What do you think?
Rate this book
French Lessons: A Memoir
Brilliantly uniting the personal and the critical, French Lessons is a powerful autobiographical experiment. It tells the story of an American woman escaping into the French language and of a scholar and teacher coming to grips with her history of learning. Kaplan begins with a distinctly American quest for an imaginary France of the intelligence. But soon her infatuation with all things French comes up against the dark, unimagined recesses of French political and cultural life.
The daughter of a Jewish lawyer who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg, Kaplan grew up in the 1960s in the Midwest. After her father's death when she was seven, French became her way of "leaving home" and finding herself in another language and culture. In spare, midwestern prose, by turns intimate and wry, Kaplan describes how, as a student in a Swiss boarding school and later in a junior year abroad in Bordeaux, she passionately sought the French "r," attentively honed her accent, and learned the idioms of her French lover.
When, as a graduate student, her passion for French culture turned to the elegance and sophistication of its intellectual life, she found herself drawn to the language and style of the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine. At the same time she was repulsed by his anti-Semitism. At Yale in the late 70s, during the heyday of deconstruction she chose to transgress its apolitical purity and work on a subject "that made history impossible to " French fascist intellectuals. Kaplan's discussion of the "de Man affair" — the discovery that her brilliant and charismatic Yale professor had written compromising articles for the pro-Nazi Belgian press—and her personal account of the paradoxes of deconstruction are among the most compelling available on this subject.
French Lessons belongs in the company of Sartre's Words and the memoirs of Nathalie Sarraute, Annie Ernaux, and Eva Hoffman. No book so engrossingly conveys both the excitement of learning and the moral dilemmas of the intellectual life.
The daughter of a Jewish lawyer who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg, Kaplan grew up in the 1960s in the Midwest. After her father's death when she was seven, French became her way of "leaving home" and finding herself in another language and culture. In spare, midwestern prose, by turns intimate and wry, Kaplan describes how, as a student in a Swiss boarding school and later in a junior year abroad in Bordeaux, she passionately sought the French "r," attentively honed her accent, and learned the idioms of her French lover.
When, as a graduate student, her passion for French culture turned to the elegance and sophistication of its intellectual life, she found herself drawn to the language and style of the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine. At the same time she was repulsed by his anti-Semitism. At Yale in the late 70s, during the heyday of deconstruction she chose to transgress its apolitical purity and work on a subject "that made history impossible to " French fascist intellectuals. Kaplan's discussion of the "de Man affair" — the discovery that her brilliant and charismatic Yale professor had written compromising articles for the pro-Nazi Belgian press—and her personal account of the paradoxes of deconstruction are among the most compelling available on this subject.
French Lessons belongs in the company of Sartre's Words and the memoirs of Nathalie Sarraute, Annie Ernaux, and Eva Hoffman. No book so engrossingly conveys both the excitement of learning and the moral dilemmas of the intellectual life.
221 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 1993
60 people are currently reading
1085 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
February 3, 2023
I wasn't especially interested in Kaplan's coming-of-age, teen years in Swiss boarding school, or romantic life as a college student abroad or a grad student. When she started discussing books, literature, ideas, Céline, Paul de Man (one of her teachers at Yale), French tenses and the way they're used in literature, different French accents and their social meanings in American academia, then I was interested.
Read
March 2, 2025read on the plane while deciding whether to go into academia
July 9, 2008
Delightful memoir. Maybe that's just because I found myself identifying so wholly with Kaplan. Well, besides the herpes in the ear, being the daughter of a Nuremberg trial lawyer, going to boarding school in Geneva, being a Commie in the 70s part.
She describes admirably, though, the relationship one can have with language (in this case, the French language), and its salvific quality (French saved her, and, I'd dare say, it has also saved me), as well as the strength of the desire one can have to become a true host or carrier of the language, and the impact that that has in shaping the course of one's life.
This is an account of Francophilia as transformational (indeed, baptismal), or, what happens with radical Francophilia, that is, a love rooted in the uncommodifiable or the intangible, or, in other words, the transcendent (French, or language, in its most languagey-ness, although I'm sure there are many who would argue for how language has also become subjected to the god of the free market) instead of the surface manifestations of culture (tradition, architecture, couture). So, in other words, Francophilia as a spiritual movement instead of a stylistic veneer.
On somewhat of a tangent, I would say that while it is true that one can point to the increasing commodification of language (as with all other things), language, at its core, remains beyond commodity, remains beyond being valued (or devalued) by human forces because it is, in essence, inevitable, and thus, in some sense, ultimate. One is born into language, one is immersed in it, one cannot avoid it. While there are commodified versions of language out there, that experience of a bought and sold language is preceded by a "pure" or unmediated experience of language, of that spirit. Indeed, in this sense, language I think resembles religion, which, though institutionalized through thousands of years of human practice, and the instrument of various oppressions, remains, at its root, an expression of the true yearning for connectedness and wholeness, of spirit.
She describes admirably, though, the relationship one can have with language (in this case, the French language), and its salvific quality (French saved her, and, I'd dare say, it has also saved me), as well as the strength of the desire one can have to become a true host or carrier of the language, and the impact that that has in shaping the course of one's life.
This is an account of Francophilia as transformational (indeed, baptismal), or, what happens with radical Francophilia, that is, a love rooted in the uncommodifiable or the intangible, or, in other words, the transcendent (French, or language, in its most languagey-ness, although I'm sure there are many who would argue for how language has also become subjected to the god of the free market) instead of the surface manifestations of culture (tradition, architecture, couture). So, in other words, Francophilia as a spiritual movement instead of a stylistic veneer.
On somewhat of a tangent, I would say that while it is true that one can point to the increasing commodification of language (as with all other things), language, at its core, remains beyond commodity, remains beyond being valued (or devalued) by human forces because it is, in essence, inevitable, and thus, in some sense, ultimate. One is born into language, one is immersed in it, one cannot avoid it. While there are commodified versions of language out there, that experience of a bought and sold language is preceded by a "pure" or unmediated experience of language, of that spirit. Indeed, in this sense, language I think resembles religion, which, though institutionalized through thousands of years of human practice, and the instrument of various oppressions, remains, at its root, an expression of the true yearning for connectedness and wholeness, of spirit.
Read
March 30, 2021Within the first several pages, I expected to be disgusting. Oh dear, I thought, do I need another upper middle-class (or maybe higher, she went to fucking Swiss boarding school) memoir about daddy issues? And that doubt echoed throughout. At one point, she feels bad about using the term "capitalist pig" around a woman whose father owns Mondrian originals, revealing that any claims she may have had to leftism were merely aesthetic (after all it was the '70s). Oink oink, motherfuckers.
BUT despite that profound annoyance, I pushed through, and Alice Kaplan talked brilliantly about the language and culture of France and the solace she found there -- a solace I too have found. There's a gloomy boozy intellectual who uses philosophy as justification for his unwashed hedonism (I feel personally attacked), a charming pharmacist who still worships Petain (and that's OK I guess?), a lot of weird soft-stepping around literal not figurative Nazis, a lot of dirty toilets, and some shimmering, delightful discussion of subtle variances in grammar and vocabulary.
By the end I was won over, even if I think it's not in the way Kaplan would have wanted. I may not get her stance at times, but she's a fascinating boomer type-example subject. If you have sympathy for DeNiro's character in Raging Bull, you're likely to have sympathy for this professional-class boomer exemplar.
BUT despite that profound annoyance, I pushed through, and Alice Kaplan talked brilliantly about the language and culture of France and the solace she found there -- a solace I too have found. There's a gloomy boozy intellectual who uses philosophy as justification for his unwashed hedonism (I feel personally attacked), a charming pharmacist who still worships Petain (and that's OK I guess?), a lot of weird soft-stepping around literal not figurative Nazis, a lot of dirty toilets, and some shimmering, delightful discussion of subtle variances in grammar and vocabulary.
By the end I was won over, even if I think it's not in the way Kaplan would have wanted. I may not get her stance at times, but she's a fascinating boomer type-example subject. If you have sympathy for DeNiro's character in Raging Bull, you're likely to have sympathy for this professional-class boomer exemplar.
July 9, 2018
"I've been willing to overlook in French culture what I wouldn't accept in my own, for the privilege of living in translation." - Alice Kaplan
September 13, 2024
If I were friends with R.F. Kuang, I would’ve recommended this book to her every few weeks; but it’s possible she’s read it already.
I must say I was surprised at how captivated I was in her writing style and the details she focused on: the influence of context and upbringings upon one’s proclivity for a certain languages and its culture. I love that she tells the story like a language learner, always decoding and deconstructing how cultures make up a symbol and how dialogues have their double meanings. Reading this makes me miss being an academic, which reminds me of when I was reading the language part of Babel.
My favorite theme in this book is language as salvation. As Kaplan and I know damn well, you pick yourself up in another language, latch onto another culture (especially as children), when you are running away from the one you were born with, in desperate attempts to reinvent your identity.
My only criticism is in Kaplan’s prolonged criticism of her chosen French literature, authors, and linguists. Though I understand this is important in shaping her ideology and her career trajectory, the elaborate discussion of theories I didn’t really care about can be exhausting. I can imagine it be even more off-putting to others. Still, I was expecting to dislike the book for its boomer writer obsessed with an European culture; but I was pleasantly surprised to like it so much.
I’m rating this 5 stars because of how closely Kaplan spoke to my own experience and my life journey on top of her sharp ideas and writing. I’m glad this book called to me despite its boring cover and title; but of course, an exiled Yalie graduate linguist would always call for me.
