Christmas Lessons

L'esprit de famille #3

by Janine Boissard

A family Christmas at Grandmother Moreau's is disrupted by one daughter's announcement of her pregnancy, another's aid to an escaped juvenile delinquent, and a third's relationship with a writer

Genres: France, Contemporary, Young Adult

243 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Janine Boissard is a French novelist. From age thirteen she knew she would be an author, and her first novel was published when she was twenty. She has since published more than forty novels in French, also writing under her married name, Janine Oriano. "Love Story", originally published in France in 2003, is her fifth novel to reach English-reading audiences.

Reviews

[Coralie Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tome 3 de l'esprit de famille. Où Claire se révèle grâce à l'accident dans le métro et à sa grossesse en mère célibataire. Pauline se cherche plus que jamais avec le métro, Antoine et la rencontre avec Paul.

[Kricket · Rating 4 out of 5]

the continuing story of the moreau family, which began in "a matter of feeling." i had to interloan this one from quite far away and my attempts to get a good scan of the cover were in vain. i still love this adorable french family, especially pauline's habits of falling madly in love with older men. can't wait to continue on to the 3rd book. btw, i found the title pretty icky, but it refers to one of the aforementioned older men telling pauline he doesn't know how to celebrate holidays in a meaningful way, and that she needs to teach him. oh, that's still pretty icky, isn't it. i don't care. I LOVE THESE BOOKS.

[skein · Rating 3 out of 5]

so. Pauline bicycles around town and feels free and less-free and more in contact with her family and less so, and falls enamoured of older men and tells family stories that link her to the past and turns her back rather resolutely on a version of the future that she dislikes.

I remember her sitting on a hill and watching the lights come on in the city - and speaking to a Famous Author, and being disappointed at his timid or trite inscription to her - and letting the numbers he penned on her arm (like some concentration-camp reversal) fade, slowly.

I'm still not as brave as Claire.