Long Ago In France: The Years In Dijon

by M.F.K. Fisher

In 1929, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher arrived in Dijon, the provincial capital of Burgundy and the gastronomical capital of France, there to be initiated into the ways of love and life.

Long Ago in France is Fisher's exquisitely evocative, deliciously candid memoir of her three-year stay in Dijon. It is a delightful journey backward - in the grandest of company - into a voluptuous, genteel world that has vanished forever.

Genres: Memoir, Food, France, Nonfiction, Travel, Cooking, Biography

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was a prolific and well-respected writer, writing more than 20 books during her lifetime and also publishing two volumes of journals and correspondence shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book, Serve it Forth, was published in 1937. Her books deal primarily with food, considering it from many aspects: preparation, natural history, culture, and philosophy. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored the art of living as a secondary theme in her writing. Her style and pacing are noted elements of her short stories and essays.

Reviews

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about Dijon except that a sandwich isn't a sandwich till you Poupon it. There's a lot more to it than just the moutard. This is the city where Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was initiated into the world of food and wine as sacrament, to be savored and lingered over and held in reverence. She arrived in Dijon as a newlywed in 1929 and stayed three years. This was the beginning of her gastronomical education and set the course for her future as a food writer extraordinaire.

I've never been particularly tempted by French cuisine. They eat too much stinky cheese and disgusting things made with animal innards and other revolting body parts. I could never be hungry enough to eat "terrines of pate ten years old under their tight crusts of mildewed fat." I could, however, grow happily thick-waisted on their pastries and other sweet, fruity delights. Papazi's apple tart with apricot glaze sounds heavenly!

This memoir was written retrospectively, sixty years later. As such, it's heavy on description and doesn't convey the feeling of wonder as a young woman discovers a new world of food and language and culture. Nonetheless, it's an interesting perspective on expat life in France between world wars.
[3.5 stars]

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what quite to make of MFK Fisher and that's part of why I love her. I find her so foreign: her sophistication, her sense of belongingness and ease in the world, the way she knows exactly what she likes, her bluntness in describing people that sometimes makes you cringe and wonder how her critical eye might find you. She is an unabashed lover of the good things in life, and yet you get a sense that even though she has clear taste and she's not afraid to share it, if she's a snob, she's a likeable, jovial one.

I think I'm a much simpler person and much more muddled (or perhaps humble?) about what I like and what is good and maybe that's why I'm so drawn to her special kind of power. A beautiful portrait of her by a San Francisco artist hangs in my kitchen and I get the sense that even though we're so different, we would somehow get along. I really wonder how she would react to food in America today... I'm sure she would have some choice words.

So I read this book because MFK Fisher is a friend of sorts to me... I don't care much about France per se (she probably wouldn't like me to say that), but it tickles me to hear of her experience in France, which is as much about the stuff of dreams and nightmares and sexual encounters and art and womanhood and motherhood and youth and young love and fading wealth... as it is about food.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it was her writing style, maybe it was the lack on continuity through out the book, I don't know but I just found this one to be only OK. I was surprised as I had heard lots about M.F.K. Fisher...I guess I was expecting something else. Aside from that it was kind of neat hearing about France in the late 1920's time period....

[Jeff Friederichsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would imagine this book to be appreciated most by Fisher completists, rather than first-timers such as myself. Very conversational in style, romantically evocative of several stereotypes I have of "Frenchness" and that period, kind of rambling. I was a little lost here and there, but its charm as nostalgia kept me going.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

No idea why it took me this long to read MFK Fisher. Again, another windfall of the street, my eternal gratitude to the neighbors leave their dusty libraries to San Francisco.
In reading MFKF, I see what food writers today are attempting--and sometimes failing--to express. Much of the pleasure is simply in her tone, her voice, and her innumerable excitements of being young and in love.
Even better, there's an impassioned note scrawled on the inside cover from the previous owner, detailing his own loves, his own feverish affairs with bikers and bartenders.
Despite my work, I don't fetishize books--but it's hard to make an argument for an eReader when a twenty-year old note gets passed down to a neighbor.