I must say I was surprised at how captivated I was in her writing style and the details she focused on: the influence of context and upbringings upon one’s proclivity for a certain languages and its culture. I love that she tells the story like a language learner, always decoding and deconstructing how cultures make up a symbol and how dialogues have their double meanings. Reading this makes me miss being an academic, which reminds me of when I was reading the language part of Babel.
My favorite theme in this book is language as salvation. As Kaplan and I know damn well, you pick yourself up in another language, latch onto another culture (especially as children), when you are running away from the one you were born with, in desperate attempts to reinvent your identity.
My only criticism is in Kaplan’s prolonged criticism of her chosen French literature, authors, and linguists. Though I understand this is important in shaping her ideology and her career trajectory, the elaborate discussion of theories I didn’t really care about can be exhausting. I can imagine it be even more off-putting to others. Still, I was expecting to dislike the book for its boomer writer obsessed with an European culture; but I was pleasantly surprised to like it so much.
I’m rating this 5 stars because of how closely Kaplan spoke to my own experience and my life journey on top of her sharp ideas and writing. I’m glad this book called to me despite its boring cover and title; but of course, an exiled Yalie graduate linguist would always call for me.
January 23, 2018
I am glad I got through this memoir, although at points it evoked my grad school experience enough that I wanted to put it down. (I'm done with that! Don't tell me about deconstruction!) I found that the Alices of the beginning and the end were sympathic, but the middle Alice, the adolescent through grad-student, irritated me...and she made me happy I'm out of school! (And yet, of course, also sad I'm out of school - I guess I'm a bit resentful of the privileges she had and how advanced her French grew to be. She recognizes the link between class status, learning French, and studying in Europe at the end, so that helps...) What the author did there for the coming-of-age years that annoyed me must have been done deliberately, and by the end of the book, she has matured into the wiser Alice who can finally talk about her life's path with some insight. I thought it was a well written book and her interests, though narrow (as those of a PhD holder typically should be), were also of interest to me. Read it if you are interested in the life of intellectuals working in French/WWII/humanities/etc.
May 28, 2010
Professor Alice Kaplan explores her life through her intellectual attraction to all things French. As the book unfolds the intellectual mask begins to fall away and the raw emotion of a child who loses her father far too soon emerges.
The need to express the deep emotions of loss, grief, love is submerged into the exploration of the complex grammatical structure of the French language. Alice's attraction to the French language, culture and history is compelling. As she matures and reflects on the mystery of her attraction to all things French, she understands how her personal, emotional experiences as a child, teenager and young woman have drawn her to this field of study.
I found the book to be both frustrating and enjoyable. Some of the passages about her intellectual explorations and growth were annoying, and felt self-indulgent. But the story of emotional exploration, growth, understanding was wonderful.
The need to express the deep emotions of loss, grief, love is submerged into the exploration of the complex grammatical structure of the French language. Alice's attraction to the French language, culture and history is compelling. As she matures and reflects on the mystery of her attraction to all things French, she understands how her personal, emotional experiences as a child, teenager and young woman have drawn her to this field of study.
I found the book to be both frustrating and enjoyable. Some of the passages about her intellectual explorations and growth were annoying, and felt self-indulgent. But the story of emotional exploration, growth, understanding was wonderful.
January 9, 2015
This book reminded me of Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language with an important difference: This is not an immigrant story. Although the author has spent some time in France (and went to school for a while in Switzerland), she is an American who happens to love the French language. This is more of a memoir about how Kaplan learned French and what she has done with her knowledge of the language. But both books reflect on what learning a new language has done to shape not only their respective identities, but also the way they think.
December 21, 2020
Halfway through reading this book, I messaged my high school French teacher and asked if she had any extra books to begin learning French again.
I was captivated from the first page to the last, both from Alice Kaplan's story and from her prose. Her style is staccato; crisp. Each short sentence melts into elegant phrases. These phrases, through tangents on Céline and deconstruction; on the clumsiness and vulnerability of learning a new language, brought the mundane aspects of nonfiction to life.
Also, I found myself dreaming about France and my time studying in Italy each night that I read this before bed. Alice Kaplan's French Lessons has a permanent place on my bookshelf.
I was captivated from the first page to the last, both from Alice Kaplan's story and from her prose. Her style is staccato; crisp. Each short sentence melts into elegant phrases. These phrases, through tangents on Céline and deconstruction; on the clumsiness and vulnerability of learning a new language, brought the mundane aspects of nonfiction to life.
Also, I found myself dreaming about France and my time studying in Italy each night that I read this before bed. Alice Kaplan's French Lessons has a permanent place on my bookshelf.
August 24, 2025
(1)Taipei Flâneur
幾年前下班走路回家，在公司附近的巷弄看到一間很精緻的書店，走進去逛一圈發現是專賣法文出版品，店名為”信鴿法國書局”，是全台法文書的集散地。這種特色書店非常吸引人，但可能是自己害羞腦補，每次逛這種知識型的高雅書店，都會莫名有一股壓力，好像一個無知的俗人在window shopping(也確實是啦，因為完全不會法文)。我心裡就開始幫店員設計內心戲:[又是一個觀光客，他真的看得懂Guy de Maupassant、Émile Zola、Jean-Paul Sartre? 2025年法國文壇冉冉新星是~~~~(法文)，這種樣子的上班族根本不在乎吧?] 因此我每次在台北看到很精美的書局，竟然都會猶豫是否要踏入，害怕野人獻曝。
上面的情景是我的想像，但關於身分認同和歸屬感，我倒是有深刻的認知。喜歡看書的人分別歸屬於不同的團夥：自我成長、心靈占卜、台灣文學、外國文學…通常又可以繼續細分，例如法文、德文、西班牙文。法文圈子包含法文系和法國文化機構，以及留學生社群。雖然我也讀過一些法國文學，但這不代表這個社群會給予認同。本來想說看書也是尋找社群的一種方式，但很奇妙的是看書只是一個”行為”，如果要建立社群，還需要有其他更深層的互動。文學型群體的排他性更強烈，即使讀過法語文學入門讀物，其實跟法文圈還是有溝壑般的差距。誰叫法式文化淵源流長，需要花一輩子的時間才能成為半個法國人~
我沒有負面的意思，純粹在思索這種文化上的身分構成。我相信喜歡看書的人在某個時間點都曾經憧憬過任何跟法國有關的事物。法國的藝術之廣博，根本探索不完，影迷喜歡新浪潮，喜歡思考的人也能研究法式哲學，就算是普羅大眾的品味，也有《Emily in Paris》這種充滿歡樂的喜劇片。我記得高中到大學有幾年很想專注探索法國的藝文作品，但最後只能淺嚐，僅看了幾部得獎的電影，大學生都喜歡��試觀賞歐陸電影。書籍的話選擇更多，台灣出版界有系統性的引進如龔固爾文學獎的作品，但我覺得很可惜，自己最終也沒讀過任何一本。法國當代文學對我來說一片空白，反而藉由法國文學的導論，對19~20世紀那些有名的法國作家比較熟悉。
如果從文學系的角度出發去認識法國文學，我們就會接觸到雨果、莫泊桑、卡繆、伏爾泰、巴爾扎克、波特萊爾等人，這些名字之間的差異我應該還可以辨認，例如巴爾札克的《人間劇場》；波特萊爾是詩魔，代表作為《惡之華》。不過隨著年紀增長，我對法語文學的認識就一直停留在這個層面，加上不免俗開始面對現實世界的責任，漸漸對純文學的熱情有所退燒。我還是很愛文學細膩捕捉人生的況味，不過小說能夠提供的解答有限，所以就沒機會繼續鑽研了。上述那些法國經典文學其實我也沒讀過整本書，最多只讀過評論家的散文，那些發生在巴士底監獄和法國大革命的情懷離我太遙遠了，所以就按下暫停鍵，讓紛紛擾擾停格在年輕時的嚮往中。
巴黎是流動的饗宴，我有幸在二十出頭待過一周(結果還跟Sandy在香榭麗舍大道上面吵架哈哈，這部分情節待來日展開再寫~)，喜歡文學的人心底終究有一櫃留給法國的書架，期待著未來再次踏足的那天，在塞納河畔的露天書攤蒐購尚未閱讀的舊文本。好啦，別做作了。只是總覺得難得又有機會藉書評再次梳理心中對於法國的愛，想要好好把握~我不是專業的評論家，但還是很羨慕法國的寫作環境，這個民族對於文學有好感，社會尊重評論員，記者在法國人心裡是值得尊敬的職業，文字工作者也會被當成偶像崇拜，街上的廣告總會留給作家一席之地。這種環境是經過幾百年人文底蘊的累積而成。我讀過鍾文音老師的遊記，她也有提過也很羨慕法國文壇，莒哈絲、西蒙波娃、莎岡(我只知道這些XD)等女作家在法國社會享有極高聲望，這種環境對於專業寫作者來講，確實令人嚮往。
二十年前社群媒體尚未普及，台灣跟海外的交流主要依賴出版品，所以我長大過程中最開始也是透過這些散文集想像歐洲。以前有一段時間我也常常在圖書館研究幾個主要歐洲國家和台灣之間的文化交流，例如研究有哪幾位台灣學者或作家去法國留學，回來以後在報章媒體分享所見所聞，他們的觀察成為我對法國的第一印象。這些前輩也希望把法國的文壇生態移植到台灣，讓台灣有更健全的寫作環境。行人文化的陳傳興先生就是一位典範，自稱為藝術殉情，真的太屌了!
