I’ve been reading Dreaming in French, by Megan McAndrew. I’m enjoying it. But it is filled with fancy words, as though the author has a word a day calendar beside her and is inserting several of these words per chapter. Or I’ve accidentally checked out a book for required reading for teens and there will be a vocabulary test later.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy learning new words. My vocabulary isn’t bad. I read constantly. But this is really over the top.
The narrator of the story is a teenage girl named Charlotte. And the author does a nice job of illustrating Charlotte’s angst at discovering and accepting the flaws of her parents, and how it affects her life. She (Charlotte) seems to me a very young, very naive fifteen year old, at the beginning of the novel. But I found her immediately sympathetic. And I was not put off by being told the story by a child, though I am so much older.
The story begins in Paris and later travels to New York, Warsaw and Rome. I did not go searching for a book set in France. I just found it on the new books shelf. And the story appeared interesting.
The travel component of the book makes it more interesting. But it is really a bonus. The story to me is more about Charlotte’s growing up, and how she views her family and friends. I very much related to her sentiments of how she felt so strange around her high school friends, after a year long absence. I remember that new gulf of change when visiting with high school friends after the first semester of college.
The family has money. But since Charlotte never lords it over anyone, I never begrudged her the secure life she lead. Even while she cluelessly wondered why painting the kitchen couldn’t be hired out, or her boyfriends teased her about being a rich girl.
Her adoration of her parents, especially her mother, is comical to me. Because I am not that romantic. Her sister, Lea, with more pragmatic sensibilities, has a world view that is more my speed. Though she is able to, and does, make choices only available to the privileged.
The supporting characters are brilliant, the batty friend, the secretary with the crush, the wealthy schoolmates, all fit together neatly, and uncontrived.
I definitely recommend reading it. But have the dictionary handy.
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