[Terryls · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a well written book, which surprised me because MFK Fisher is legendary.

Perhaps her earlier books are better. I own a copy of The Art of Eating and I’m still willing to try reading it someday. Long Ago in France was written by Fisher in her 80s and she had nothing to prove. She didn’t need to charm an audience or convince an editor to take a chance on her. She spits out her reminiscences in a stream of consciousness, crotchety old lady manner. This book cries out for a strong editor to take it in hand and polish it up and, for goodness sake, add some footnotes. For example, Fisher continuously mentions Larry Powell. I hadn’t the faintest clue who that was. I googled him, and he’s well known among librarians 😳.

I don’t recommend this book.

[Emma S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just lovely. An escapist read. French food: alluring, as always. Good to read about cities other than Paris. This was a great little snapshot on life in the 1920s from the interesting perspective of a foreigner. She writes well, too. Very like A Moveable Feast, or A Year in Provence. There's something so comforting about this kind of travel memoir.

[Bill Keefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A warm and vividly clear account of the author's baptism into French - specifically bourgognais - food, history and culture. Pearls of elevated writing are interspersed with a running account of living (fully!) in Dijon in the 1920s. The author's vitality is ever present, as is her measured response to the ups and downs of getting an intimate look into the ways of a foreign culture and the families she and her husband live with. Were I to turn the clock back 40 years, I may have benefited greatly from reading this book and Julia Child's recounting of her first days in France before I, myself, set out to see the world. Then again, I may not have. Whatever blessing they acquired from life or gene pool; that blessing that allowed them to struggle with difference while absorbing, appreciating and learning to love all that that was so different, and often so determinedly distant; it makes their work sparkle and their lives so admirably robust.

Thanks Dad.

[Monique · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was somewhat interesting as a period piece, but I wasn't as taken with it as I thought I'd be. It must have been her style of writing that bothered me.

[Andrew]

Honestly, this is weak tea in comparison to many of Fisher's other books. It's the reminiscences of an old nostalgic, with a bit too much emphasis on the personal, not enough on the social, which prevents me from enjoying it near as much as the nostalgias of, say, Stefan Zweig. Fisher was pretty old at this point, and seemed more content to reminisce about the past, its lovelinesses and its discontents, than to use that perspective as a lens, and so I found myself respectfully listening to Grandma's stories, without paying them much attention. Stick to her earlier, edgier work.

[Sandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this one star because no stars isn't an option. I would actually rate it a minus star, as 'absolutely hated it'. The only reason I finished the book was that I had read so many positive comments about the great MFK Fisher that I kept expecting it to improve. Which never happened. Her style of writing is so annoying that I will NEVER read another one of her books.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is moderately interesting although I much prefer Julia Child's My Life in France.

[Clare · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get engaged in the story. Too much detail about stuff that didn't interest me, and not enough about what did!

[Peggy Dubinsky Price · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is TERRIBLE!! It's a boring, rambling, poorly written mess.

[Unbridled · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a charmer this woman was - sharp, smart, elegant, and a touch of a snob too. In short, an easy woman to fall in love with and a very talented writer to read.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh, the stuff she ate ! Pate with a coating of moldy fat, a game bird hung so long it rotted off the hook, almost put me off my feed. It didn't, I was eating my freshly baked cornbread with home made beans from Ranch Gordo, a little Cholula, and applesauce cake for dessert.

[Leigh Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid book with classic MFK observations and turns of phrase, but mostly fills in gaps of some of her other stronger endeavors. A quick read though, so worth it.

[AngryGreyCat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read an article recently mentioning M.F.K Fisher and decided to check one of her books out of my library. Mrs. Fisher is an accomplished food writer, who lived through WWI and WWII. These historic years definitely impacted her writings and point of view. She produced 27 books in her life, which spanned 1908 to 1992. This book focuses mainly on her time in Dijon beginning in 1929, the time between the wars. Her prose is evocative and candid. Her ability to connect food to people and places is singular. Her discussion of France and the people she knew and then her revelations of what happened to them during WWII is done in a very pragmatic manner, making her natural reserve and composure come through in the writing. Anyone interested in food history would find this a very worthwhile read.