社群媒體普及之後，某方面也加速寫作環境的發展，台灣也開始有專業的評論協會，包含影評人協會、藝評人協會，網路媒體也提供更多元的發表管道，至今依然持續著。我每隔一段時間就會收到推播，好奇地進去瀏覽一番，例如粉絲團「電影時代」的新銳評論家陳潔曜，他的評論深入且優異，讓我們可以深度瞭解當前法國的藝文動態。另外，我也很想找機會拜讀作家朱嘉漢的作品，讓自己跟上法國的新思潮。承先啟後，我相信法國哲學的力量，多少能夠指點迷津，提供一個2020s世代的心靈指引。這種創作環境的養成非一朝一夕可完成，期待未來世代可以繼續發揚光大。
對我來說，藝文評論的閱讀時代已經過去了，或者說已經走到新的階段，可以嘗試從新的角度去”沾染”法式情調。台北有許多文學講座課程，一直都想要去報名。我也有買過20世紀歐美經典小說的podcast課程，但兩年過去只聽25%。接受文學的薰陶是種奢侈，可能得先把事業的基礎穩固後，才有餘裕繼續享受囉。在此之前，只能把握零碎的閱讀時光，東拼西湊法式文化的碎片，緬懷年輕時對French Intellectual的嚮往。
(2)Intellectual Memoir
本書《French Lessons: A Memoir》是我在瀏覽美國書評人協會的自傳獎項時遇見的書，作者Alice Kaplan是耶魯大學法文系的教授，也曾經擔任過系主任。本書出版於1993年，寫作期間約五年(1987~1992)，作者生於1954年，等於她花了三十世代的一半，記錄自己的知識啟蒙。美國在1990年代開始流行回憶錄體裁，Kaplan在書末有提到她受到幾位學術圈的同好影響，決定一起嘗試新的文字表達的可能性。
當時美國文學圈有些人開始思索除了傳統的文字表達形式，是否能找到突破點。文學會動態生長，每個時代的創作者都會感受到某些侷限，先行者會勇於嘗試，最後通常會發明一種符合那個時代的表達方式。以回憶錄為例，她們認為傳統的文學書寫無法精確傳達個體內心的情感，特別是弱勢群體沒有話語權，無法真實的表達自我。
經過一番努力，80、90年代開始有幾本回憶錄獲得文學大獎，作者赤裸裸揭露內心瘡疤，讀者為此深受衝擊，有些人表示終於有人為自己的處境發聲，能夠找到理解自己困境的人讓讀者欣慰。往後形形色色的回憶錄不斷出版，喜怒哀樂，每種人類情緒或困境，都會有人嘗試用文字當作療傷的媒介，又恰好遇上社群媒體的發明，自我表達成為主流，回憶錄繼續蓬勃發展至今，每個美國名人都要出一本回憶錄，目的也不再只為了療傷，很多回憶錄變成塑造人設的工具，但這是後話了。
我回頭看Goodreads的紀錄，這本書2021年就列入待讀清單了。我前幾年很愛讀回憶錄+心智未開，看到封面一個充滿智慧的漂亮女生若有所思望向一旁，主題又是法式啟蒙，這種書絕對必讀! 因為我也很好奇法文做為成長背景的感受。我對語言有熱情，語文是學生時代最愛的科目，母語是中文，第一外語為英文，所以我台灣之外的思想體系偏向英語系國家，但我很想知道如果反過來，英文母語人士學習外語有什麼感受? 進一步來說，我想瞭解法式思維會如何影響一個人，以及她的迷人之處。
順待一提，我是在Kindle用2.99美元買2018年的新版(多一篇後序)，1993年第一版封面讓人搖頭，放了幾個頭戴耳機的男士，一臉困窘貌，到底在幹嘛?? 當然讀了內容就知道這應該是紐倫堡審判的照片，向她父親致意，作者的父親是二戰後代表美國在紐倫堡大審起訴納粹高官的重要律師之一，他草擬的訴狀內容為戰後國際法的體系奠定框架。但這個封面設計實在難以吸引眼球啊。身為一個nerd，我也有看到幾本書在介紹出版史上優秀的書籍封面設計，這跟印刷工藝(typography)有異曲同工之妙，書本絕對等同藝術品，要以哪種姿態承載人類知識呢? 就有賴於設計師的巧手了。
《French Lessons》這種書也被稱為intellectual memoir，例如台灣有翻譯的《家在世界的屋宇下》，由知識分子所寫，分享自己的知識養成。另一種常見的回憶錄探討傷痛，例如2022年法國諾貝爾文學獎得主安妮．艾諾的自傳體小說《記憶無非徹底看透的一切》。安妮．艾諾得獎的原因就是她突破了自傳的寫作界線，可見自傳和傳記也是一門工藝，怪不得歐美都有專門頒發給傳記作家的獎項。
我以前兩種回憶錄都愛看，但現在對後者比較排斥了，因為工作講究實事求是，我沒辦法挪用認知資源到這種太細膩的情感書寫上，這會影響我工作的心情。對你來說驚天動地的傷痛，在他人眼中可能宛如塵埃。年輕時感情充沛，自以為閱讀這種傷痛文學能加深對人生的洞察，或許有啦，但現在無法了，因為無法轉換為經濟效益，對加薪無益，何苦為難自己呢? 在這個面向，長大真的頗悲哀呢，必須學會收斂不必要的濫情。
(3)Coming of Age
這本書對語言愛好者來說是瑰寶，Kaplan教授對語言天賦異稟，她從小就發現語言能力是上帝給予她的禮物，她也將其發揮的淋漓盡致。既然這是一本實驗體的回憶錄，用字遣詞自然優雅而精準，絲毫不浪費篇幅，用精美的排列呈現出語言的奧妙。她的文章充滿意象，如果你喜歡文學意境，教授的妙筆生花會讓你再次想起愛上語言的初衷，有些文字讀起來讓人意猶未竟，餘音繞樑，本書應該可以歸類在這個等級。亞馬遜簡介將其與安妮．艾諾相媲美，可見Kaplan的文筆也是第一流了。
回憶錄都要有一個貫穿成長過程的主軸，對Kaplan來說就是她的父親。故事從她牙牙學語說起，她記憶中的父親常常在回到家之後坐在厚實的書桌閱讀各式各樣的書籍或卷宗，他的存在給予她滿滿的安全感。父親戰後回到家鄉明尼蘇達執業，在郊區的明尼湯卡湖建立了一座湖畔小木屋，Kaplan跟哥哥和姊姊暑假都會在這個小屋度過。本書前幾章是對遙遠童年的追憶，她很生動的重現與家人相處的日日夜夜。八歲生日前夕，她跟父親在湖畔釣魚，突然爸爸感到不適，他跟小Kaplan說先回屋內一下，時間彷彿停滯了，幾個小時過去爸爸沒回來，Kaplan走回屋內，哥哥說父母一起去醫院了，此時夜已深，Kaplan睡眼惺忪回到二樓床上睡著了。不久後，半夜媽媽輕輕的喚醒她，跟她說父親已經去世了。
Kaplan是猶太人，猶太傳統死者要在24小時下葬，因此很快就完成了，親朋好友紛紛向遺孀和孩子們表達慰藉，還準備了蛋糕要為小Kaplan慶生，她卻感到無比空虛。初期有幾位親戚住進家裡，陪伴他們度過最難熬的時光。從此家中只剩母親一位大人，母親是當地的社工，她開始擔負起拉拔三位兒女的責任。Kaplan的生活出現了真空，法文成為她青春期填補空缺的最佳夥伴，她很認真上學校的法文課。Kaplan家境算中上，在15歲那年母親同意送她去瑞士的寄宿學校一年，在這裡她開始將法文融入生活。
她遇見來自世界各地的跨文化孩子，有各國外交官的小孩，父母忙於制定國際條約，便把孩子送到瑞士的這座寄宿校園。Kaplan結交了幾位好友，有一位好友的父親是美國百貨大亨，暱稱為Mr. D，他是徹頭徹尾的Francophile(法國愛好者or親法派)，他有一屋子法國藝術品的收藏。Kaplan犯了戀父情結，想像Mr. D是他的情人，Mr. D帶著她在假期到巴黎觀光，如數家珍的向Kaplan介紹法國藝術的歷史，並闡述為何他相信法國文化是人類文明的極致。
Kaplan受到啟蒙，回到美國後短暫前往Vassar College就讀，但校風不適合，大二轉至柏克萊主修法文，並曾到波爾多交換一年，研究所她前往耶魯大學取得法文博士。畢業後，先後在北卡羅來納州大學和哥倫比亞大學短暫任教，後來在杜克大學安定下來，2008年時才回到母校耶魯大學。
(4)Becoming French
本書頁數220頁不長，卻涵蓋了很多主題。書名取的很好，可以翻譯為法文課，或延伸為各式各樣跟法國有關的學習。她很巧妙的描述身為外國人，為了”成為”法國人所面對的各種有趣挑戰。學習語言最重要的是應用於生活中，所以除了語言上的探討，她也分享了很多Kaplan in Paris的橋段，她說想到法國就一定會想到性愛，所以她很率真的分享與法國男子的戀情，並幽默地指出美法兩國的文化隔閡。
