A Gift from Brittany

Summary (from the publisher): The enchanting memoir of an artist's liberating sojourn in France during the sixties— and the friendship that transformed her life.

 

While in her late twenties, Marjorie Price (Midge) does something especially daring for a single woman in the 1960s: She leaves the comfort of her suburb to strike out on her own in Paris to hone her artistic talents. Dazzled by everything French, she meets and falls in loves with Yves, a volatile French painter. Their whirlwind romance leads to marriage, the birth of a daughter, and the purchase of an old farmhouse in the Breton countryside to spend their summers. There, surrounded by villagers who dress in black, speak an ancient patois, and whose lives have changed little since the Middle Ages, Midge encounters a world she never knew existed.

Yves's support for Midge's painting soon vanishes, and he reveals a darker side. As their seemingly idyllic marriage begins to unravel, she leaves Yves in Paris and moves to the country. Alone with her young daughter on a remote farm, her friendship with an elderly peasant woman deepens. Jeanne Montrelay is sixty-eight. She is illiterate, has three cows to her name, and has never left the village. Their differences are staggering - an "odd couple" with nothing in common - yet they forge a friendship that transforms each other's lives.

During the years that Midge lives in the village, the advent of electricity, telephones, tractors, and television propels the hamlet, willingly or not, into the twentieth century. The old way of life disappears. But in A Gift from Brittany, Marjorie Price's charming and moving memoir, the village comes to life again.

Review: This charming memoir recounts the author's experiences of an American woman living alone in the Breton countryside and her deep and life altering friendship with an elderly peasant woman. Originally purchased as a summer home, Midge finds herself living alone with her daughter in the Breton farmhouse when her marriage falls apart. Unexpectedly, this painter from Chicago forms a close bond with Jeanne, a peasant woman who has never travelled outside of her village. Although Midge eventually moves away, this period of her life and friendship changed her life for the better.

It was hard to read about the gradual breakdown of Midge's marriage from a passionate romance to an abusive relationship. Although they were both painters when they met, Yves unexpectedly begins to undercut Midge's painting. He first refers to her painting as just "a hobby" (50) but later explicitly forbids her from painting. Without further explanation, he tells her that "it is no longer possible" for her to continue painting. When he discovers that she has continued to paint in secret, he takes a machete to her paintings. Later, he becomes physically abusive but tells her that it is her fault for forcing him to act that way.

But at heart, this novel is not about her marriage, or its collapse, but about the impact of the countryside and Jeanne. It was remarkable to me that Jeanne, a woman who had never left her village or even seen the ocean, would be so receptive to an American who was so different from herself. For Midge, Jeanne represents kindness, a ceaseless work ethic and resourcefulness, and a constantly generous spirit. . "Watching her as she bustled around the fireplace and stove, I felt I was watching my mother as I remembered her when I was small, or how, as a child, I used to watch my grandmother putter around the kitchen. Sometimes it seemed I had stepped back in time so I might know her. I had left the present and was reliving a time that no longer existed, watching across the room an ancestor who I had loved more than anyone, past, present, or future" (238). It's also inspiring to see Jeanne go out of her comfort zone and allow Midge to take her on trips to see the ocean, to go out on a boat, and to sightsee in Paris - new and amazing experiences for an isolated peasant woman.

This was a simple, sweet read about the collide of two women's lives who represented two different worlds but yet found a way to bond and connect despite their differences.

Review: 3