Confessions of a Concierge: Madame Lucie`s History of Twentieth-Century France

by Bonnie G. Smith

Shares the memories of a Parisian woman about turn-of-the-century France, World War I, and the period between the wars

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Varsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another reviewer got it exactly right - the first half, which followed Mme. Lucie’s life from her own perspective was intriguing and illuminated much about French life. The second half, on the other hand, was depressing and slightly useless. We saw Mme. Lucie’s life in her 80s from the author’s perspective, and it was a harsh perspective. Mme. Lucie is shown as a stupid, grudge-holding old woman that others aim to please only because they are family. What was the point of that? What did it show about French history? It was just a view of the rather horrible end to someone’s life.

I’m not sure I’d recommend this book, but for a used book store purchase, I enjoyed it!

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The follow up to Smith’s 1981 Ladies of the Leisure Class, Confessions of a Concierge is likely the result of the author’s time living and researching in northern France. Madame Lucie was Smith’s concierge, a natural storyteller who experienced the bulk of tumultuous twentieth century France. After a brief introduction, Smith divides her work into two very different sections. The first recounts Madame Lucie’s stories of French life uninterrupted. This section shines. Smith is at her best when organizing and retelling Lucie’s life. In the second section, Smith assumes a third person narration (even referring to herself as “the American”) which leaps from WWII to the 1970s. Here Smith “observes” Madame Lucie in her latter years which were fraught with family crises and physical deterioration.

Confessions of a Concierge’s first half makes for compelling reading, but its second half falls flat. For 71 pages, Madame Lucie’s plebeian perspective adds depth to a historical epoch overwrought with stories of great men and military battles. Her observations shunning De Gaulle, for example, carry more weight than any outsider’s perspective of Vichy France. Lucie’s penchant for constantly contradicting herself shows the difficulty in conducting oral history. For example, early Lucie she speaks of cooking richly for her husband, but later notes her family common menu of rotten canned meat. The second half of the book reveals little about French history. Instead, it speaks to Smith’s personal relationship with Madame Lucie and fails to give readers a taste of 1970s French life. Smith uses Lucie’s final days selfishly—-as an opportunity to apply her psychoanalytic methods on a subject. In the end, all Smith reveals is the pain of a dying woman.