Share for friends:

A Breath Of French Air (2006)

A Breath of French Air (2006)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.96 of 5 Votes: 5
Your rating
ISBN
0141029641 (ISBN13: 9780141029641)
Language
English
Publisher
penguin

About book A Breath Of French Air (2006)

A year has passed since the conclusion of The Darling Buds of May and Pop and Ma Larkin have added baby Oscar to their family, Charley and Mariette are now married (but no bun in the oven or little one for them yet) but otherwise the family remains the same as ever. Ma is depressed by the summer rains though and when Charley sees a little piece on France in the newspaper, he’s reminded of the summers he spent there as a child and how deliciously warm and sunny it was. Ma is immediately interested and tells Pop that she wants to go to France for a lovely holiday, the whole family. Pop is a bit startled but after a bit of language instruction from Charley, he’s on board.Once they arrive in France though, all is not as they thought it would be. For a start, it’s literally pouring with rain. The hotel isn’t as Charley remembers it either, more run down and shabby. The food also isn’t quite in the volume or to the taste that the boisterous Larkin family is used to, with their voracious appetites. The hotel also has a little problem with Pop and Ma travelling on passports in different names, given they’re not actually married. Luckily Pop’s charm is able to get them out of that little problem!A Breath of French Air is the next novel in the series after The Darling Buds of May and I was very much looking forward to reading it, having enjoyed the first one so much. Very different to books I’m usually drawn to and if I didn’t have to read The Darling Buds of May for an online book club I’d never have read it of my own accord.Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this one anywhere near as much as the first one. I’ve never been to France so I know little about it, but it is well lauded for its food, culture and tourist spots so it was interesting to read a book that seemed to portray most of that so negatively. I know it’s English, and written in the early 60s, and I’m assuming it’s very tongue-in-cheek, given the whole first book is pretty much tongue-in-cheek but I felt this one lacked the fresh and charming humour of the first. I’m not sure if this series is just a one trick pony or if this book is just something that didn’t sit particularly well with me personally. There were flashes of good fun, but for a 137p book, quite a bit of it did drag. Weirdly, there’s a lot of obsession with breasts here, particularly Ma’s as she’s breastfeeding baby Oscar in this novel and we get this described to us in glorious technicolour detail many many times with the focus being on describing her breasts rather than the feeding itself. Then we get descriptions of Mariette’s breasts and even Pa noticing that their 11yo daughter is developing as well.As in the first, this one is rich with description and characterisation, the story just fell flat for me.

Do You like book A Breath Of French Air (2006)?

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/... back cover The fun is the boisterous conviviality and relaxed joy in traditional "sins". Ma 36 p 15 hankers for France, heat. Pop wants grandkids. So all ten Larkins flee their beloved junkyard England home in chilly wet August. Son-in-law "Charley" Charleton primes all with bon mots phrases a bientôt from his childhood remembered sunny seaside, drunkenly bursts beachballs athletic suitors "float towards .. every five minutes" p 73" his topless tanning new wife Marriette. Air is first stormy cold, tea straw-color weak, food tough, beef outside "charred .. [bloody] icy blue inside" p 81, bills overpriced "breathing charge" p 83.Ma's jolly bouncing bulk nurses newborn Oscar, squashes wicker chair, advises Pop "equal shares" p 182 among admirers, "variety" including elegant silk and cashmere clad Angela Snow, and custom sews her own bikinis. Pop admires landlady Mlle Dupont for black corset and Lily of the Valley muguet-scent. She notes Pop's bachelor passport and calls him "milord" for fancy monogrammed Rolls Royce, eccentricities. Attentive "golden and aristocratic" p 89 Angela encourages her to ask him about "his home is his castle" p 120.French women and children are pallid, unkempt, spotty, unfeminine sticks, far from fashionable. Servers are "unclean, uncut .. belly both hairy and sweaty" p 80 rude, filthy, far from cultured. Pokes fun at "très snob" p 81. Then Exaggerated "young men .. magnificent .. tall, athletic, bronzed and lissom. Innumerable protruding knots of muscle .. hair was always perfectly crimped and waved ..middles wore nothing but skin-tight pudding bags tied with string .. tirelessly exercising" p 70. Get drunk, amorous, and embrace physical pleasures. Pop concocts cocktails, improves "innocuous" looking punch, so everyone enjoys final "delectable" p 130 feast, 29 Aug Charley and Mariette's first anniversary festivities. Angela nearly kisses heads shorter hotel clerk Mr Mollett "bang in the center of the forehead" p 148, but "for keeps" p 150 Pop instead. Her strict preachy sister Iris, diet of anchovy paste on dry toast, claims "France is my mecca. Everything .. adored .. its food" p 143. On the moonlit beach, she "surrendered gladly" p 145. X-rating for topic, not delivery.Book ends with feeding "a wide handsome spread of maternal bosom exposed, ready to give Ma decides to christen "Oscar Columbus Septimus Dupont Larkin a little drop of the best" p 159. Invited to attend christening as godmother, Mlle Dupont does, I remember. Precocious Primrose 11 stays with "boyfriend" Marc-Antoine 12 p 137. Re-reading Larkin may be saturated to excess.
—An Odd1

download or read online

Read Online

Write Review

(Review will shown on site after approval)

Other books by author H.E. Bates

Other books in series the pop larkin chronicles

Other books in category Fiction