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127th out of 240 books
—
290 voters
Chez Moi
At forty-three, Myriam has been a wife, mother, and lover—but never a restauranteur. When she opens Chez Moi in a quiet neighborhood in Paris, she has no idea how to run a business, but armed only with her love of cooking, she is determined to try. Barely able to pay the rent, Myriam secretly sleeps in the dining room and bathes in the kitchen sink, while struggling to com...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
April 29th 2008
by Penguin Books
(first published 2006)
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I think sometimes we review books based on the actual merits of the book...is the grammar correct? Do they use the words cold and hard to describe the main character 500 times too many? Are the sentences perfectly formed or can a high school student create more interesting sentences and plot devices? But sometimes there are certain books that we love because they speak to us. We relate on some level with the characters in the story. It's subjective and unquantifiable. Yes the book is written wel...more
Mar 09, 2012
Judy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
readers who enjoy character development more than plot
Shelves:
female-author,
tbr-for-2012
I've been eyeing this book on my overflowing bookshelf for the longest time, and finally just pulled it out and read it. This book is definitely written in a style some folks would not appreciate. There's not a great deal of action, only a handful of characters, and the story unfolds somewhat by stream of consciousness from the inner thoughts of Myriam. She is a very unusual character, and yet not so entirely unlike the rest of us. Some things in her life went well, some went very very badly. So...more
Amie sent me this book awhile back and I have to say it was fun reading a book with the same title as my blog!
Myriam is a 43-year-old woman who lost her maternal love for her child when he was 3 days old. Years later, she left her family, worked for a time as a cook for a circus, and then opened a small Parisian restaurant called Chez Moi. The portions of the book that deal with her son and her past were somewhat difficult for me to read, if only because I didn't completely relate to her, but th...more
Myriam is a 43-year-old woman who lost her maternal love for her child when he was 3 days old. Years later, she left her family, worked for a time as a cook for a circus, and then opened a small Parisian restaurant called Chez Moi. The portions of the book that deal with her son and her past were somewhat difficult for me to read, if only because I didn't completely relate to her, but th...more
WITH a cover featuring prominent blurbs by Kim Edwards (The Memory Keeper's Daughter) and Karen Joy Fowler (The Jane Austen Book Club), it is clear that the publisher is aiming to capture the commercial domestic literature market with the English translation of this French novel.
Indeed, it is easy enough to describe Chez Moi as a charming and touching read. However, this novel has a philosophical core that gives it a subtler taste than its American counterparts.
The narrator is Myriam, a 43-year-...more
Indeed, it is easy enough to describe Chez Moi as a charming and touching read. However, this novel has a philosophical core that gives it a subtler taste than its American counterparts.
The narrator is Myriam, a 43-year-...more
The book is marred by an oblique ending. I despise oblique endings. I think they're a sign of laziness on the part of the author. All book editors should call up authors and say, "Umm, we love your novel, as far as it goes. An ending would make it perfect." The story itself is weird and interesting and full of great lines and thoughts. I enjoyed it, until the ending (or lack of one). It was a five star novel up til the point of the let-down ending.
Crummy no-ending aside, I fell in love with sent...more
Crummy no-ending aside, I fell in love with sent...more
Forty-three years old, trailing secrets and extravagant lies, Myriam has just convinced a bank to give her a loan to open a small restaurant in the Eleventh Arrondissement of Paris. Chez Moi is a modest place, but the name alone signifies its importance. Too poor to rent an apartment, Myriam must live in the restaurant, sleeping on a banquette and bathing in the (thankfully) deep kitchen sink. The restaurant would be her last chance to create a new, stable life for herself.
Six years earlier, Myr...more
Six years earlier, Myr...more
There were some parts of this book I didn't appreciate, but for the most part, this book was enjoyable to read. The author's writing style and language (it was a translation, however, so I'm sure I was reading it secondhand through an interpreter) were so different from most other authors - she was a metaphorical master, drawing connections between seemingly unconnected things. She could fill up a page with a detailed description. I loved the feel of this book. The story itself was interesting,...more
Written in a mainly stream-of-consciousness style, we learn first-hand what motivates the heroine of the novel. Since this method is sometimes deceptive because it's so subjective, you're not sure whether to trust the narrator. The storyteller is a 43-year-old French Jewish woman by the name of Myriam who seems to be an inveterate con artist who loves to cook and read, but is as poor as a church mouse. She has a deep, dark secret that's slowly revealed over the course of the novel. You definitel...more
In Chez Moi by Agnes Desarthe, Myriam opens a restaurant in a quiet neighborhood in Paris, and she has no idea what she is getting herself into.