[Eugene · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank god that’s over. I had long wanted to read MFK Fisher; she has been lionized as a writer as much as a “food writer.” Can’t prove it by me. I will stipulate that this tome was published in 1991, only a year before her death at 84, and it’s entirely possible that she was by that time senile.
What I don’t understand is why anyone would publish it. It reads like the ravings of a madman, disjointed stream of consciousness, sometimes incoherent or nonsensical, frequently contradictory even within the same protracted sentence, and often scurrilously insulting toward those of whom she writes. This first exposure to Fisher will surely be the only one I make myself endure.

[Lynne-marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book revisits an early time in M.F.K. Fisher's life . . . when she had just married and her husband was cooking in Dijon . . . from the viewpoint of her 80's. We are given to understand that some of the material has been mined before in a different tone in her earlier, more lime-lighted books. This is a quiet, reflective story of many walks through the city, many meals eaten and many thoughts pondered. It does me so much good to know that someone who was known for her verve and vivacity can arrive at wisdom and calm. It gives me hope. And as always, there is the exquisite prose.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars seems like too few to give this book, but the fact is that I liked it. I don't know if I would say that "I really liked it".

This book was very description-heavy, which seems appropriate because the foods she described were also very heavy! But it made it hard to get into. I think this book should be read slowly and carefully. You need to give it a lot of attention.

Anyway, it was good, and it her descriptions of toilet facilities certainly made me appreciate my own living situation!

[Tracy Small · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one immensely because I always love living vicariously through others. This book is well-written and a pleasure to read due to its descriptions of people, places, and culture. The food and wine descriptions often made my mouth water, and Ms. Fisher's candid, yet loving, descriptions of the people around her made me smile. "There is no such frigate as a book, to take us lands away" according to Emily Dickinson, and this book is the perfect example of that. The armchair trip to Dijon was delightful, and the beautifully-articulated prose, a joy to read.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astute, evocative observations of people, of food, of the Burgundian town of Dijon. I admire how, like a true memoirist, M.F.K. Fisher writes for herself (always the best audience), a collage of telling impressions and recollections. I love her wit and intelligence, her insight, and her artful economy of words. Yes, Fisher is a food writer, but she is also a keen observer of human nature, which gives her writing depth.

[Valerie Lincy]

I loved this book for the descriptions of a provincial French city before the second world war. It's not a book about food so much as a book about the customs of people at the time, told without nostalgia. Fisher and her then-husband were students living with a French family needing to supplement their revenue by taking in borders. Overall it's a little uneven but a very enjoyable and quick read.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a young woman, Fisher lived in Dijon from 1929-1932; this short memoir recounts her time there. She writes candidly, sketching the place, the food, and both good and bad personality traits of those she met (herself included). Remarkable sketches they are, too: brief, telling, and drawn in a few quick lines. I'll seek more of her books when next I'm at the Strand.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dijon, cuisine, learning how to fit into provincial France. There are nice vignettes here, beautifully written. I wanted to eat at the restaurants, meet the people, watch as a tart was put together. But you have to know something about the author to piece a story together as there are't connective chapters that explain much of the background to her marriage or her husband's area of study etc.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hear Fisher is a great food writer, but this is not the one to read. Except for Chapter 4, the rest is about the characters she remembers, looking back to 50 years ago. I'll defo read her early stuff...

[Lisago5 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I know where Laurie Colwin learned to write. I'm sure Julia Child gained her inspiration here too. Food, travel, characters you don't see much anymore, and good writing . . . everything I need. This book sets me on a course to read her other books, most of which came before this one.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rememberances of the late food and prose writer MFK Fisher's first years in pre-WWII France. A little rambling (for which she apologized in the prelogue), and quite dated, but an interesting glimpse of history.

[Sonya Mendoza · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book seemed more of a description of the author's surroundings, and thus I found it a bit dry. I enjoyed the second half a lot more, which discussed the interesting people that she and her husband met during their few years living in Dijon as students.