Lauren CollinsRecensioni

I read this book on vacation, and it was the perfect time for it. The book doesn't really go anywhere, it's more just the voyage of one woman's life with some musings on the ways in which language and culture inform so much of how we see our lives. It's a little meandering, but I was fine with that.

A very well-written memoir about learning French and marrying a Frenchman (and languages in general). She explores the differences between languages, how there is not always a one-to-one equivalent, how a different language can even have an effect on how you think, how difficult relationships can be when you don't have a shared maternal tongue. It's a good addition to the American in Paris memoir genre.

Madame Collins was an American working in London when she fell in love with a French man. They lived in Geneva for his job and as she realized how much she was missing in the present, communication with her in- laws and neighbors, and how much she would miss in the future as their children grew up speaking French, Madame Collins decided to actively learn the language.

This book chronicles the personal intricacies of a relationship conducted in second languages, interspersed with a multitude of information on the study of language, the French and English languages, how languages shape us, etc.

I particularly enjoyed her evolution of thought as she became fluent in French. A very enjoyable book.

More of a fantasy of wild privilege with asides about language and history than a memoir...

I am a big fan of travel writing, and certainly enjoyed the set of tales and adventures offered by the authors who contributed to the 2017 edition. I do read a lot of this type of book, and have to admit that these are some of the best written. However, they are not necessarily the ones I enjoy the most, or find the most interesting. One complaint - the publishers have cheaped out on type set and print, so the font is very small and closely spaced. This makes it difficult to read and detracts from the enjoyment of the book. Last words: Its a good read for the armchair and actual traveller alike..½

I really liked this book and found that a lot of the things Collins has to say about cross-cultural marriages resonated with me. (My husband and I speak the same native language, but I was raised Southern Baptist and he was raised Jewish, and I found that many of the frustrations Collins describes apply.)

It's very well-written, as one would expect of a New Yorker writer. I think it could have been a little tighter, but it's a pretty short book so I suppose she felt the need to stretch. Perfect Yom Kippur afternoon reading -- interesting but light enough that it didn't tax my tired, hungry brain.

As an armchair traveller, I look forward to the yearly release of ‘The Best American Travel Writing.’ The 2017 edition by Lauren Collins lived up to my expectations.

Collins has included essays from publications as diverse as ‘The Virginia Quarterly Review,’ ‘BuzzFeed,’ and ‘Creative Nonfiction,’ to the usual mix of ‘New Yorker,’ ‘NYT,’ and ‘Harper’s Magazine’ offerings.

I confess that most of the authors are unfamiliar to me, but with the wide variety of style and subject offered, I had no trouble finding essays that I enjoyed reading. I found Tom Bissell’s story, “My Holy Land Vacation,” exploring the connections between the US religious Right and Israel thought-provoking. But it was Kantor and Einhorn’s “Refugees Hear a Foreign Word: Welcome” that I found most intriguing.

I can give the potential purchaser a list of others that I particularly enjoyed, but, perhaps, more to the point would be a quick topic list: whale hunting in Alaska, locating a plane wreck in the mountains of Bolivia, and hunting mycorrhizal fungi. The offerings are varied and most, if not all, are both entertaining and informative.

(A free review copy was provided by the publisher.)

A delightful book for anyone interested in language and linguistic theory; made even more readable by the personal story of the author falling in love with a Frenchman and moving to Geneva.

Interesting, in-depth look at language and expressing one's personality from a unilingual American woman who married a French man and gradually became bilingual

Not bad, but not at all as advertised. At least half, if not more, of this short book is focused on linguistic theory about many languages (other than French), and the author's early family life (not in France). The author's travails learning to speak French like a native and her relationship to her French born husband seem like an afterthought, not the main story.

I really liked this book and found that a lot of the things Collins has to say about cross-cultural marriages resonated with me. (My husband and I speak the same native language, but I was raised Southern Baptist and he was raised Jewish, and I found that many of the frustrations Collins describes apply.)

It's very well-written, as one would expect of a New Yorker writer. I think it could have been a little tighter, but it's a pretty short book so I suppose she felt the need to stretch. Perfect Yom Kippur afternoon reading -- interesting but light enough that it didn't tax my tired, hungry brain.

Entertaining and educational memoir by an American journalist married to a Frenchman. Living in Geneva, and attempting to communicate with her in-laws and to understand her husband culturally, she commits to learning French. She recounts the rewards and pitfalls of language acquisition and adds to her personal experience with historical and scientific perspective. Felt a little disorganized.½

3.6/5