A French affair - Mary Blume

America and France have always had a special relationship. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the two have enjoyed a love affair of sorts. American journalist Mary Blume has also cultivated her own love affair with this often inscrutable country, an affair that spans more than thirty years and began when she first arrived in Paris, creating her renowned columns in the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE. As with the best chronicles of a time and a place, the narrator emerges through the text, only Mary Blume could have written these essays. Hers is a unique voice that has won her a devoted audience
In the simplest things the author reveals telling details. In a piece ostensibly about cooking lessons given by two well-meaning aristocrats, she lays bare the acute French sense of class; in a deadpan explanation of the byzantine process of changing street names, she captures the Kafkaesque French bureaucracy. Whether plumbing the nuances of their launguage, their rites, rules, or rituals; whether looking at the MONA LISA or the political arena, the places and personalities come alive with an uncanny ring of truth.
Ronald Searle's whimsical drawings, interspersed throughout, are a perfect complement to Mary Blume's charming observations.