書的中後段聚焦於Kaplan的學術興趣，她的爸爸既然是納粹的審判官，從小她對於大屠殺的歷史也不陌生，在父親死後，她常走進父親的書房，四周書架上擺滿厚重的精裝本，她希望找尋父親遺留的痕跡，在抽屜中拿出一個小盒子，裡面是納粹集中營種族屠殺的照片。年幼時的Kaplan甚至一度在校園中逢人必說The Holocaust，她無法理解為什麼同學能夠無憂無慮，在對這段歷史毫不知情的背景下快樂長大…
Kaplan開始踏足法國本土以後，有機會就會研究二戰時期法國的歷史，她對於那些贊同法西斯主義的作家特別感興趣，明明法國是一個自由、平等、博愛的國度，怎麼會有知識分子鼓吹法西斯主義，而非起身反抗呢? 這個好奇又懷疑的種子持續發芽，她決定打破傳統、反其道而行(過往學術界僅研究法國文學圈如何對抗納粹)，將博士論文聚焦於這群人，試圖探究他們如何影響法國的社會思潮。
Kaplan於1970年代就讀耶魯大學，此時正值解構主義(deconstruction)的高峰，解構主義是二十世紀末的一派文學理論思潮，主要探討語言和文本之間的矛盾性、有限性，它提供一種新穎的閱讀方法。有幾位重要的評論家正好就是耶魯大學文學院的教授，包含Paul de Man。Kaplan借題發揮，大致介紹一下何謂解構主義。Paul de Man是比利時人，戰後才移民美國，但他死後被人發現曾經在比利時的叛國報章媒體上書寫反猶的文章，讓人重新檢視他的功過。Kaplan突然間因為這起事件成為大家的焦點，她對於二戰時期西歐的這種叛國文學瞭若指掌，她的研究成為二戰後反思運動中的重要材料。
Kaplan也有分享她的博論主題，以及她後續於2002出版《The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach》的始末，她反省自己身為猶太人，卻對這種反猶文學如此好奇，究竟是好是壞? 是否有道德上的疑慮? 她也進一步思考文學與政治的關係。Robert Brasillach也是一位具有爭議的作者、記者、報紙編輯，Kaplan為她做傳，認為他的文學其實具有開創性，但這些小說和詩歌究竟是否應該跟他的反猶太新聞報導進行比較呢? 這種微妙又互相衝突的命題，似乎是文學研究最熱衷的主題。
Kaplan也有分享文學博士生面對的就業困境，還有她教法文的心得。在文學圈，教語言(teach language)和研究文學(study literature)是兩件事，圈內人認為前者比較low，後者才是正統的學術。她除了委婉抱怨了學術的象牙塔，她也提醒讀者要把文學和生活分開，不要走火入魔。她有一位天才型的博班同學，花了好幾年的時間試圖以解構主義分析一首中古世紀的詩歌，最終成功寫完500頁的論文畢業，但他在就業市場碰壁，只能在社區高中教入門法語課。他每天都抱著他的這本論文上下課，臉上流露有志難伸的失落神情，他渴望與人聊文學卻發現無法找到聽眾。最後他終於清醒，離開語言的職場，在其他領域重獲新生。
Kaplan也特別寫了一篇文章分享跟得意門生的互動點滴，彷彿看到年輕的自己，為了成為法國人而努力遮掩自己的美國性(Americaness)，這種跨文化的觀察非常有趣!
(5)Note de fin(=Endnote)
最後寫幾句短語，Kaplan在相隔近三十年後的新版後序中提及，她後來的研究興趣也轉移到沙特和卡繆等法國作家身上了。事過境遷，她隨著年紀變得更圓融，漸漸對年輕時熱愛的叛國文學不再那麼好奇了。她轉而研究法國文學中關於人生的細緻紋理。
我很愛《French Lessons》，透過優美的文字，我得以從嶄新的角度感受法國的浪漫。語言學也是我尚未涉獵的領域，很好奇Noam Chomsky還有各種關於語言的研究。另外Kaplan的早期研究，也終於讓我對法國維琪政權這段歷��有比較深入的了解。想到大學時玩過《太保煞星》，這也是我最愛的電玩之一啊，當時充滿熱情想要好好寫一篇電玩心得，但寫作如果沒有立即下筆，總會不了了之。電玩即政治，一眨眼就已經離青春如此遙遠了。好在意識流沒有方向性，不用管法文複雜的時態變化。用自己的鍵盤追憶似水年華，努力選修進階版的世界文學課程。
幾年前下班走路回家，在公司附近的巷弄看到一間很精緻的書店，走進去逛一圈發現是專賣法文出版品，店名為”信鴿法國書局”，是全台法文書的集散地。這種特色書店非常吸引人，但可能是自己害羞腦補，每次逛這種知識型的高雅書店，都會莫名有一股壓力，好像一個無知的俗人在window shopping(也確實是啦，因為完全不會法文)。我心裡就開始幫店員設計內心戲:[又是一個觀光客，他真的看得懂Guy de Maupassant、Émile Zola、Jean-Paul Sartre? 2025年法國文壇冉冉新星是~~~~(法文)，這種樣子的上班族根本不在乎吧?] 因此我每次在台北看到很精美的書局，竟然都會猶豫是否要踏入，害怕野人獻曝。
上面的情景是我的想像，但關於身分認同和歸屬感，我倒是有深刻的認知。喜歡看書的人分別歸屬於不同的團夥：自我成長、心靈占卜、台灣文學、外國文學…通常又可以繼續細分，例如法文、德文、西班牙文。法文圈子包含法文系和法國文化機構，以及留學生社群。雖然我也讀過一些法國文學，但這不代表這個社群會給予認同。本來想說看書也是尋找社群的一種方式，但很奇妙的是看書只是一個”行為”，如果要建立社群，還需要有其他更深層的互動。文學型群體的排他性更強烈，即使讀過法語文學入門讀物，其實跟法文圈還是有溝壑般的差距。誰叫法式文化淵源流長，需要花一輩子的時間才能成為半個法國人~
我沒有負面的意思，純粹在思索這種文化上的身分構成。我相信喜歡看書的人在某個時間點都曾經憧憬過任何跟法國有關的事物。法國的藝術之廣博，根本探索不完，影迷喜歡新浪潮，喜歡思考的人也能研究法式哲學，就算是普羅大眾的品味，也有《Emily in Paris》這種充滿歡樂的喜劇片。我記得高中到大學有幾年很想專注探索法國的藝文作品，但最後只能淺嚐，僅看了幾部得獎的電影，大學生都喜歡��試觀賞歐陸電影。書籍的話選擇更多，台灣出版界有系統性的引進如龔固爾文學獎的作品，但我覺得很可惜，自己最終也沒讀過任何一本。法國當代文學對我來說一片空白，反而藉由法國文學的導論，對19~20世紀那些有名的法國作家比較熟悉。
如果從文學系的角度出發去認識法國文學，我們就會接觸到雨果、莫泊桑、卡繆、伏爾泰、巴爾扎克、波特萊爾等人，這些名字之間的差異我應該還可以辨認，例如巴爾札克的《人間劇場》；波特萊爾是詩魔，代表作為《惡之華》。不過隨著年紀增長，我對法語文學的認識就一直停留在這個層面，加上不免俗開始面對現實世界的責任，漸漸對純文學的熱情有所退燒。我還是很愛文學細膩捕捉人生的況味，不過小說能夠提供的解答有限，所以就沒機會繼續鑽研了。上述那些法國經典文學其實我也沒讀過整本書，最多只讀過評論家的散文，那些發生在巴士底監獄和法國大革命的情懷離我太遙遠了，所以就按下暫停鍵，讓紛紛擾擾停格在年輕時的嚮往中。
巴黎是流動的饗宴，我有幸在二十出頭待過一周(結果還跟Sandy在香榭麗舍大道上面吵架哈哈，這部分情節待來日展開再寫~)，喜歡文學的人心底終究有一櫃留給法國的書架，期待著未來再次踏足的那天，在塞納河畔的露天書攤蒐購尚未閱讀的舊文本。好啦，別做作了。只是總覺得難得又有機會藉書評再次梳理心中對於法國的愛，想要好好把握~我不是專業的評論家，但還是很羨慕法國的寫作環境，這個民族對於文學有好感，社會尊重評論員，記者在法國人心裡是值得尊敬的職業，文字工作者也會被當成偶像崇拜，街上的廣告總會留給作家一席之地。這種環境是經過幾百年人文底蘊的累積而成。我讀過鍾文音老師的遊記，她也有提過也很羨慕法國文壇，莒哈絲、西蒙波娃、莎岡(我只知道這些XD)等女作家在法國社會享有極高聲望，這種環境對於專業寫作者來講，確實令人嚮往。
二十年前社群媒體尚未普及，台灣跟海外的交流主要依賴出版品，所以我長大過程中最開始也是透過這些散文集想像歐洲。以前有一段時間我也常常在圖書館研究幾個主要歐洲國家和台灣之間的文化交流，例如研究有哪幾位台灣學者或作家去法國留學，回來以後在報章媒體分享所見所聞，他們的觀察成為我對法國的第一印象。這些前輩也希望把法國的文壇生態移植到台灣，讓台灣有更健全的寫作環境。行人文化的陳傳興先生就是一位典範，自稱為藝術殉情，真的太屌了!
