Mademoiselle Benoir

“I am particular about the fiction I read, but this is such a joy to read--such a fabulous, unique story--set in my favorite of all places, France! That is why I chose the book, but it is a gem, and everyone that I have recommended it to has loved it!”

ksalyer wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007.


Seek and Ye Shall Find, January 22, 2007
Reviewer: Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA)

In her novel, "Mademoiselle Benoir," woman's health issues author, Christine Conrad arranges with the deftness of a Japanese floral artiste, a seemingly simplistic tableau of colors and textures that when assembled creates a rich and introspective insight into the realm of the human heart.

Written as a series of letters spanning a two year period, the plot focuses on thirty-eight year old Tim Reinhart, a former professor of mathematics who decides, on a studied impulse to sacrifice his solid academic life in New York to realize his dream to oil paint in the South of France. At first, Tim's letters reflect the typical American fascination with the cultural differences between the older French civilization and that of the socially fledgling United States/​ As in other novels and travelogues, Conrad showcases not only the French love of food but presents an amusing portrait interplaying the idiosyncrasies of pastoral life with caricatures of centuries old French "types." She moves into more philosophical ground when she abandons the usual tedious albeit exuberant descriptions of chateau, farmyard and countryside and approaches the bigger more nebulous question of what ultimately delivers happiness in the realm of human existence.

When Tim meets Catherine, a woman over twenty years his senior, the tone of his letters waxes contemplative. With great proficiency, Conrad enlightens the reader to Tim's growing affection for this regally beautiful woman prior to his realization that what he feels for her is more than just respect and admiration. In fact, this illustrates but one example of Conrad's forte as a writer; her ability to depict nuanced personality traits through the medium of letters allows her audience to understand each character's perspective without a third person description of physicality or motivation.

Complimenting the pleasant cadence and development of her plotline, Conrad successfully weaves in meaningful quotations, ideas and appropriate French factoids without allowing these to become contrived or unnecessary eye-rolling displays of too thorough research asides or "isn't that interesting" minutiae that shows off the writer's knowledge of subject matter yet detracts from the overall presentation. Indeed, this women's health advocate truly understands the importance of proper balance in life---hormonal or otherwise. Her sublime working of her own personal philosophy through the mouthpieces of her characters speaks well of her transition from youth to wisdom.

To this reader's great pleasure, Conrad reworks the usual American living abroad scenario to address larger issues that face all of us as we mature and realize that "stuff" and its accoutrements belong to a material world and have little to do with the unconscious drive for further development, both artistic and spiritual, that ultimately facilitates a human life worth living.

As the fox in Saint-Exupéry's Petit Prince dictates, one can only truly see with the heart. Conrad's "Mademoiselle Benoir" bypasses both the material and the physical world and operates solely in an ideal world where essentials count as the true pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Bottom Line? "Mademoiselle Benoir" surpasses my expectations, covering more ground than I thought possible in it's prettily packaged 230 pages. Each of the players through a thoughtful revelation and analysis of fact reveal themselves as fully fleshed our individuals. The events that link their lives together form a cohesive story to which the reader connects automatically, alternately through smiles and tears. If she fails she does so only in attempting to facilitate the scenery as an additional character. Her strong portrayals circumvent this need and perpetuate in the mind of the reader Balzacian models for human vice and virtue.

Hopefully Conrad will not ruin this effort by revisiting the characters in a sequel. In this instance, Conrad has written a near perfect story which needs no reprisal. Recommended highly.
Diana Faillace Von Behren


Mandahla: Mademoiselle Benoir Reviewed

Mademoiselle Benoir by Christine Conrad (Houghton Mifflin, $20, 0618574794, January 4)

