La Vie: A year in rural France

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The rituals of rural France, whether queuing for a baguette or sipping a noisette (espresso with a ‘nut’ of milk) while watching the world go by, are effective barriers to the rush of modern times. Somehow, in France, at least outside of Paris, Marseille and Lyon, there is still time. Time to be. Time to do nothing at all. I loved the plot of this book, although it did feel a little long when listening to it. Again, that could just be because of my dwindling attention span, but while I did enjoy the art heist aspect, it didn’t seem necessary. The story would’ve been better rounded out if our protagonist’s relationship with Marco, a childhood acquaintance, was the core plot point. Kid, Rose’s Paris fling, could’ve still been included in the story, but rather as another American turned Parisian simply guiding her throughout the city. It would’ve kept the jealousy trope that I, as an angst lover, always root for, relevant and balanced. In the grand scheme of it all, even when we learn about the details behind the great Parisian art heist, it seemed very anticlimactic. The consequence of it all just seemed very unrealistic.

As for Rose’s character, I’m a little conflicted. As the oldest Zadeh sister, she’s a pathological people pleaser. I empathized with her, but there were many times when enough was enough. She didn’t stand up for herself until the very end of the novel and it made the pacing drag out too long only to feel rushed at the end. She let everyone walk all over her, and yes, I say let because, from her inner dialogue, it’s clear that this is a conscious decision. She believes that defending herself will ruffle too many feathers. Sometimes rural France is older still. While we were house-hunting and renting the mill in the hedged bocage of northern Deux-Sevres the birdsong was of medieval intensity. Here, in our corner of woods and arable fields in eastern Charente-Maritime, we are at Renaissance level.The rise and fall of the communists, the parti des fusillés, makes up one of the most interesting threads, along with the fortunes of the left in general. Kedward is sympathetic to the left's cause, while the right (most of it on the left side of Tony Blair) fares less well. Giscard d'Estaing's attempt at meeting the left in the centre draws Kedward's admiration, however, while a kind of subliminal despair is reserved for the anti-semitic extremism of the Front National's predecessors - groups such as Action Française or the Croix-de-Feu in the 30s, which made Vichy possible and thus the zealous deportation of more than 75,000 Jews to near-certain death. La Vie, According to Rose, Lauren Parvizi’s debut novel, is a compelling tale of grief, self-discovery, and new beginnings. Everyone who is British living in France profonde utters, as axiomatic, ‘France is like the Britain of our childhood’, by which they mean, depending on their certain age, the 1950s or the 1970s or 1990s.

Lauren Parvizi, the author of “La Vie, According to Rose,” has written a provocative, memorable, and heartfelt novel. The genres for this book are fiction, women’s fiction, and contemporary. I love how the author vividly describes her dramatically flawed characters as complex and complicated. Emotionally, my reaction was screaming and shaking some selfish characters. In life, there are givers and takers. In this book, the author discusses the importance of self-worth, finding and accepting oneself, second chances, finding a balance, and the importance of family and friends.In this book, he describes a year on his farm, the birdsong, the wildlife, the crops, the villagers and some of the nuances of French culture, all in his beguiling, poetic style.