社群媒體普及之後，某方面也加速寫作環境的發展，台灣也開始有專業的評論協會，包含影評人協會、藝評人協會，網路媒體也提供更多元的發表管道，至今依然持續著。我每隔一段時間就會收到推播，好奇地進去瀏覽一番，例如粉絲團「電影時代」的新銳評論家陳潔曜，他的評論深入且優異，讓我們可以深度瞭解當前法國的藝文動態。另外，我也很想找機會拜讀作家朱嘉漢的作品，讓自己跟上法國的新思潮。承先啟後，我相信法國哲學的力量，多少能夠指點迷津，提供一個2020s世代的心靈指引。這種創作環境的養成非一朝一夕可完成，期待未來世代可以繼續發揚光大。
對我來說，藝文評論的閱讀時代已經過去了，或者說已經走到新的階段，可以嘗試從新的角度去”沾染”法式情調。台北有許多文學講座課程，一直都想要去報名。我也有買過20世紀歐美經典小說的podcast課程，但兩年過去只聽25%。接受文學的薰陶是種奢侈，可能得先把事業的基礎穩固後，才有餘裕繼續享受囉。在此之前，只能把握零碎的閱讀時光，東拼西湊法式文化的碎片，緬懷年輕時對French Intellectual的嚮往。
(2)Intellectual Memoir
本書《French Lessons: A Memoir》是我在瀏覽美國書評人協會的自傳獎項時遇見的書，作者Alice Kaplan是耶魯大學法文系的教授，也曾經擔任過系主任。本書出版於1993年，寫作期間約五年(1987~1992)，作者生於1954年，等於她花了三十世代的一半，記錄自己的知識啟蒙。美國在1990年代開始流行回憶錄體裁，Kaplan在書末有提到她受到幾位學術圈的同好影響，決定一起嘗試新的文字表達的可能性。
當時美國文學圈有些人開始思索除了傳統的文字表達形式，是否能找到突破點。文學會動態生長，每個時代的創作者都會感受到某些侷限，先行者會勇於嘗試，最後通常會發明一種符合那個時代的表達方式。以回憶錄為例，她們認為傳統的文學書寫無法精確傳達個體內心的情感，特別是弱勢群體沒有話語權，無法真實的表達自我。
經過一番努力，80、90年代開始有幾本回憶錄獲得文學大獎，作者赤裸裸揭露內心瘡疤，讀者為此深受衝擊，有些人表示終於有人為自己的處境發聲，能夠找到理解自己困境的人讓讀者欣慰。往後形形色色的回憶錄不斷出版，喜怒哀樂，每種人類情緒或困境，都會有人嘗試用文字當作療傷的媒介，又恰好遇上社群媒體的發明，自我表達成為主流，回憶錄繼續蓬勃發展至今，每個美國名人都要出一本回憶錄，目的也不再只為了療傷，很多回憶錄變成塑造人設的工具，但這是後話了。
我回頭看Goodreads的紀錄，這本書2021年就列入待讀清單了。我前幾年很愛讀回憶錄+心智未開，看到封面一個充滿智慧的漂亮女生若有所思望向一旁，主題又是法式啟蒙，這種書絕對必讀! 因為我也很好奇法文做為成長背景的感受。我對語言有熱情，語文是學生時代最愛的科目，母語是中文，第一外語為英文，所以我台灣之外的思想體系偏向英語系國家，但我很想知道如果反過來，英文母語人士學習外語有什麼感受? 進一步來說，我想瞭解法式思維會如何影響一個人，以及她的迷人之處。
順待一提，我是在Kindle用2.99美元買2018年的新版(多一篇後序)，1993年第一版封面讓人搖頭，放了幾個頭戴耳機的男士，一臉困窘貌，到底在幹嘛?? 當然讀了內容就知道這應該是紐倫堡審判的照片，向她父親致意，作者的父親是二戰後代表美國在紐倫堡大審起訴納粹高官的重要律師之一，他草擬的訴狀內容為戰後國際法的體系奠定框架。但這個封面設計實在難以吸引眼球啊。身為一個nerd，我也有看到幾本書在介紹出版史上優秀的書籍封面設計，這跟印刷工藝(typography)有異曲同工之妙，書本絕對等同藝術品，要以哪種姿態承載人類知識呢? 就有賴於設計師的巧手了。
《French Lessons》這種書也被稱為intellectual memoir，例如台灣有翻譯的《家在世界的屋宇下》，由知識分子所寫，分享自己的知識養成。另一種常見的回憶錄探討傷痛，例如2022年法國諾貝爾文學獎得主安妮．艾諾的自傳體小說《記憶無非徹底看透的一切》。安妮．艾諾得獎的原因就是她突破了自傳的寫作界線，可見自傳和傳記也是一門工藝，怪不得歐美都有專門頒發給傳記作家的獎項。
我以前兩種回憶錄都愛看，但現在對後者比較排斥了，因為工作講究實事求是，我沒辦法挪用認知資源到這種太細膩的情感書寫上，這會影響我工作的心情。對你來說驚天動地的傷痛，在他人眼中可能宛如塵埃。年輕時感情充沛，自以為閱讀這種傷痛文學能加深對人生的洞察，或許有啦，但現在無法了，因為無法轉換為經濟效益，對加薪無益，何苦為難自己呢? 在這個面向，長大真的頗悲哀呢，必須學會收斂不必要的濫情。
(3)Coming of Age
這本書對語言愛好者來說是瑰寶，Kaplan教授對語言天賦異稟，她從小就發現語言能力是上帝給予她的禮物，她也將其發揮的淋漓盡致。既然這是一本實驗體的回憶錄，用字遣詞自然優雅而精準，絲毫不浪費篇幅，用精美的排列呈現出語言的奧妙。她的文章充滿意象，如果你喜歡文學意境，教授的妙筆生花會讓你再次想起愛上語言的初衷，有些文字讀起來讓人意猶未竟，餘音繞樑，本書應該可以歸類在這個等級。亞馬遜簡介將其與安妮．艾諾相媲美，可見Kaplan的文筆也是第一流了。
回憶錄都要有一個貫穿成長過程的主軸，對Kaplan來說就是她的父親。故事從她牙牙學語說起，她記憶中的父親常常在回到家之後坐在厚實的書桌閱讀各式各樣的書籍或卷宗，他的存在給予她滿滿的安全感。父親戰後回到家鄉明尼蘇達執業，在郊區的明尼湯卡湖建立了一座湖畔小木屋，Kaplan跟哥哥和姊姊暑假都會在這個小屋度過。本書前幾章是對遙遠童年的追憶，她很生動的重現與家人相處的日日夜夜。八歲生日前夕，她跟父親在湖畔釣魚，突然爸爸感到不適，他跟小Kaplan說先回屋內一下，時間彷彿停滯了，幾個小時過去爸爸沒回來，Kaplan走回屋內，哥哥說父母一起去醫院了，此時夜已深，Kaplan睡眼惺忪回到二樓床上睡著了。不久後，半夜媽媽輕輕的喚醒她，跟她說父親已經去世了。
Kaplan是猶太人，猶太傳統死者要在24小時下葬，因此很快就完成了，親朋好友紛紛向遺孀和孩子們表達慰藉，還準備了蛋糕要為小Kaplan慶生，她卻感到無比空虛。初期有幾位親戚住進家裡，陪伴他們度過最難熬的時光。從此家中只剩母親一位大人，母親是當地的社工，她開始擔負起拉拔三位兒女的責任。Kaplan的生活出現了真空，法文成為她青春期填補空缺的最佳夥伴，她很認真上學校的法文課。Kaplan家境算中上，在15歲那年母親同意送她去瑞士的寄宿學校一年，在這裡她開始將法文融入生活。
她遇見來自世界各地的跨文化孩子，有各國外交官的小孩，父母忙於制定國際條約，便把孩子送到瑞士的這座寄宿校園。Kaplan結交了幾位好友，有一位好友的父親是美國百貨大亨，暱稱為Mr. D，他是徹頭徹尾的Francophile(法國愛好者or親法派)，他有一屋子法國藝術品的收藏。Kaplan犯了戀父情結，想像Mr. D是他的情人，Mr. D帶著她在假期到巴黎觀光，如數家珍的向Kaplan介紹法國藝術的歷史，並闡述為何他相信法國文化是人類文明的極致。
Kaplan受到啟蒙，回到美國後短暫前往Vassar College就讀，但校風不適合，大二轉至柏克萊主修法文，並曾到波爾多交換一年，研究所她前往耶魯大學取得法文博士。畢業後，先後在北卡羅來納州大學和哥倫比亞大學短暫任教，後來在杜克大學安定下來，2008年時才回到母校耶魯大學。
(4)Becoming French
本書頁數220頁不長，卻涵蓋了很多主題。書名取的很好，可以翻譯為法文課，或延伸為各式各樣跟法國有關的學習。她很巧妙的描述身為外國人，為了”成為”法國人所面對的各種有趣挑戰。學習語言最重要的是應用於生活中，所以除了語言上的探討，她也分享了很多Kaplan in Paris的橋段，她說想到法國就一定會想到性愛，所以她很率真的分享與法國男子的戀情，並幽默地指出美法兩國的文化隔閡。
書的中後段聚焦於Kaplan的學術興趣，她的爸爸既然是納粹的審判官，從小她對於大屠殺的歷史也不陌生，在父親死後，她常走進父親的書房，四周書架上擺滿厚重的精裝本，她希望找尋父親遺留的痕跡，在抽屜中拿出一個小盒子，裡面是納粹集中營種族屠殺的照片。年幼時的Kaplan甚至一度在校園中逢人必說The Holocaust，她無法理解為什麼同學能夠無憂無慮，在對這段歷史毫不知情的背景下快樂長大…
Kaplan開始踏足法國本土以後，有機會就會研究二戰時期法國的歷史，她對於那些贊同法西斯主義的作家特別感興趣，明明法國是一個自由、平等、博愛的國度，怎麼會有知識分子鼓吹法西斯主義，而非起身反抗呢? 這個好奇又懷疑的種子持續發芽，她決定打破傳統、反其道而行(過往學術界僅研究法國文學圈如何對抗納粹)，將博士論文聚焦於這群人，試圖探究他們如何影響法國的社會思潮。
Kaplan於1970年代就讀耶魯大學，此時正值解構主義(deconstruction)的高峰，解構主義是二十世紀末的一派文學理論思潮，主要探討語言和文本之間的矛盾性、有限性，它提供一種新穎的閱讀方法。有幾位重要的評論家正好就是耶魯大學文學院的教授，包含Paul de Man。Kaplan借題發揮，大致介紹一下何謂解構主義。Paul de Man是比利時人，戰後才移民美國，但他死後被人發現曾經在比利時的叛國報章媒體上書寫反猶的文章，讓人重新檢視他的功過。Kaplan突然間因為這起事件成為大家的焦點，她對於二戰時期西歐的這種叛國文學瞭若指掌，她的研究成為二戰後反思運動中的重要材料。
Kaplan也有分享她的博論主題，以及她後續於2002出版《The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach》的始末，她反省自己身為猶太人，卻對這種反猶文學如此好奇，究竟是好是壞? 是否有道德上的疑慮? 她也進一步思考文學與政治的關係。Robert Brasillach也是一位具有爭議的作者、記者、報紙編輯，Kaplan為她做傳，認為他的文學其實具有開創性，但這些小說和詩歌究竟是否應該跟他的反猶太新聞報導進行比較呢? 這種微妙又互相衝突的命題，似乎是文學研究最熱衷的主題。
Kaplan也有分享文學博士生面對的就業困境，還有她教法文的心得。在文學圈，教語言(teach language)和研究文學(study literature)是兩件事，圈內人認為前者比較low，後者才是正統的學術。她除了委婉抱怨了學術的象牙塔，她也提醒讀者要把文學和生活分開，不要走火入魔。她有一位天才型的博班同學，花了好幾年的時間試圖以解構主義分析一首中古世紀的詩歌，最終成功寫完500頁的論文畢業，但他在就業市場碰壁，只能在社區高中教入門法語課。他每天都抱著他的這本論文上下課，臉上流露有志難伸的失落神情，他渴望與人聊文學卻發現無法找到聽眾。最後他終於清醒，離開語言的職場，在其他領域重獲新生。
Kaplan也特別寫了一篇文章分享跟得意門生的互動點滴，彷彿看到年輕的自己，為了成為法國人而努力遮掩自己的美國性(Americaness)，這種跨文化的觀察非常有趣!