As her restaurant's (Chez Moi) business begins to pick up, the mystery of Myriam's life begins to unfold. It was interesting to see how she went from wife to mother to circus cook. While her past is very appealing, I wish I could say the same for Myriam in the present. She seemed a little...strange really. But on the same side - likeable. I felt bad for...more
As her restaurant's (Chez Moi) business begins to pick up, the mystery of Myriam's life begins to unfold. It was interesting to see how she went from wife to mother to circus cook. While her past is very appealing, I wish I could say the same for Myriam in the present. She seemed a little...strange really. But on the same side - likeable. I felt bad for...more
I am very torn with this book about whether I liked it or not. The writing was beautiful, but the story, not so much. It starts out very good, but it takes an inconceivable and rather distasteful turn about 3/4 of the way through. I appreciate books and the topics that they deal with, when dealt with in a tasteful manner. But, I felt that this book did not. I am sorry, but to me there is nothing tasteful or redemptive about a middle aged woman sleeping with a 16 year old boy. It did show that th...more
I have to agree with another reviewer. Sometimes this book was a little tedious. I wanted Miriam to just get over her insecurities and live! but there were moments of beauty in the book and passages I would underline and reread if it weren't a library copy.
This novel, written in an almost folkloric, even a dream-like style, raises some questions about being and love that are deeply thought provoking. Myriam improbably opens a small restaurant and ends up living there also, since she does not have enough money for a place to live. She has been estranged from her family, especially her son Hugo, after a scandal and betrayal that tore her world apart. This is a story of coming to terms with one's self and one's flawed past, learning to open oneself t...more
I loved the writing in the book so much that I would go back a few pages and reread sections every time I picked it up. I didn't like everything about the main character, especially the nature of her ultimate sin, but I identified with her inner voice. Her view of herself and her own twisted nature made complete sense to me. I also really loved some of the philosophical jaunts and I still find myself pondering some of her questions. And finally, I liked that the book abruptly ended without a nea...more
I picked this up at our library book sale attracted by both the cover and several nice blurbs. It's odd but also sweet and philosophical. Myriam is 43, depressed, probably a little crazy and not yet recovered from a traumatic family breakup. She decides to open a simple restaurant in Paris with the thought that cooking for others might be redemptive for all. It's not as good as Chocolat or Like Water for Chocolate but it does have lovely passages about food wonderfully prepared, the joy of unexp...more
I loved this book about a fallen woman who opens a French restaurant with no sign to indicate "restaurant" and very little business sense. The main character Myriam has a strange mind and a vivid imagination - usually for disaster scenarios. Sometimes her low self-esteem was so predictable I felt annoyed (even though I know it can be just like that) but otherwise I enjoyed the dark and sometimes lyrical writing, and also the other quirky characters. The way Myriam narrates food, and the dishes s...more
I've been reading alot of books by contemp. French authors as of late and thorougly enjoying them. Since I read this one in the hospital last year during last round of chemo when I was kind of down for the count, alot of it was kind of blurry if you know what I mean. So I reread last month, and wow did I enjoy it. A very unusual story, but I really identified with narrator. Felt by the end of the book that what I really wanted to do was go to her little restaurant and have a long chat with her o...more
Couldn't finish this one. Some of the words I saw in reviews for this book were "tender" and "profound." I disagree. I thought it was self-indulgent, myopic and whiny. Oh, Myriam had beautiful ways of looking at things. She could wax eloquent about food and herbs growing in a garden, but couldn't find it in herself to love her own son. I was trying to stick it out, but when she was able to feel all that maternal love for a child not her own--that was the last straw. Wallow in self-pity all you l...more
Chez Moi is the story of Myriam, forty-three, who opens a restaurant in Paris. She has no idea how to run a restaurant, but has a love for cooking. As she struggles to run the restaurant, we also see her struggling to come to terms with her past, which we find out about in little pieces throughout the novel. As she continues to infuse her dishes with her love, Myriam begins to heal herself and find a second chance at life and love as she reconnects with her family after a six year absence or exi...more
I had a bit of a hard time enjoying this strange little book. The protagonist, Myriam, is a damaged woman looking for a new start. She opens a restaurant in Paris, the setting for the book. She has a secret from her past that has alienated her from her family, including her now-college-aged son. Despite her best efforts to sabotage what she does, success finds her and her restaurant named Chez Moi. Guilt from the past fills her mind and inhabits her dreams. In the end, well, I won't spoil that f...more
This is an, at times, beautiful and lyrical book that demands careful reading and lots of patience. It is not a book to be read when you are pressed for time or particularly stressed, you'll never get through the detailed descriptions that create the wonderful metaphors that the author is creating. Nor is it a book to read when you are hungry. I loved the descriptions of food and her experience with it, whether she was on remote control chopping and fileting or imagining her menus.
