Fall Food, Films and Fiction

Tout d’abord, good news! We had a breakthrough on the healthcare/insurance front and I’ll soon be receiving my orthopedic device which will help physical therapy go much faster. I’ll still have to wear it for quite awhile before returning to Host Country, but each step brings me a little closer.

We had a few trick-or-treaters this year, more than I expected. Our neighborhood has changed over the years, but we still don’t have many families with young children running around. Oh well, at least Maman had bought licorice and animal crackers for treats instead of tempting candy bars. During my time at home, I have discovered a new passion for strawberry-yogurt covered breakfast bars. There was an attempt at instant mashed potatoes, which reminded me of le tô, the traditional dish par excellence in Host Country. I wish I could say that these memories imbued the dish with a taste akin to Proust’s madeleine, but alas, ‘twas not to be.

As for films, I’ve watched “Robin Hood,” “Perfume” and “The Girl Who Played with Fire” among others. I enjoyed listening to the Australian lead actors in Robin Hood chatter away in their British accents and was glad to hear a bit of French when the characters were a) in France or b) talking to a French person. Such historical realism was not to be found in “Perfume,” the story of a young man blessed with an over-stimulated sense of smell and cursed with a lust for possession. It was, cependant, still an enjoyable film with great acting by Dustin Hoffman. Quant au dernier film, I was a bit shocked as to how much of the book the production team had cut out, but they managed to keep the essential threads. What I’m really looking forward to is the third film. Sex crimes and murderous lairs reeking of criminals make for good dramatic cinema, but a psychologically-torturous courtroom drama will be a big change.

Enfin, I’m working my way through Lettres philosophes by Voltaire and Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. Both possess a key characteristic that keeps my reading interest: short units (letters and vignettes, respectively). Voltaire’s reflections on the relatively freedom of English reason and nobility compared to the stuffiness of Louis XV France are quite interesting in light of les Révolutions (Française et Américaine). It’s been a great vocabulary-enriching exercise to read tracts on religious philosophy and meditations on the composition of the cosmos while at the same time grappling with new verbs in the passé simple and arcane adjectives. Walls’ novel draws from her grandmother’s life and depicts a young woman’s growth in a period of great technological and cultural change. Each vignette about key episodes in Lily’s life is punctuated by reflections regarding family responsibility and savoir-faire. Fascinating read and a great follow-up to 2005’s The Glass Castle.