{"product_id":"mme-proust-and-the-kosher-kitchen-paperback-by-kate-taylor","title":"Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen Paperback by Kate Taylor","description":"\u003cbody\u003e\n                            \n                                \n                                    \u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n                                    \u003cul\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cb\u003eAnchor Canada\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e(2003-12-02)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003eEnglish\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e478\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003epages\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e9780385658355\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem Weight\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e391.23\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003egrams\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e7.97 x 4.97 x 1.01\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003ecm\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                    \u003c\/ul\u003e\n                                    \u003cbr\u003e\n                                    \u003cp\u003eStretching between turn-of-the-century Paris and contemporary Canada, \u003ci\u003eMme Proust  and the Kosher Kitchen\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of three women whose lives intersect across time  to reveal the intrinsic bonds of our collective and personal histories. It is a rich  and compassionate debut, a novel that encourages us to explore the depths of love  and memory, of life and of art.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Unable to escape the pain of her unrequited love  for Max Segal, Marie Prévost travels to Paris in order to study the writing of her  other great amour: the novelist Marcel Proust. Marie is bilingual and works as a  simultaneous translator in Montreal, and believes that reading Proust’s original  papers will give her insights into love and loss that just may mend her broken heart.  But when Marie arrives in Paris, Marcel remains as elusive as Max: the strict officials  at the Bibliotèque Nationale only allow her access to the peripheral papers of File  263 -- a much ignored and poorly catalogued collection of the diaries kept by Jeanne  Proust, Marcel’s mother. Despite the head librarian’s opinion that they contain only  the “natterings of a housewife,” Marie begins to translate them, and discovers that  Jean Proust’s diary is as illuminating for what is \u003ci\u003enot\u003c\/i\u003e said as what is there.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Entwined  with Marie’s story are the diary entries that she has translated: Jeanne Proust’s  records of day-to-day life in her Paris household, which make up the second strand  of this novel. Jeanne’s diary includes all aspects of life at 9 Boulevard Malesherbes,  everything from the difficulties of cutting rich desserts from the dinner menu to  the latest Parisian headlines to her fears for the health and literary ambitions  of Marcel. She’s a worrier, Madame Proust, but also ferociously protective and supportive  of her frail son, and the trials of her small world come across as powerfully as  the goings-on outside her doors. Madame Proust’s diary entries, particularly those  from the height of the Dreyfus Affair, also convey her experiences as a Jewish woman  within a prominent Catholic family and a privileged social class. And it is this  thread that makes Marie recognize the difficulties of finding the woman’s true voice,  given the atrocities to come during the Second World War.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As she continues her work,  Marie increasingly explores the devastation of the Holocaust and wonders about our  collective responsibility to remembering -- and recording -- it’s truths. Her explorations  of Paris, first limited to the Proustian tour, begin to include memorial sites such  as the one at Drancy, a transit camp on the route to Auschwitz. During her travels  she comes across references to Max’s mother’s family, the Bensimons, and begins to  make connections between the overbearing mother Max so often complains about and  Madame Proust. She also starts to recognize the horrible burden Sarah Segal must  carry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sarah’s story is the third strand of this novel. Sarah Segal -- née Bensimon,  then Simon -- was sent to Canada from France at age twelve, just as the Nazis were  beginning to round up Parisian Jews. Growing up with her foster family in Toronto,  she is never able to escape the loss of her parents, and as a young woman she travels  back to Paris to discover that they did, in fact, die at Auschwitz. But despite --  and perhaps due to -- finding out what happened to them, Sarah is unable to fully  adjust to her life in Canada. She doesn’t know how to communicate with her son or  her husband, and finds even the most mundane domestic events overwhelming. It is  only when she retreats to her kitchen, determined to fuse her French and Jewish histories  by mastering a kosher version of classic French cuisine, that she begins to face  her sorrow head on. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eMme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen \u003c\/i\u003eis Kate Taylor’s first novel,  and has been highly praised by reviewers. Most comment on Taylor’s wonderful ability  to weave together three distinct stories in such a way that the larger truths emerge  from among their combined details, and on the subtle way she is able to meld history  and fiction. As one literary critic has stated, “\u003ci\u003eMme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen \u003c\/i\u003emarks the stunning emergence of a writer from whom we can expect much in the future.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n                                    \u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n                                    \u003cp\u003eKATE TAYLOR was born in France and raised in Ottawa. Her debut novel, \u003ci\u003eMme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen\u003c\/i\u003e, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Canada\/Caribbean region), the Toronto Book Award, and the Canadian Jewish Book Award. Her second novel, \u003ci\u003eA Man in Uniform\u003c\/i\u003e, was nominated for the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen Award and won Kingston Reads: Battle of the Books in 2011. A recipient of the National Newspaper Award and the Atkinson Fellowship in public policy journalism, she is a long-time contributor to the arts pages of \u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e, where she currently serves as lead film critic and writes a weekly column about culture. She lives in Toronto with her husband and son.\u003c\/p\u003e\n                                \n                            \n                            \u003c\/body\u003e","brand":"Best Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":44912956997793,"sku":"BBSNIJ9780385658355","price":28.5,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/2084\/5473\/files\/9780385658355.jpg?v=1745849715","url":"https:\/\/www.bestbookstore.ca\/products\/mme-proust-and-the-kosher-kitchen-paperback-by-kate-taylor","provider":"Best Book Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}