This book seemed intriguing at the first but it sort of lost steam. The main character Myriam starts out likeable...sort of eccentric, but likeable, but by the end of the book she seemed selfish and unreliable. I liked the premise of the story, down on her luck woman decides to open a little restaurant in France and it succeeds with the help of some unlikely friends, but it just didn't live up to what I expected.
definitely a 3.75, maybe a 4 in places. Woman tries to reinvent her life by opening a restaurant, comes to terms with her past. I found her comments on the process of thinking, dreaming and acting very interesting. the book has a nice, deep philosophical vein running through it. RF
Chez Moi is an excellent book with many life lessons and problems that come into our everyday lives. Miriam is a character who is easy to relate to, and fall in love with. The story is heart breaking and original, filled with romance, tears, and second chances. Defiantly a tearjerker.
I forced myself to finish this book and then was mad at myself that I wasted so many minutes of my life. Perhaps if I read it in French? Nah. It's just depressing.
A woman gives birth to her son, adores him instantly, and then her husband slaps her across the face. (Ok, that's weird enough.)
Then she goes into a post-partum depression that lasts 14 years (!), until she has sex with her son's friend, and he catches them. Ok.
Then she runs away and cooks for the circus. Ok.
Then she decides to open...more
A woman gives birth to her son, adores him instantly, and then her husband slaps her across the face. (Ok, that's weird enough.)
Then she goes into a post-partum depression that lasts 14 years (!), until she has sex with her son's friend, and he catches them. Ok.
Then she runs away and cooks for the circus. Ok.
Then she decides to open...more
I read this one in English, but even so, it's very obviously a French book. There isn't a whole lot of action in terms of plot, but that's not necessarily bad. We get to learn a lot about the main character's inner struggles and what her mindset is like.
It has a bit of an eerie tone, but I got really into it.
It has a bit of an eerie tone, but I got really into it.
I bought this book at Sugarloaf Books on Catalina. I had high expectations. It was interesting, at times you weren't certain if the main character was unbalanced or profound. But the author did explore the complexity of a mother's love and that is no small feat!
I liked this book. I especially loved the translator's prose and descriptions of cooking and Miriam's intuitions about food.
I agree with another reviewer, though, that the manifestation of her intense angst was sometimes hard to take and not terribly believable...She seemed like a terrified animal much of the time.
In one of my favorite sections, a quote about Alice in Wonderland's various body size changes really struck a metaphorical chord. "Too small, too big, my life keeps changing proporti...more
I agree with another reviewer, though, that the manifestation of her intense angst was sometimes hard to take and not terribly believable...She seemed like a terrified animal much of the time.
In one of my favorite sections, a quote about Alice in Wonderland's various body size changes really struck a metaphorical chord. "Too small, too big, my life keeps changing proporti...more
This book had such promise but got weighed down by the main character,Myriam's endless ruminating and self-loathing. The moments of promise particularly when she cooked and filled the restaurant with promise were drowned by her self-doubt.but it was all very French
I could not relate to Myraim at all. She seemed like a person who did not even try to enjoy anything in her life. She over-thought everything that happened to her and seemed happy to let others run her life. She did not seem to really have a passion for anything and I thought she was pathetic. Some of the writing was really extraordinary and that was what kept me reading. I was hoping that it would get better but it never did.
I really loved this book -- a delightful story of a woman who follows, if somewhat haphazardly, her dream to open a restaurant in Paris. Any lover of food writing a la MFK Fischer, Ruth Reichl..will take great pleasure in this quick read!
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“...moters ir vyro santykiai panašūs į dangaus skliautą. Tai mėlynas, tai juodas, kartais debesuotas, kartais lietingas, nesvarbu - vis tiek dangaus skliautas tas pats. Neapykanta, kurią jaučiame seniau mylėtam žmogui, neturi nieko bendra su kitomis neapykantomis. Ją maitina buvusi meilė.”
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