The Matchmaker Of Perigord

Barber Guillaume Ladoucette has always enjoyed great success in his tiny village in southwestern France, catering to the tonsorial needs of.
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My only complaint would be that the little details, which sometimes add to the charm, were often tedious and repetitive. But I enjoyed this book so much and would definitely recommend it. Sep 04, Carey rated it really liked it. He has been an excellent barber for his small French town for twenty years. But now he has a problem. Well, two problems, really. The population of the town has not changed much over the years.

It stands, in fact, at thirty-three. That includes the pharmacist who has been missing since the mini-tornado of The population's hair is aging. You know what happens to aging hair. That's right, it falls out. Some of Guillaume's customers are going bald! To make matters Poor Guillaume Ladoucette.

To make matters worse, a new snazzy barber has set up shop in a neighboring town and some folks have been lured away by the fashionable haircuts that he is offering. Guillaume feels that he must remain true to conventional barbering wisdom and not be swayed by popular attitudes.

But the fact remains, he has almost no customers left. What is he to do? He decides to make a clean break. Start over in an entirely new profession. Despite his own bachelor status and his inability to proclaim his feelings to the woman he has been in love with his entire life, he decides what the town needs most is a matchmaker.

And he's the man for the job. He tears the sink out of his shop and, after a quick makeover, re-opens his shop as "Heart's Desire".

Unfortunately, business is a bit slow at the start. Prospective clients looking for love are matched up with people that they are already VERY familiar with. It is a small town, people have already formed opinions about each other, getting them to change is difficult. Things aren't going so well for Guillaume. Then, suddenly, he seems to have a success! The postman has found someone he really likes! Poor Guillaume, the woman in question turns out to be the same one he has been in love with his whole life. Now it looks like he will lose her forever, to the postman.

Will he ever muster up the courage to admit his feelings? What a fun book this is. It is witty and warm, filled with eccentric, endearing characters and fantastic descriptions of French food and pastries. It is a wonderful 'cassoulet' of a novel. Nov 01, Michelleluster rated it it was amazing. This is a charming and quirky little book that diverts, entertains, and makes you hungry for food you never thought would tempt you.

Nov 02, Lalah rated it really liked it. I enjoyed this author's style. I found the structured repetition of certain interactions to be humorous in a giggle sort of way. I enjoyed watching the characters develop, even though it's clear from the beginning where the story will end. It's a fun read. Aug 24, Rachel rated it it was ok Shelves: When we had the book club discussion about Matchmaker , a lot of people complained about the almost-bludgeoning repetitiveness of the author's description, and the intense, almost obsessive focus that was given to painfully minute details.

Though others complained, I felt that this endless repetition and obsessive focus on the minute was necessary as a way of showing the reader, bludgeoning them with it if need be, that these villagers' lives are completely and utterly joyless, repetitive, and mi When we had the book club discussion about Matchmaker , a lot of people complained about the almost-bludgeoning repetitiveness of the author's description, and the intense, almost obsessive focus that was given to painfully minute details.

Though others complained, I felt that this endless repetition and obsessive focus on the minute was necessary as a way of showing the reader, bludgeoning them with it if need be, that these villagers' lives are completely and utterly joyless, repetitive, and minute. It may be the late 80s in the outside world, but in Amour-sur-Belle it is the s, and they've been stuck there, isolated from the outside world, without hope, without love, without beauty, in a mind-numbing cycle of purposeless repetition.

Once we've been flooded with all this microscopic inanity, we can fully understand the earth-shaking changes that will come to the village of Amour-sur-Belle. All the village's inhabitants have been spinning their wheels, going nowhere, for an entire lifetime; how much joy there will be when they are finally allowed to move forward! Oh how relieved we as readers are when something new finally starts happening and characters finally start reaching beyond their prescribed comfort zones.

Would we be nearly so relieved, so happy for the villagers, if we didn't have as good of an idea of the depressing repetition of their lives to begin with? If I could compare this book to a type of poem, I would say that it is a very large sestina, and at regular intervals we see the same details, the same snippets of conversation or description pop up, but in different patterns, and at the end there's a cathartic tercet that ties everything neatly together and finally gives the reader closure.

It's like a highly sophisticated French Groundhog's Day , except with Guillaume Ladoucette and a chicken instead of Bill Murray and a groundhog. I think that the reason it makes him smile at the end is because finally, FINALLY, he has something bigger and better in his life to think about than that cursed chicken and her inconvenient eggs.