Written in the form of letters and diary entries, Mademoiselle Benoir is a charming fantasy about love that grows unexpectedly in the French countryside. Tim Reinhart is a thirty-something assistant professor of mathematics who moves to a village in the region of Quercy, a place with 64 official inhabitants, including M. Meyrac's three goats. He wants to restore a farmhouse and find out if he can make a living as an artist, to get off the American treadmill of success and think of himself as "something more than an open mouth with a credit card." Catherine Benoir is a late-fifties Frenchwoman who lives in a neighboring chateau, which has been "abandoned to deteriorate at its own pace. You can almost hear crumbling bits falling to the ground in the night." They upset almost everyone in their families as well as the countryside, not when they fall in love, but when they decide to marry. Catherine's family would prefer her to be unhappy rather than inappropriate. Tim's family is worried about the generational and cultural differences. He thinks he understands the French, and their hostility to American incursions, which have "nothing especially positive to offer [except] the complete destruction of their society . . . for the French, tradition is an anchor. Change without an underpinning, without good soil beneath it, is just scorched earth." He discovers that he has no idea of just how little he understands.

The supporting cast is appealing: diabolical sister Pauline, who writes to her bishop and the pope to stop the marriage; aging Count de Poisson in his dusty, fading chateau; a silent sheepherder with a penchant for lawsuits; the chicken lady with a crush on Tim; and a sympathetic and wise abbé. Toss in a few pen-and-ink sketches, a hidden tunnel used by the resistance, marvelous descriptions of food and wine, and a miracle by the Virgin Mary and the result is a delightful concoction that will have you Googling "Quercy" and planning that next vacation.--Marilyn Dahl


From Library Journal
"They’ve Got Style"
By Barbara Hoffert with Ann Burns — October 1, 2006

Each season, LJ offers a retrospective of the previous season’s top debut novels to alert librarians to writers who bear watching. A few of those featured here, like Marie Arana and Patrick McManus, are familiar. But the star in this firmament is Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein, whose debut novel was also her swan song. Though we can expect no more from Wasserstein, her presence on this list is a reminder of what every new author can aspire to be.

Conrad, Christine. Mademoiselle Benoir. Houghton. ISBN 0-618-57479-4. $20.
Boosted by NPR’s Susan Stamberg, who called it “Peter Mayle meets Gail Sheehy,” this tale of a young American’s infatuation with an aristocratic Frenchwoman of a certain age was also a BookSense pick. “Catherine Deneuve would be a perfect Catherine; and for Tim, who else but Ashton Kutcher?” opined the New York Times Book Review. (LJ 11/​15/​05)


Stephanie Cowell, the author of 'Marrying Mozart', 08/​11/​2006, on Barnes & Noble:
a heartfelt, rich, and original love story
I am beginning my third reading of this lovely lovely novel. The story is so gentle and real. It is truly among my favorite novels...totally memorable.


Jacquelyn Mitchard ("The Deep End of the Ocean," 1st Oprah pick!) writes about MADEMOISELLE BENOIR on her website:

PASSION AND DIGNITY: MADEMOISELLE BENOIR
It's a subject not often written, and almost never well, this story of the older woman and the younger man. Only a few times has the tale itself been successful or even plausible -- I think of a novel written a few years back, called A MUCH YOUNGER MAN.

And even that was slightly unsavory, as the "attraction" began when the thirtysomething woman in question became the crush of a 15-year-old boy, the son of her best friend. It smacked a bit of the middle-school teacher and her hip-hop sweetheart to me.

In A MUCH YOUNGER MAN, out of decorum (and with an eye toward rape charges) they waited until the lad turned 18 before slipping between the sheets. When they did, it was much to the ire of the boy's mother, and you know, as the mother of teenage sons, I can't blame her, delicately as the story was told. They then slipped off to another country, the same country in which a similar but very different story, MADEMOISELLE BENOIR, is told.

MADEMOISELLE BENOIR (Houghton Mifflin) by Christine Conrad proves that a story such as this need not be the equivalent of the joke about a dog that stands on its hind legs -- it is not that the thing is done well, it's that it's done at all.

Mlle. Benoir takes far too many chances and gets away with all of them.

First, it's an epistolary novel, a dicey proposition at best, often as ho-hum as reading more than a page of someone else's diary. But the letters in MADEMOISELLE BENOIR crackle as they describe a love story of depth and power, between a young American artist aged 30 and an aristocratic Frenchwoman 20 years older.

