Strangers in Paradise

February 26, 2007
Christensen, a poet, editor and author of over a dozen books (most recently Falling from Grace in Texas), has crafted a memoir of his part-time residency in Provence that avoids the familiar with unique experience and a fluid style that separates it from other an-American-in-Europe journals. What makes Christensen's expatriate tale unique is how much of it he spends in Texas; while he teaches there during the academic year, his wife and three children lived in Provence without him, and the most interesting portions of his sometimes meandering narrative involve his ambivalence over watching his children become French. Christensen's other gift is for capturing perfect details of Provencial life, as in his description of an art gallery: "There were no geniuses around, only a few shy attempts to paint one's gratitude for the light or the wild flowers." This gift for lovely writing occasionally drifts into melodramatic territory ("I thought keenly of my deceased brother... he shimmered over the twilit air and seemed to almost touch my face"). It seems that this slim book could have used a tighter edit, but there is much here to appreciate, particularly for those with fond memories of France. Photographs.

May 14, 2007
Christensen, a poet, editor and author of over a dozen books (most recently Falling from Grace in Texas), has crafted a memoir of his part-time residency in Provence that avoids the familiar with unique experience and a fluid style that separates it from other an-American-in-Europe journals. What makes Christensen's expatriate tale unique is how much of it he spends in Texas; while he teaches there during the academic year, his wife and three children lived in Provence without him, and the most interesting portions of his sometimes meandering narrative involve his ambivalence over watching his children become French. Christensen's other gift is for capturing perfect details of Provencial life, as in his description of an art gallery: "There were no geniuses around, only a few shy attempts to paint one's gratitude for the light or the wild flowers." This gift for lovely writing occasionally drifts into melodramatic territory ("I thought keenly of my deceased brother... he shimmered over the twilit air and seemed to almost touch my face"). It seems that this slim book could have used a tighter edit, but there is much here to appreciate, particularly for those with fond memories of France. Photographs.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.