I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany

Fun little book, amusing. The genre of "middle age American moves to France and falls in love with quirky village" seems pretty crowded; this one is unique in the narrator being male. And Brittany, not Provence. It's well written, full of humor and personal observations and with enough interesting events to keep motivated.

The part that bugged me is the author's personal distance about himself. He goes into great detail about the wonderful things about the people he befriends, the people who help him. But when he talks about himself he's nothing but self-deprecating, full of jokes about his incompetence and inability to speak French. That's all fine but it left me wondering; why did people like him? Why did they go out of their way to help him? I have to assume he has some charming characteristics that he does not advertise in the book. Admirable humility, maybe, but it left a strange picture where the people of Breton are painfully generous folks who will help the bumbling intruder in their midst despite his persistent rudeness and obvious ignorance. I suspect the real story is much more interesting and human.

But that's my quibble. Mostly it's just a fun book about the fantasy of moving to France and finding acceptance, home, and family. Wouldn't that be lovely?