(5)Note de fin(=Endnote)
最後寫幾句短語，Kaplan在相隔近三十年後的新版後序中提及，她後來的研究興趣也轉移到沙特和卡繆等法國作家身上了。事過境遷，她隨著年紀變得更圓融，漸漸對年輕時熱愛的叛國文學不再那麼好奇了。她轉而研究法國文學中關於人生的細緻紋理。
我很愛《French Lessons》，透過優美的文字，我得以從嶄新的角度感受法國的浪漫。語言學也是我尚未涉獵的領域，很好奇Noam Chomsky還有各種關於語言的研究。另外Kaplan的早期研究，也終於讓我對法國維琪政權這段歷��有比較深入的了解。想到大學時玩過《太保煞星》，這也是我最愛的電玩之一啊，當時充滿熱情想要好好寫一篇電玩心得，但寫作如果沒有立即下筆，總會不了了之。電玩即政治，一眨眼就已經離青春如此遙遠了。好在意識流沒有方向性，不用管法文複雜的時態變化。用自己的鍵盤追憶似水年華，努力選修進階版的世界文學課程。
November 30, 2020
I loved the beginning of the book with her bio life in the midwest to living in Switzerland and her struggles learning proper French.
However, after that, the book immersed itself with famous French writers that I wasn't too familiar with and so, it faltered a bit for me.
However, I think she is an excellent writer and her tips on how to pronounce french words were very insightful as I am trying to add French as my third language.
However, after that, the book immersed itself with famous French writers that I wasn't too familiar with and so, it faltered a bit for me.
However, I think she is an excellent writer and her tips on how to pronounce french words were very insightful as I am trying to add French as my third language.
February 25, 2025
Being a French teacher, I really enjoyed this and the author who is quite the French University professor as well as cousin to a good friend of mine. There was so much that I could relate to and so much that I could not relate to at all. My experiences were not gilded with the advantages of someone who frequented so many fine places and went to France for the first time at a relatively young age.
January 20, 2022
I really loved this.
Challenged my struggle to read beyond mere identification w/ a character/subject/etc.
Not sure if it would resonate so much if I wasn’t in the field.
Challenged my struggle to read beyond mere identification w/ a character/subject/etc.
Not sure if it would resonate so much if I wasn’t in the field.
December 30, 2022
I found this absolutely remarkable & gorgeous
March 29, 2024
I read this quickly. While I enjoyed her personal and scholarly life studying French, I was more interested in the reasons why we choose to live life in another language. She wrote about this but it didn’t hit me in a particular way.
Read
August 19, 2024Interesting especially the idea of hiding in a second language
August 17, 2025
[Spoiler Alert - To speak clearly about my reaction to this book I need to refer specifically to the narrative in brief direct quotes at times.]
Introduction
I picked up this book from a "Little Free Library" box on the street on a whim because I am severely challenged with learning new languages and thought I might pickup some tips from an expert. That's not what I found in this book at all. If anything, it discouraged me from trying to learn to speak French because of the sheer effort it takes and the social consequences of getting it wrong. I ultimately enjoyed reading the book very much after figuring out what it was really about.
This review focuses on a few aspects of the author's description of her life, education, career, and her relation to the French language. Among other topics, It leaves out significant sections that visit upon her father's role in the Nuremberg trials and the anti-semitic politics that continue to surface in her chosen career. The book is well worth reading for these topics alone.
Writing Form and Style
My first challenge was discerning its form. I queried Googles Galaxy AI application to help me understand the difference between an "autobiography" and a "memoir". The results are abbreviated below...
Even though the cover of the book identifies it as a memoir, several aspects of its contents seem more autobiographical. The story began at the author's very early age, with anecdotes about her elders history and her home life as a child. The narrative progresses through her teenage years, college, early career, and ends at some unspecified age of midlife. The books major theme is the author's relationship to the French language .
The author's intense education from boarding schooling in Switzerland, a brief stint at Vassar, an undergrad degree from UCBerkley, a PhD from Yale University and further Post Doc research conspired in her to develop an academic writing style with it's long timeline punctuated with specific events and relationships.
It is clear from the personal experiences that she relates in the book that, despite this academic training, she really wants to spill her guts memoir-style about the effects that this life had on her personal life.
The narrative is somewhat choppy with some chapters longer and deeper with several subsections. Other's are briefer and more anecdotal.
She never loses sight of the fact that her reader is likely not a French speaker or reader and not apt to delve into her research for a deeper understanding. In respect to the average reader she generally follows any passage written in French with an English translation. Sometimes she gives the etymology and simple examples of some of the more technical grammatical terms she uses.
One interesting quirk in her style is that occasionally she will end a chapter with a short paragraph, sometimes a question. These are like an after thought that reflect on the larger themes. One example is at the end of the chapter on French verb tenses. She has been describing how a French teacher illustrates tenses such as passé composé and imparfait, subjunctive versus indicative on the chalk board with a time line. At the end of this discussion she says:
Themes
French Language
The books major theme is the author's intense training in the French language yet these challenges serve as a subtle metaphor for the personal challenges she faced, both intentionally and indirectly.
There is a constant flow of expectations on her voice and her grammar that drives her to overachieve as a French speaker and that correlates to her efforts at socialization and finding her own place in the world.
The Men in her Life
Her father played a larger than life part model for her up until he passed away suddenly after an afternoon of fishing at their lake home. His role as a lawyer at the Nuremberg trials in 1945, with the photographic and textual evidence that he retained, some of which she shared with her grade school class, left a clear mark on her. She understood that gravitas that her father carried even in his more fatherly moments. His death was a loss from which she never fully recovered. His figure in her life crops up in uncanny places.
The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan would have appreciated Micheline's test sentence. He believed that the child gains access to language only when it perceives the existence of the father, which allows it to break out of infantile dualisms - self and mother, inside and outside. "Somewhere out there, somewhere else, is my father" this, says Lacan, is the child's inauguration into language, the symbolic order, and the law. And tellingly...
Learning French was connected to my father, because French made me absent the way he was absent, and it made me an expert the way he was an expert.
"Mr. D" was the father of a grade school friend that partially filled the void left by her father's passing with his generosity and acknowledgement of her early intellect. He shared his interest in classic artwork with her. When her mother took her on a trip to Paris, Mr. D arranged to take them on a well informed tour of Paris.
Other men, boyfriends, professors, and acquaintances came, left their mark, and faded over the years. Some were positive, others not so much but they all, with the exception of Mr. D who she tracks down again later in life, shared a common trait of being temporary.
Interestingly, her relationship with her mother was mostly passive and mostly supportive but never close. This was exemplified by the passage describing her trauma and helplessness upon the arrival of her first menstrual period. She ultimately confided in a school mate and the family maid.