That is, she is 50, the dread age no woman is ever supposed to attain and still retain a woman's desires and a woman's allure -- even today, when we're "past all that."

Fifty may be the new forty, but it's not the new thirty. As a man of my acquaintance put it -- very delicately -- when a 36-year-old pal of his fell in love with a 59-year-old woman, "I mean, she's gorgeous, but it's just.. disgusting."

This same acquaintance, I'm at pains to add, cheers his own father for having, at 60, a 35-year-old wife.

Nature still abhors a role reversal -- male nature, that is. And mabye female, too. Women can be as misogynist as the next NASCAR fan. Another acquaintance of mine told me recently about a fellow who dumped his intended (twelve years older) literally at the altar. "I mean, really, though," she said. "Did she ever dream he'd go through with it? What could a man his age have possibly seen in a woman her age?"

Well, in Conrad's lovely, lively novel, apparently quite a good deal.

The young American, Tim, even gives up a comely bride of tender years not just to woo but to marry the "spinster" Mademoiselle Benoir, the elder of two sisters of an ancient French family. He is very much the whiz-bang American boy, and she is very much the French swan; and yet she accepts his admiration as her due, and returns his passion -- although, in an absolutely charming twist, Mlle Benoir's Catholicism requires that they wait until their wedding night to consummate their love.

Witty, comely Catherine makes her parish pere blush when he praises what he assumes will be a platonic marriage for its recogniton of love on a higher plane. She confesses she woudln't be interested in love of that sort at all.

And though Tim's extraordinary parents are taken aback and full of cautionary remarks, and Catherine's sister flies into an absolute rage, and though even Catherine has moments of tristesse when she recognizes that she quite likely will not be able to give Tim children (not a wish that's on top of the stack of hankies in his drawer), the couple perseveres, despite knowing that her body will change more quickly than his, that he might outlive her, that there will be sniggers and suggestions about brash gold-diggers on gilded soil.

As Conrad describes it, the relationship is one of mutual respect and ineffable affection, which there is no reason to suspect that time will tarnish.

It's an interesting and touching novel, that works despite its quiet pace and unusual form, just as does the marriage of Mademoiselle Benoir.

And just as the marriage of Madame Mitchard does, eight years after she married a man twelve years younger than she.

Posted by Jackie Mitchard at June 11, 2006 08:47 PM



NPR's Morning Edition, June 2. In Susan Stamberg's "Swell Books for Summer Loafing" MADEMOISELLE BENOIR is the first pick! Stamberg calls the book "Peter Mayle meets Gail Sheehy." Bookseller Rona Brinlee describes the book as "A man's love affair with France's landscape, its people, its culture, and most importantly, Catherine, a continental woman of "a certain age," ...unfolds entirely in letters. Letters are a unique art form, and Christine Conrad's novel reveals their ability to convey thoughts and emotions that cannot be (or at least seldom are) said in person."


MADEMOISELLE BENOIR in the April 2006 issue of Orange Coast Magazine.

"There are enough issues in this novel to keep a reading group going for weeks. The story is about an American who moves to France and falls in love with a much older, aristocratic Frenchwoman. Told in the form of letters, the relationship spurs correspondence from his family in America and her family in Paris to the rural countryside about "a whole trunkful of French taboos." Conrad writes that "love is the glue of life and its greatest mystery," and everyone has their own opinion about the unlikely match, and the implications of age, culture, family, sexuality, and customs. Of course, there is a crumbling farmhouse, gastronomic delights, history, French bureaucracy, and art. A feast for true romantics."