He no longer sleeps like a dead man, his hands stiffly at his sides, like a man already in his coffin, he sleeps like a man who is finally living.

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And that damned chicken doesn't matter with the love of his life finally at his side. I have really enjoyed Stuart's books to date, but her debut novel, The Matchmaker of Perigord , surpassed them all for me. It is easy to read, but shrewdness and intelligence reign in equal measure. Stuart's characterisation is great, and the novel is a real gastronomic delight; I am even more eager to travel to my beloved France at Easter in consequence.

The Matchmaker of Perigord is charming and witty, and made me laugh aloud at several points, which is something I rarely do when reading. The n I have really enjoyed Stuart's books to date, but her debut novel, The Matchmaker of Perigord , surpassed them all for me. The novel transported me fully to beautiful Brantome, which I visited some years ago, and entertained me throughout with its playful repetitions and human characters.

I absolutely loved it. Sep 05, Aleta rated it it was amazing. What a sweet, light-hearted, endearing story replete with kooky characters and cheeky British humor and written with such a lyrical style.


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A perfect European vacation read. Nov 13, Vonia rated it liked it Shelves: It was pretty clear that this was a debut novel from Stuart after reading her sophomore work, "The Tower, The Tortoise, and The Zoo", which has all the imagination, magic, and whimsy readers see here, but with far more sophisticated editing, specifically pacing and realizing that as good as your material is, most of it is better off not being included.

The Matchmaker of Perigord

This seemed more a collection of vignettes of characters readers learn to love, rather than a cohesive while that makes for a fluid novel. For ex It was pretty clear that this was a debut novel from Stuart after reading her sophomore work, "The Tower, The Tortoise, and The Zoo", which has all the imagination, magic, and whimsy readers see here, but with far more sophisticated editing, specifically pacing and realizing that as good as your material is, most of it is better off not being included.

First, these stories detract from the main narrative. Secondly, after the first few, it is easy to lose interest.

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Examples of that creativity, humor and wit I now attribute to Stuart: Always with an innocent "Bring something to eat? When they inevitably get around to eating, they offer each other tastes. Cue declination, "But then I wouldn't have any room for This, Stuart is good at. Food is interwoven throughout the story as a warm, welcoming escape; emotional signals for the characters, delicious fantasies for the readers I love that, unlike most other "food in fiction", it is not actually a main focus.

Her parents forced her to participate their trapeze act. He saw the fear in her eyes in the audience. He came to congratulate her. She dotted over him for the rest of his life, the trapeze act instilling a paranoid fear of death in her for all her days. Unfortunately, census representatives send for a surprise double-check. How he spends all day elsewhere, across town, another town, the same room- choosing pastries, researching his many calendars that guide his gardening, locating better, newer, thicker, more colorful paper, vivifying the candle store next door, having dinner, examining the contents of his desk hutch, etcetera- anything, rather than write his love letter.

This is magical realism, yes. But it is stretched a little far. The physical ailments resulting from a broken heart. The fact that Guillame has not yet embraced his lover because he has been afraid to respond to an innocent letter she sent him as a teenager. How Lisette Robert's stunning beauty had been a lifelong burden for her attracting numerous suitors that are inevitably disappointed, as nothing could ever live up to her physical attributes. To be fair, it is quite lyrical. Crossing into pose poetry, utilizing multiple literary devices.

The Matchmaker of Périgord

With her frequent switch from prose to prose poetry, readers may find it difficult to appreciate Stuart's writing, unable to switch mindsets. The potential is here; what she needed was a good editor and more practice at her craft. Evidence of this can be seen in her sophomore novel. Aug 14, Allison Campbell rated it it was amazing.

Julia Stuart has crafted an utterly charming, farcical comedy of rural France that could not fail to delight. Guillaume Ladoucette whose mother's feud with Madame Moreau involves assault-by-eel and overripe tomatoes is the barber for the village of Amour-sur-Belle, a tiny hamlet of 33 aging residents, each with his or her own quirks and past secrets many of which were revealed during the mini-tornado of , when they all thought they'd die.