Her mother asked her much later in life:
Duality as a Mental Life Preserver
Alice Kaplans most significant theme, the French lesson she wants the reader to remember after they close the book and put it back on the shelf is that learning, speaking, feeling, French, any French from any province or colonial heritage, is an escape from the life of which one is born. This is introduced in the quote by Gertrude Stein in the introduction:
...writers have to have two countries, the one where they belong and the one in which they live really. The second one is romantic, it is separate from themselves...
and returned to in the final chapter where she concludes with:
Why did I hide in French? If life got too messy, I could take off into my second world...There was a time when I even spoke in a different register in French - higher and excited, I was sliding up to those high notes in some kind of a hyped-up theatrical world of my own making.
My Highlighted Quotes From The Text
I marked up this book with highlighter more than I usually do with books I own. Most of these are idiosyncratic, resonating or enlightening some personal offbeat thought of my own.
Some of the lines I found interesting include:
Conclusion
I enjoyed this book because of its brutal frankness on so many topics as well as its accessibility to a non-Liberal Arts audience.
-jgp
Introduction
I picked up this book from a "Little Free Library" box on the street on a whim because I am severely challenged with learning new languages and thought I might pickup some tips from an expert. That's not what I found in this book at all. If anything, it discouraged me from trying to learn to speak French because of the sheer effort it takes and the social consequences of getting it wrong. I ultimately enjoyed reading the book very much after figuring out what it was really about.
This review focuses on a few aspects of the author's description of her life, education, career, and her relation to the French language. Among other topics, It leaves out significant sections that visit upon her father's role in the Nuremberg trials and the anti-semitic politics that continue to surface in her chosen career. The book is well worth reading for these topics alone.
Writing Form and Style
My first challenge was discerning its form. I queried Googles Galaxy AI application to help me understand the difference between an "autobiography" and a "memoir". The results are abbreviated below...
:
An autobiography is a formal, comprehensive account of a person's entire life, typically written by a public figure. ...
- Scope: The author's entire life.
- Purpose: To present a factual, chronological record of a person's life and accomplishments.
- Style: Formal and objective, with an emphasis on historical context and verifiable facts.
A memoir is a more focused, narrative-driven account of a specific period or theme in a person's life. ...
- Scope: A specific period, event, or theme from the author's life.
- Purpose: To share a personal, emotional truth and explore a particular theme.
- Style: Informal and subjective, with a focus on personal reflections, memories, and storytelling.
:
Even though the cover of the book identifies it as a memoir, several aspects of its contents seem more autobiographical. The story began at the author's very early age, with anecdotes about her elders history and her home life as a child. The narrative progresses through her teenage years, college, early career, and ends at some unspecified age of midlife. The books major theme is the author's relationship to the French language .
The author's intense education from boarding schooling in Switzerland, a brief stint at Vassar, an undergrad degree from UCBerkley, a PhD from Yale University and further Post Doc research conspired in her to develop an academic writing style with it's long timeline punctuated with specific events and relationships.
It is clear from the personal experiences that she relates in the book that, despite this academic training, she really wants to spill her guts memoir-style about the effects that this life had on her personal life.
The narrative is somewhat choppy with some chapters longer and deeper with several subsections. Other's are briefer and more anecdotal.
She never loses sight of the fact that her reader is likely not a French speaker or reader and not apt to delve into her research for a deeper understanding. In respect to the average reader she generally follows any passage written in French with an English translation. Sometimes she gives the etymology and simple examples of some of the more technical grammatical terms she uses.
One interesting quirk in her style is that occasionally she will end a chapter with a short paragraph, sometimes a question. These are like an after thought that reflect on the larger themes. One example is at the end of the chapter on French verb tenses. She has been describing how a French teacher illustrates tenses such as passé composé and imparfait, subjunctive versus indicative on the chalk board with a time line. At the end of this discussion she says:
I think about the tenses all the time, especially that slash in the imperfect time line, proving that a sudden event can come and disturb the smooth thoughtlessness of everyday living. [e.g. her father's sudden passing] The time line is my theory of history; my own history fits it to a tee.
Themes
French Language
The books major theme is the author's intense training in the French language yet these challenges serve as a subtle metaphor for the personal challenges she faced, both intentionally and indirectly.
There is a constant flow of expectations on her voice and her grammar that drives her to overachieve as a French speaker and that correlates to her efforts at socialization and finding her own place in the world.
The Men in her Life
Her father played a larger than life part model for her up until he passed away suddenly after an afternoon of fishing at their lake home. His role as a lawyer at the Nuremberg trials in 1945, with the photographic and textual evidence that he retained, some of which she shared with her grade school class, left a clear mark on her. She understood that gravitas that her father carried even in his more fatherly moments. His death was a loss from which she never fully recovered. His figure in her life crops up in uncanny places.
The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan would have appreciated Micheline's test sentence. He believed that the child gains access to language only when it perceives the existence of the father, which allows it to break out of infantile dualisms - self and mother, inside and outside. "Somewhere out there, somewhere else, is my father" this, says Lacan, is the child's inauguration into language, the symbolic order, and the law. And tellingly...
Learning French was connected to my father, because French made me absent the way he was absent, and it made me an expert the way he was an expert.
"Mr. D" was the father of a grade school friend that partially filled the void left by her father's passing with his generosity and acknowledgement of her early intellect. He shared his interest in classic artwork with her. When her mother took her on a trip to Paris, Mr. D arranged to take them on a well informed tour of Paris.
Other men, boyfriends, professors, and acquaintances came, left their mark, and faded over the years. Some were positive, others not so much but they all, with the exception of Mr. D who she tracks down again later in life, shared a common trait of being temporary.
Interestingly, her relationship with her mother was mostly passive and mostly supportive but never close. This was exemplified by the passage describing her trauma and helplessness upon the arrival of her first menstrual period. She ultimately confided in a school mate and the family maid.
Her mother asked her much later in life:
"So why didn't you tell me when you go your period-god, you were strange."
"Well, you were strange, too, Mom, you were strange, too."
Duality as a Mental Life Preserver
Alice Kaplans most significant theme, the French lesson she wants the reader to remember after they close the book and put it back on the shelf is that learning, speaking, feeling, French, any French from any province or colonial heritage, is an escape from the life of which one is born. This is introduced in the quote by Gertrude Stein in the introduction:
...writers have to have two countries, the one where they belong and the one in which they live really. The second one is romantic, it is separate from themselves...
and returned to in the final chapter where she concludes with:
Why did I hide in French? If life got too messy, I could take off into my second world...There was a time when I even spoke in a different register in French - higher and excited, I was sliding up to those high notes in some kind of a hyped-up theatrical world of my own making.
My Highlighted Quotes From The Text
I marked up this book with highlighter more than I usually do with books I own. Most of these are idiosyncratic, resonating or enlightening some personal offbeat thought of my own.
Some of the lines I found interesting include:
...You had to think about France like a cubist, in overlapping layers.
...Language is not a machine you can break and fix with the right technique, it is a function of the whole person, an expression of culture, desire, need.
..."Speech, " Micheline told me, "is the highest and lowest human function, the endroit charnière [the hitch] between the mechanical grunt of the vocal cords and the poetry of cognition."
...writing isn't a straight line but a process where you have to get in trouble to get anywhere.
...Because I was disturbed, it was better writing than any I had done before.
Conclusion
I enjoyed this book because of its brutal frankness on so many topics as well as its accessibility to a non-Liberal Arts audience.
-jgp
May 12, 2008
Almost like two books in one: First, a beautiful recounting of how learning French helped the author heal from the death of her father and create the person she was to become, and secondly describing an examination of how French intellectuals became enamored with Fascism. Reading about rearranging your mind to learn another language always makes me nostalgic.
I can't stand not to be in France in June, the month of my birthday and the month my father died. The smells and sounds in the air are too strong at home - the newly cut grass, the fireflies, all the sounds of his death. So every year around the same time, I start speaking to myself in French and dreaming in French, and swearing in French when I'm driving my car. Maybe this book will put a stop to it.
I can't stand not to be in France in June, the month of my birthday and the month my father died. The smells and sounds in the air are too strong at home - the newly cut grass, the fireflies, all the sounds of his death. So every year around the same time, I start speaking to myself in French and dreaming in French, and swearing in French when I'm driving my car. Maybe this book will put a stop to it.
August 25, 2012
This is the memoir of a professor of French at Yale that one of my former professors from UConn is buddies with. At first I thought of it as a silly, easy read without much depth, but I soon realized that everything she talked about - her Midwestern roots, her love affairs with and within France, her experiences teaching the difference for the passé composé and the imparfait - were things that made me identify with her. The nostalgic references to French authors, artists, and critics brought me back to my first time studying abroad in Paris and assured me that the past two years of my graduate career have been constructive.
Overall, this is the best quick read I've read in quite a while. (Fifty Shades of Grey doesn't count!)
Overall, this is the best quick read I've read in quite a while. (Fifty Shades of Grey doesn't count!)
March 15, 2007
This is one of those books that tells important pieces of my own life story. Kaplan really explores what it means to learn another language and adopt a second culture via language: how it feels to try to pronounce the French "r" for the first time, what's appealing about owning your first French pencil case. Suffice to say, I can relate and find these topics important! Her discussion of the (perceived or real) conflict of being francophile and Jewish is interesting, as is her description of her job teaching French back in the States.
January 28, 2008
i love french. i have no idea why, but for a few years i have wanted to learn the language. this book talks about alice kaplan's love for the language and how it became such a huge part of her life. i thought it was interesting until she starting talking about dissertations on fascism and the anti-semitic people that she was fascinated with. she talked as if i knew who these people were and it got annoying. and why would a jewish woman want to sit down and talk with an open anti-semite? food for thought.