A BOOK SENSE pick for January 2006! (Book Sense is the organization that represents thousands of US independent booksellers. Being a PICK is an honor and means that the book will be specially featured in all the bookstores for the entire month of January)

MADEMOISELLE BENOIR: A Novel by Christine Conrad (Houghton, $20, 0618574794) "When thirty-something Tim Reinhart gives up his busy New York City life and moves to rural France, he loves the people he meets, particularly one Mademoiselle Benoir, over 20 years his senoir. Told through letters, this novel is a journey to understand and hold onto this unusual love affair. C'est magnifique!" -- Megan O'Bryan, Scott's Bookstore, Mount Vernon, WA

NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW (3/​5/​06)

"A Year in Provence" meets "Le Mariage" in this epistolary first novel. Conrad, who has been an editor, screenwriter, and New York City Film Commissioner, tells the story of a 33-year-old mathematician from Manhattan who buys a decrepit farmhouse in France, determined to reinvent himself as an artist. In his new home, Tim Reinhart learns about French laws and customs, and when he mends a crumbling stone wall he inadvertently ignites a feud with a neighbor whose sheep can no longer get to a nearby meadow. But the pace really picks up when Tim falls in love, to the distress of her wealthy family, with Catherine Benoir, a much older woman who lives in a nearby chateau and is herself a painter. "Mademoiselle Benoir" combines middle-aged romance with lots of day-to-day detail about life in rural France. There are too many comparisons between the United States and France, and the lectures on French tradition sometimes becume wearying, but Conrad's novel is still a pleasant excursion. Catherine Deneuve would be a perfect Catherine; and for Tim, who else but Ashton Kutcher?


BOOKLIST(11/​5/​05):

What mother wouldn't be stunned by the news that the son she expected to return after a year living in France has purchased a farm in a desolate French valley? So begins Conrad's first novel, about a young, idealistic romantic American former mathematics teacher, now aspiring artist. Tim Reinhart's acculturation unfolds in a series of letters to family members and friends, revealing his frustration with academic life and an exuberant plunge into rural French life populated with gastronomic delights, idiosyncratic neighbors, and Gallic bureaucracy. Tim is introduced to the Benoirs, a nearby aristocratic family, and Catherine, one of the three sisters has the joie de vivre, sophistication and compassion that make her a kindred spirit to Tim, despite a significant age difference. Their friendship leisurely grows into love and a desire to marry, leading to repercussions on both sides of the Atlantic. The novel's epistolary format give a 360-degree view of events, providing an intimate look at the emotional reactions of each character. A thoroughly satisfying and thoughtful story of love
triumphant.


AOL BOOK MAVEN Bethann Patrick reviews the book. "What a charming novel..." Listen to the podcast using this link:
http:/​/​journals.aol.com/​bookmaven2005/​blog


READ THE GREAT REVIEW on www.europeforvisitors.com


From the widely-read daily book industry newsletter SHELF AWARENESS
Mademoiselle Benoir by Christine Conrad (Houghton Mifflin, $20, 0618574794, January 4)

Written in the form of letters and diary entries, Mademoiselle Benoir is a charming fantasy about love that grows unexpectedly in the French countryside. Tim Reinhart is a thirty-something assistant professor of mathematics who moves to a village in the region of Quercy, a place with 64 official inhabitants, including M. Meyrac's three goats. He wants to restore a farmhouse and find out if he can make a living as an artist, to get off the American treadmill of success and think of himself as "something more than an open mouth with a credit card." Catherine Benoir is a late-fifties Frenchwoman who lives in a neighboring chateau, which has been "abandoned to deteriorate at its own pace. You can almost hear crumbling bits falling to the ground in the night." They upset almost everyone in their families as well as the countryside, not when they fall in love, but when they decide to marry. Catherine's family would prefer her to be unhappy rather than inappropriate. Tim's family is worried about the generational and cultural differences. He thinks he understands the French, and their hostility to American incursions, which have "nothing especially positive to offer [except] the complete destruction of their society . . . for the French, tradition is an anchor. Change without an underpinning, without good soil beneath it, is just scorched earth." He discovers that he has no idea of just how little he understands.

