks for giving me a superb reading experience,

All good wishes and Happy Chinese New Year.

Cecile Bazelon



July 26, 2008
Dear Ms. Conrad,

I just finished Mademoiselle Benoir and I had to write to tell you how thoroughly I enjoyed the book. It resonated with me on so many levels, I immediately handed it to my boyfriend (if I were more French, I’d say “lover”, but for these purposes “he who is 12 years younger than me” will suffice) and said “The part of Trudi will be played by Pauline.” Trudi is, of course, his mother. Let’s just say you nailed the reaction to our relationship and Pauline has nothing on Trudi.

I also thoroughly enjoyed your descriptions of the French landscape and people. For Catherine and Tim it was painting, for Chris and me it’s writing—and one of the wonderful things to come about from our shared passion has been a friendship with an American writer, Rachel, married to a 7th generation French winemaker, Raphael. From that came annual writers retreats combined with wine tasting tours based at their bed & breakfast in the southern Rhone Valley. We’ve run these retreats 3 years now and I still can’t figure out the French. But I love it there nonetheless and miss it the moment we leave. I’m going to buy another copy and send your book to our friend Rachel —I think she will appreciate your writings on how the French view Americans, since she is struggling with this daily (she lives on the vineyard with Raphael and their three daughters in the same home with her in-laws!—and is documenting it in her blog (www.rachelpommier.typepad.com)).

Thank you for a completely enjoyable read. If our little retreats ever get to the point we can invite guest authors, you will be high on our list!

Teresa Rhyne
Words & Wine, LLC
www.wordsandwine.com



July 19, 2007

What a wonderful book. I could barely put it down. I can see why you want to make a film from it. Writing the screenplay will be daunting but great fun. The casting will be crucial.


Since the character of Tim is 34 when the book starts -- and everyone keeps saying she is 20 years older -- Catherine is 54 when the book starts. Maybe by the time the movie is made Juliette Binoche will be "old" enough.


My dearest friend from college who is now 59 is married to a man 25 years younger than she. They've been married seven years and together three years before that. So I kept thinking about Elaine and Nick when reading this book and how so many of the issues (NOT the French families) raised were issues Elaine and Nick faced...mainly what happens when she's 70, what happens if he changes his mind and wants children (like Tim in the novel, Nick likes children but didn't want any of his own). Mostly they decided what Tim and Catherine decided -- they'd face that when they had to -- wouldn't anticipate it beyond realizing they may face it.


I loved so many of the lines in the book -- particularly about life taking bravery. And about how Catherine's family would prefer her to be unhappy rather than inappropriate.


I certainly hope this movie gets made.


Thank you so much for sharing this book with me. Chris did a wonderful job!


C

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Dear Christine, Your book, Mlle. Benoir, has touched my heart. You are an exquisite writer and I felt so in touch the the feelings of the characters throughout my entire journey of your novel. It was so engaging to experience a new culture through the writings of Tim, a young American male. Your talent shines in showing the depth of his feelings as he explores, develops and learns about the love that we all desire. Your insights into Pauline's lack of such a love shed such a light on her actions. Christine, your talent is so clear in your writings. Thank you for sharing this beautiful story with me. Kathy Christ

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Re: More!!

Such a good read--hated to finish it because I so enjoyed the correspondence. Any chance that there will be a follow-up or two. Write on.

Sincerely,

Sami Sharkey


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An unforgettable discovery,

Dear Christine Conrad,

I met you a few days ago at the bookstore in Cape Cod and bought a signed copy of your book. I just started reading it this evening and it is now almost 11:30 pm and I have just finished it. I could not put it down! Not only was it an excellent story but your style of writing really brought it to life. I felt like I knew the characters and grew to love them in the end. I believe that letters are a very personal way of expressing ones feelings, giving the reader a sense of belonging in the story. I just want to thank you very much for signing my copy and sending me on an unforgettable journey to France.

Sincerely,
Megan Cornaglia

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On Jun 19, 2006, at 4:23 PM, Chriscoprd@aol.com wrote:


Dear Jackie,
What a wonderful surprise to come upon your post about Mademoiselle Benoir! The wonderful Jane Gelfman tells me that she passed my book along to you.

I'm especially glad that you took up the issue of the resistance (solidly built into the DNA of the species) to the idea of an older woman with a younger man.

It can be a terrible discovery for a woman at 50 that she has lost not just her allure for men but also her value. That's when the realization that it truly is "a man's world" sinks in, because when she looks around, she sees men of fifty gaining on the allure and value fronts. And you are so right that women can collude in this devaluation.

I was interested to see recent articles in the business section of the LA Times which describe how advertisers, hoping to appeal to baby boomers, are now using Diane Keaton, Catherine Deneuve, both well past 50, for cosmetic ads. I hope this means some progress!

Thank you for your beautiful words about my book...I am very grateful, especially because you have shared them with your own readers.

