The Chateau

This book is not about a Chateau. It's not about France or about tourism. It's not travel writing and it certainly isn't "A Year in Provence". It is about being far from home. It's about being in a fascinating world you don't understand, and how you might interpret all that is in it. It's about how being in that world affects relationships with those you know well, and those you meet along the way. If you've been in unfamiliar territory in your life, you'll recognize yourself in Mazwell's detailed mirror. Man, this is a good book. If yor really want to see the beauty and the agony of being on foreign ground, read The Chateau.

On review, I think this is an evocative and highly skilful rendering of La Belle France three years after the Second World War. Novels like this show something which is quite ineffable in any other form. Nothing much happens for all the life is in the minutiae of the everyday and the France that is captured here and which of course exists no longer is seen through the uncomprehending eyes of the young American couple who insensitively travel about a France where people are still suffering the physical deprivations of the War, still talking incessantly of Nazi soldiers. Despite being Francophiles in theory at least, this inseparable couple, are quite out of their cultural (and linguistic) depth in the French society they encounter, notably at the Chateau and afterwards in Paris. They are rather painful in their efforts not to be overcharged because they are Americans and preoccupied with their own comforts. They are quite put out that the chatelaine of the chateau has not provided them with a double bed as requested and when they request water for bathing it is tepid by the time they get to it. They cannot guess at the heroic efforts of their hostess to keep the chateau at all. The wonder is that they are taken under the wing of some of the guests of the Chateau. Much is made of one guest, Eugene's subsequent froideur towards them. There is no great mystery. His is a personality that blows hot and cold but this exercises the American pair a great deal. Their coupleness is also irritating but here I am expressing a personal prejudice. Published in the early sixties, The Chateau is an interesting read for anyone who has ever travelled to France. I just wouldn't wish Harold and his wife on anyone and certainly not the French.

The Chateau is a wonderful "travelogue" for people who love well written novels. The story begins with the interesting premise of vacationing in France just after the war. The novel shows the tensions of the "haves" and "have nots" between financially war torn France and the booming post war U.S. The Chateau serves to remind us of the graciousness of everyday life and the small luxuries afforded by simply being American. All of the American insecurities of traveling abroad crop up throughout the novel: (e.g. the gaucheness of being an American, the lack of a long history or the U.S's place in Western Culture). No one character is entirely lovable or wretched. That is precisely what makes it such a thought provoking novel. It is perfect for those who travel or have been to France on an extended trip. Enjoy the book and recommend it to a friend. The story can stand on its own but the writing remains the feast.