When his client list dries up due to a combinati Julia Stuart has crafted an utterly charming, farcical comedy of rural France that could not fail to delight. When his client list dries up due to a combination of balding customers and his refusal to attempt cutting-edge hairstyles like The Pinecone , he decides to set out his shingle as a matchmaker. He continues to push pairs of villagers together, insisting that love is like a cassoulet--you must take the good with the bad. As Guillaume undertakes the massive task of bringing love to the villagers, drought has brought a communal shower to Amour-sur-Belle, and villagers must walk to the square in their dressing gowns to queue up for their daily shower.

Though the book is clearly contemporary, with references to a mini-tornado in and prices in euros, Stuart has given the village and its residents timeless appeal. Every person is referred to in every instance by both first and last names, and many physical descriptions and important events are described using the exact same phrasing, and these echo comfortably throughout the book, like an epic told from memory by a master storyteller. The repetition is both lyrical and practical--it helps the reader keep the numerous characters, their pasts, and their relationships with each other straight.

This book has been compared to Chocolat. I must confess that, though I love the film, I've avoided the book, but to the film at least the sense of timelessness, the charm of rural France, and the entwined lives of the villagers have similarities. If a charming tale of deceptively simple village life sounds like your cup of tea or truffled foie gras, as it were , I highly recommend this for a fun read. Mar 14, Book Concierge rated it liked it Shelves: Looking for a new way to earn his living, he converts the shop into a matchmaking agency and begins to set up the various inhabitants of Amour-sur-Belle on blind dates, despite the fact that many have not spoken to one another since the mini tornado of What a delightful comedy of manners.

And, of course, love triumphs — how could it not? Oct 24, Sandra Guerfi rated it really liked it Shelves: Ladoucette was born to be a barber and what a barber he is. He seems to have it all until he starts to notice that some of his long time patrons are sporting snazzy new hairstyles such as the pine cone. When it becomes obvious that his customers have started flocking to a nearby village to have their hair done his life hits a slump and all seems lost.

Until the day he decides that what he needs is a new career. Amour sur Belle is a tiny village but even so its community needs a matchmaker and he Ladoucette was born to be a barber and what a barber he is. Amour sur Belle is a tiny village but even so its community needs a matchmaker and he is the perfect person to fill the position. This is a love story dedicated to the oddities of its characters.

From the reason Amour got its name, not what you think, to how it winds up having one communal shower, every page is filled with the funny, magical, interwoven moments of life that make this story such a joy to read. Page after page you'll find yourself laughing with them and cheering them on as they face such adversities as a micro climate that scientists are unable to explain which causes mini storms where the inhabitants buckle down to pray for salvation or the misunderstanding that can be caused by a love letter stuffed into a pastry.

It is a celebration of love in its many forms and Ladoucette is indeed the perfect person to introduce us to its many variations.

THE MATCHMAKER OF PÉRIGORD by Julia Stuart | Kirkus Reviews

Set in the beautiful south of France, this is the perfect book to buoy your spirits and make you fall in love with the magic of life and cassoulets. I found this book to be "precious". The author has a great vocabulary and she seems intent on finding ways to work in every word that she has learned. The plot often felt contrived. I was bludgeoned with certain phrases such as the "supermarket leather sandals". The description of the shoes was listed about every five pages.

It was hard to believe that this book took place in modern day France. Why did I keep reading it? It came highly recommended so I kept thinking I was going to find o I found this book to be "precious". It came highly recommended so I kept thinking I was going to find out why it was so beloved by so many readers. I can say it makes a "cozy read". If you don't want anything graphic in the way of sex or violence, you can be assured that you will not encounter it in this book.

If the setting of a novel is important--this has setting. If you want an interesting plot, don't bother. News still travels via the grapevine, not instant message. Meals are still something to be planned and savored, not nuked in the microwave. Love is an intricate dance, a game of cat and mouse, not an anonymous hookup via MySpace. Amour-sur-Belle is a charming place, to be sure, but Guillaume has a problem: Business is drying up as the population of the hamlet ages. Rather than take early retirement or decamp from his beloved home, he decides to reinvent himself. Soon just about every unmarried townsperson catches the love bug and lands on his doorstep.

His new business affords him ample time to tend to his garden and concoct glorious picnics. Indeed, even with his gastronomic pursuits, Guillaume feels a void in his life. Following these gentle folks on their blind dates and awkward reentries into the field of romance is a sweet and simple pleasure. First-time novelist Stuart would have benefited from more editing, but she does manage to richly evoke the fecund sights and smells of rural France. There was a problem adding your email address.