Fortunately, there are men out there who love and value their older women. I have quite a few friends who like yourself belong to the OWYM club.... My man and I have an age difference of 9 years, and have been together now for 7.

Warmest wishes,

Chris C.

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Reply from Jackie Mitchard, June 19th

Thanks.
It's a lovely book, to look at, to read and to believe in.
Jackie

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Dear Ms. Conrad:

I did not know where to write you before so I put a review on Amazon, which is actually better in the end! I so love your novel. I am on my second reading, half through and treasure it. I sit in bed and read so happily.

I am also a novelist; my last novel is “Marrying Mozart” from Viking Penguin. I came to that through years as a classical singer. I was particularly drawn to yours because I have been working on (struggling with) a novel about Claude Monet at 25 and learning French by bits (struggling with!) Your novel is so delicate, so exquisite, it just takes you by surprise and leaps into the heart. I noticed it was on NPR and am very happy for you.

I was curious about the genesis of the novel, and glad to read your words on your website.

Best of luck to you!

Sincerely,
Stephanie Cowell
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Dear Stephanie,
I can't imagine receiving a more gratifying letter about my book. That you are yourself an accomplished writer makes it even more so.

What's a book without a reader who can really understand it? And then, so rarely achieved, to have been truly moved by it?

After Mlle. B was published I was very surprised by early reviews. They were positive overall, and I was grateful for them, but they didn't seem to be talking about the book that I thought I had written. The reviewers spoke of a "pleasant excursion" to France or an "interesting family melodrama." But then blessedly, finally, came reviews and letters from people like yourself who let me know that I did succeed in cracking through to their spiritual zone!

I learned from my years working as a screenwriter that for a work to succeed it needs to please a generalized audience on many different levels... a person can only absorb and understand at their own level... I remember a particular script of mine that received two separate reader reports at the same studio...Usually you would never see such reports, but I somehow came to read them. The first was shockingly negative...my script was just the worst piece of writing on the planet. But then the second was totally positive! This writer raved on and on... I could have written the report myself.

Do you know my book about Jerome Robbins? It is a pictorial biography, published in 2001. You can look it up on Amazon. If I succeeded with Mlle. B, I owe more than I can say to his influence on me. As far as I know, he used Mozart music for only one ballet, Rondo, a small work and no longer in the NYCB repertoire. He was definitely more of a Chopin man! But I think you will find so much to inspire you (and maybe help you along on your Claude Monet project?), as I framed the book with his own words describing his life-long struggle to "create."

Warm wishes,

Chris Conrad


PS. I have ordered your "Marrying Mozart" from Amazon. I noticed that the Weber sisters have more than a glancing similarity to the "Benoir sisters."

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Dear Chris,

How kind of you to order my novel! Yes, you're so right...people understand on their own level and sometimes they seem to misunderstand so incredibly! I just seek out books that have spiritual depth, and those are the ones I love. Yours has...I finished my second reading happily and recommended it in Colorado where I just spoke.

I was out of town for several days, so sorry to take so long to respond. And I am a little brain dead because my hopefully final submission draft of my Monet novel is going to my agent end of this week and I have lots of work to do on some sections still! She has some editors interested in looking at it now, and I am a little troubled that I haven't found a real market village for my heroine to come from so I created one...but maybe when it's taken (fingers crossed) I can go to rural France. Of all things, the novel has taken up so much time I have not been working on my French.

I think your being born outside the French culture made you able to see it and portray it clearly.

I see your reading in Bookhampton. I love that store! That's where I saw my first published novel for the first time in the window. I was out there with some fellow writers on a retreat weekend. It did not occur to me to write them for a possible reading....I have stopped doing things for my Mozart book because...I ran out of me!

I hope to read your Jerome Robbins book this year.

Do let me know if you read near or in NYC! thanks again for your treasure of a book, so very human, so simple and yet so deep...so many lines I have to stop and read again. If I lived in France I would be a Catholic I think but I am a high Episcopalian with yoga/meditation deeply mixed in.

Best,

Stephanie


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Dear Christine,

A friend of mine gave me this book as a gift and said she knew you when young in New York. You were an older sister of her friend.
At any rate I too am a francophile as well as a francophone having studied French now for eighteen years and traveled throughout France once or twice a year since then.
Your descriptions of the countryside were perfect and your knowledge of the traditions of French culture and government was impressive. But most of all you know about love and passion and the simplest elements in life.
I am a woman of a certain age (une dame d'un certain age) and so I identified with Catherine although I am happily married to my childhood sweetheart for 41 years now.
I am often out in LA because my daughter and her growing brood live there and it would be delightful to meet you sometime and discuss these things that we have in common. If that is not possible, then I await your next book which I hear takes place in Paris. I love reading about Paris too because I can picture all the streets and boulevards, especially in the 6th and 7th arrondissments.
Thank you for adding to the joy in my life,

Gayle Rovnick