The supporting cast is appealing: diabolical sister Pauline, who writes to her bishop and the pope to stop the marriage; aging Count de Poisson in his dusty, fading chateau; a silent sheepherder with a penchant for lawsuits; the chicken lady with a crush on Tim; and a sympathetic and wise abbé. Toss in a few pen-and-ink sketches, a hidden tunnel used by the resistance, marvelous descriptions of food and wine, and a miracle by the Virgin Mary and the result is a delightful concoction that will have you Googling "Quercy" and planning that next vacation.--Marilyn Dahl

EXCERPT FROM PALM BEACH POST Sunday section review, January 22, 2006, by Scott Eyman

"The book is well-observed.. a day trip to the exquisite French countryside."


RECORD-COURIER (OHIO)
February 10, 2006
One for the Books
By Mary Louise Ruehr
"...and just in time for Valentine’s Day, here's a book entirely written in letters...It’s a romance... “Mademoiselle Benoir” by Christine Conrad is at once an old-fashioned love story and a completely modern one.

At the age of 33, Tim Reinhart buys an old farmhouse in France. Once an assistant professor, he has removed himself from the “American treadmill of success” to concentrate on his drawing. But mom and dad back in New York City aren’t happy that their son has moved to France. So they write, he writes, everybody writes. As Reinhart explains, “Sometimes it is easier to pull up the deeper layers of what’s going on in one’s mind in a letter,” so we get to see intimate details of his life.

When he falls in love, he has to deal with disapproving relatives, French laws and the Catholic church. Through the epistolary format, we witness the same event from different people and, as we see more than one side of the characters, they become very real.

Reinhart describes the lively, quirky personalities in the neighborhood and the clash of cultures. He shares his love for the French countryside, “the way it spreads itself out before you in great waves, so you can appreciate every turn in the road.”

The book makes the reader think about relationships, how everything changes when one’s needs and priorities change. It’s an enchanting story packaged in a lovely little book."

DAILY EVERGREEN, March 20, 2006
Carrie Plucker

I think Christine Conrad’s book, “Mademoiselle Benoir,” is one of the most beautiful books I have read in a long time.

And when I say beautiful, I mean it in the literal sense.

The book is filled with glorious descriptions of French houses and countryside; descriptions which make the reader feel as if they have been transported to a different world.

Conrad writes this book as a series of letters between different characters in the book. At first I was afraid the tactic would grow tiresome, but in fact, it makes the book that much more fun to read.

One of the main characters of the novel, Tim Reinhart, has just moved to the country in France, having grown tired of the fast-paced New York life.

Tim is an artist and one day at a gallery, he meets a woman named Pauline who is anxious to introduce Tim to her sister, Catherine, who is also an artist.

After meeting Catherine, Tim begins spending most of his days with her and painting at her beautiful, expansive chateau. Even though she is 20 years older than him, the two become fast friends.

However, during the course of several months, the friendship blossoms into a love affair.

Conrad’s novel focuses on the trials the two lovers face in their quest to become man and wife, having to overcome family prejudices and many attempts of sabotage.

One of the best ways to describe the book is to compare it to the movie “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” This book is basically that same story, only relocated to France.

I felt that using personal letters to tell the story of Tim and Catherine’s relationship was a successful maneuver by the author. The letters manage to give each character a voice, and makes it easier for the reader to see the characters for who they really are.

By using the letters, even supplementary characters are given a very strong position in the book as a whole.

Conrad also paces her book very moderately so the reader has time to get into the story and learn about the characters before the real action begins.

I appreciated this aspect, although at times I found myself rushing to turn the page to find out what happened next. The story is quite intoxicating.

As already mentioned, the story is a beautiful one to read. The descriptions are superb, and the story as a whole is a classic tale of love and sacrifice. However, there are points in the book which feel repetitive, and sometimes the story drags on unnecessarily.

In conclusion, for readers in the mood for a relaxing love story, I believe this book will satisfy that craving.

READ THE APRIL INTERVIEW ON THE EZINE CURLED UP WITH A GOOD BOOK
http:/​/​www.curledup.com/​intconra.htm



Check back soon to read more reviews of Mademoiselle Benoir.