September 15, 2024
I read this book for the first time at the end of my teens, and enjoyed reading it again now, at the end of my twenties. Everything she wrote about her relationship with French carried a deep resonance for me personally, being bilingual. The more intellectual chapters are executed with the sophistication you’d expect from a professor of her standing. They are deliciously filled with ideas and nuance. But above all, I was touched by Kaplan’s vulnerability in the more autobiographical chapters. She wrote about herself as a real person: including her doubts and her flaws.
January 12, 2011
Kaplan (a French professor at Berkley) remembers and analyzes her life through her learning of French. The learning of language is used as a very poignant metaphor here for the way she (and maybe all of us)tend to approach life. The metaphor gets even deeper as we learn about her family.
December 30, 2008
I loved French even more after reading this!
Want to read
May 19, 2012Enjoyed K's book on Brasillach a good bit, though this is obviously in a much different vein. Sounds a little similar to Jill Kerr Conway's educational memoir (which is a compliment).
December 11, 2017
good for those learning French...skip over the chapter about existentialism.
October 22, 2019
Alice Kaplan's book French Lessons: A Memoir, proved to be fine reading while relaxing on a summer vacation. She tells her story on how she became intrigued with the French language and dug deeper into this journey while studying in Switzerland. She learns how to speak the French "r" and so much more. Alas, upon her return to the US, she no longer seemed to fit in, as she returns to the US of 1970, where her friends now smoked pot, drank and listened to rock concerts. Alice finishes high school and is admitted to Vassar, but it isn't too good a fit. She moves on to Berkeley the next year and found a more comfortable and open style at the school. She takes a poetry class that gets her excited about writing and how one can enter deeply into a poem. In her junior year, she once again goes to study abroad, this time in Bordeaux France, for a full year. The time away marks her and she tells stories of coming back to Bordeaux year after year to see friends and, speak French.
Kaplan's memoir jumps around, but her love of French is always central. In time, she becomes a professor who teaches French at schools which include Yale and later Duke. As somebody who also has fallen in love with the French language, I loved reading the story of how she pursued her intellectual interest, but always returned to her passion for French and her hard won skills. She tells us about her career in academia and dips into digressions about the French language from time to time. This book works well as a memoir about a woman who pursued her passion for language, but also discovered a love for writing in both English and French. Reading her is like finding a friend who has lots of bits of knowledge and is able to string words together in a way that leads you to want to hear more. If you are intrigued by French, this book will further whet your appetite and perhaps inspired you to take your own journey deeper into this language of both the diplomats and the poets. It's also a bit of tutorial on what was like for a woman to find a career in academia. There are also twists and turns in her intellectual journey, as she makes both friends and enemies in pursuing studies related to Vichy France and philosophies of the period. I enjoyed reading this book and it left me wanting to read more.
Kaplan's memoir jumps around, but her love of French is always central. In time, she becomes a professor who teaches French at schools which include Yale and later Duke. As somebody who also has fallen in love with the French language, I loved reading the story of how she pursued her intellectual interest, but always returned to her passion for French and her hard won skills. She tells us about her career in academia and dips into digressions about the French language from time to time. This book works well as a memoir about a woman who pursued her passion for language, but also discovered a love for writing in both English and French. Reading her is like finding a friend who has lots of bits of knowledge and is able to string words together in a way that leads you to want to hear more. If you are intrigued by French, this book will further whet your appetite and perhaps inspired you to take your own journey deeper into this language of both the diplomats and the poets. It's also a bit of tutorial on what was like for a woman to find a career in academia. There are also twists and turns in her intellectual journey, as she makes both friends and enemies in pursuing studies related to Vichy France and philosophies of the period. I enjoyed reading this book and it left me wanting to read more.
November 3, 2017
I was drawn to this book as like Kaplan, I am drawn to all things French and an autobiography that speaks so strongly of this obsession, was one I was anxious to delve into.
The book tells the story of Kaplan's childhood in the Midwest, cut short when her father, a Jewish lawyer involved in the Nuremberg trial, suddenly died. Kaplan then went to Switzerland for a year, where began her love of French language and culture. It details her student life , as both undergraduate and postgraduate, and journey to become French lecturer and teacher. The writing style is crisp yet stylish. As language expert, she achieves a tone that balances that which characterises French and English styles.
As well as a very personal account of her journey towards academia, she dedicates some chapters to French language itself, for example in search of the French 'r', and tenses. These were interesting to me being familiar with the language, but I'm not sure I would have the same interest if the language in question were, say Spanish or Italian. There are also chapters dedicated to her doctoral studies, existentialism, deconstructivusm and French fascist writers. She details her experience of grappling with these concepts, quoting various French writers, philosophers and theorists. I found these chapters much too detailed and found myself skimming through these chapters, not, I'm sure, what Kaplan intended!
However overall it was a well-written, thoughtful and personal account of her journey towards adulthood and her lifelong love affair with French. At the end she draws an interesting parallel between a Patrick Modiano text and her own experience of being a child. In coming to terms with her fragmented past and quite sad childhood, she outlines how important it is for children to be listened to, because children see, hear and observe, and ultimately write. This writing is part of her coming-to-terms process, as it was for Modiano, as it is for many writers. I loved also how she spoke of her love of the language as being part of her DNA, her sharp analysis of semantics, and of of needing French as perhaps it signified freedom and absence for her, as she recalls her father being able too, to absent himself.
The book tells the story of Kaplan's childhood in the Midwest, cut short when her father, a Jewish lawyer involved in the Nuremberg trial, suddenly died. Kaplan then went to Switzerland for a year, where began her love of French language and culture. It details her student life , as both undergraduate and postgraduate, and journey to become French lecturer and teacher. The writing style is crisp yet stylish. As language expert, she achieves a tone that balances that which characterises French and English styles.
As well as a very personal account of her journey towards academia, she dedicates some chapters to French language itself, for example in search of the French 'r', and tenses. These were interesting to me being familiar with the language, but I'm not sure I would have the same interest if the language in question were, say Spanish or Italian. There are also chapters dedicated to her doctoral studies, existentialism, deconstructivusm and French fascist writers. She details her experience of grappling with these concepts, quoting various French writers, philosophers and theorists. I found these chapters much too detailed and found myself skimming through these chapters, not, I'm sure, what Kaplan intended!
However overall it was a well-written, thoughtful and personal account of her journey towards adulthood and her lifelong love affair with French. At the end she draws an interesting parallel between a Patrick Modiano text and her own experience of being a child. In coming to terms with her fragmented past and quite sad childhood, she outlines how important it is for children to be listened to, because children see, hear and observe, and ultimately write. This writing is part of her coming-to-terms process, as it was for Modiano, as it is for many writers. I loved also how she spoke of her love of the language as being part of her DNA, her sharp analysis of semantics, and of of needing French as perhaps it signified freedom and absence for her, as she recalls her father being able too, to absent himself.
December 23, 2020
This is the memoir of a Duke French professor. In truth, it is a bit more than that, particularly for anyone who has ever navigated the vagaries of a university department, searched for a dissertation topic, or wondered how life might be different had they never traveled to a far off land or learned another language.
I came to see this book as neatly divided into three parts. Part one is the story of a young girl growing up in suburban Minneapolis in the 1950s and 1960s. That her father was a lawyer at the Nuremburg trials lends interest, and that he dies of a heart attack when she is still in elementary school lends tragedy, but at its heart part one is about being a kid in the midwest in the halycon days after World War II (and then attending a boarding school in Switzerland, but I digress).
Part two is the story of a graduate student searching for a topic, trying to understand theories and the people who create them, and forging an identity as an intellectual and scholar. Honestly, this is the part of the book where I almost gave it. Kaplan spends a bit too long, in my opinion, covering the theories of French literature, for a mainstream audience. (Or even an engaged, knowledgeable one. I was a French major, and I've only just read this book, but I'm drawing a blank trying to name a single theory that was described in detail over dozens of pages.)
Part three is the story of a professor, sometimes young, sometimes not, making her way through the politics of departments and universities, connecting with students, and asking herself questions that I myself have often wondered: how would my life have been different if I'd never spent time in a foreign country when I young? How would my life have been different if I'd never learned French? In what ways has it changed how I think about the world? Can I even separate it from the other parts of my life? (The answer to all four, for Kaplan as well as for me, is pretty strongly, "I don't know.")
I came to see this book as neatly divided into three parts. Part one is the story of a young girl growing up in suburban Minneapolis in the 1950s and 1960s. That her father was a lawyer at the Nuremburg trials lends interest, and that he dies of a heart attack when she is still in elementary school lends tragedy, but at its heart part one is about being a kid in the midwest in the halycon days after World War II (and then attending a boarding school in Switzerland, but I digress).
Part two is the story of a graduate student searching for a topic, trying to understand theories and the people who create them, and forging an identity as an intellectual and scholar. Honestly, this is the part of the book where I almost gave it. Kaplan spends a bit too long, in my opinion, covering the theories of French literature, for a mainstream audience. (Or even an engaged, knowledgeable one. I was a French major, and I've only just read this book, but I'm drawing a blank trying to name a single theory that was described in detail over dozens of pages.)
Part three is the story of a professor, sometimes young, sometimes not, making her way through the politics of departments and universities, connecting with students, and asking herself questions that I myself have often wondered: how would my life have been different if I'd never spent time in a foreign country when I young? How would my life have been different if I'd never learned French? In what ways has it changed how I think about the world? Can I even separate it from the other parts of my life? (The answer to all four, for Kaplan as well as for me, is pretty strongly, "I don't know.")
Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews