Hunting and Gathering (Anna Gavalda)

I lucked out big time when I was invited to join this book club. Not only do we talk about intriguing books, but the food we eat to accompany the conversation is worthy of a five-star restaurant. So, henceforth, I will review books from this book club alongside the menu.

March 14, 2010

Perhaps most perfect is the most recent book club read: Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. I say the "most perfect" as food is central to the gained intimacy of the characters, and an amicable setting for friends to gather and discuss books.

Around our real table, Carol proudly admitted to using Volume 1 of Julia Child's original cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And it sounded like she and her husband spent many hours following the recipes to a tee, complete with all the butter. It wasn't the first time. The book looked well worn, with stains like bookmarks on favorite recipes.

On each of our plates, Carol had placed a menu:

Potage Parmentier (Leek and Potato Soup, blogged about here: http://cookinginpajamas.onsugar.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Potage-Parmentier-aka-Leek-Potato-Soup-3462687)

Salade avec Sauce Vinaigrette (Salad with French Dressing, the dressing copied here: http://bad-girls-kitchen.blogspot.com/2010/04/sauce-vinaigrette-french-dressing.html)

Quiche a la Tomate, Nicoise (Fresh Tomato Quiche with Anchovies and Olives, and I thought I didn't like anchovies. How wrong I was!)

Quiche aux Champignons (Mushroom Quiche)

The dessert, Carol added, had been too much after cooking the other dishes for most of the day. So, instead, after the meal, she pulled out frozen containers of lemon and raspberry sherbet.

Anna Gavalda

Carol had cooked French food because the book of the month, Hunting and Gathering, had been originally published in French as Ensemble, C'est tout. It was Anna Gavalda's fourth book. It's the story of a oddball group of four characters brought together despite their history, baggage, and circumstances in a timeless apartment where they are all little more than temporary squatters.

Camille Fauque, the central character, is a failed artist. Anorexic thin, we meet her when she has given up all hope and resolved to get by as a cleaning woman at night. Yet, living with Philou and Franck and eventually Franck's grandmother, Paulette, she finds herself wanting to find her way back.

Philou, the endearingly tall, awkward and stuttering fellow that Camille invited over one evening for dinner, becomes the catalyst that eventually brings Camille into the apartment after he finds her deathly ill. He comes from an aristocratic family, but has little affinity for them. His interest lies in by-gone centuries, and he opts to sell postcards on the street.

Franck is a womanizing, seemingly selfish and conceited fellow, who works six days a week as a chef. And yet, he becomes essential to the nourishment Camille needs for her transformation. She requests the food he cooks so that she will "be warmer and more appetizing," she says.

(An interesting idea--that good food can make us more lovable. All the more reason for us to talk about a book around a meal!)

The three, led largely by Camille, kidnap Franck's doddering grandmother, Paulette, from the public home to live with them in the apartment. Paulette is slowly slipping into dementia, but "with it" enough to recognize Camille needs a house as much as a home. She is by far my favorite character, especially after she comes into her own, teaching Camille how to plant and care for a garden.

(Again-food! Subsistence and life force, but thanks to birthplace and privilege, a taste-bud buffet stringed chemically to our feel-good meter.)

But why oh why was the French title translated into "hunting and gathering?" The French, "ensemble, c'est tout," translated imperfectly, is "together, that's everything," a more accurate title, if you ask me. Living together, despite squabbles and irritations, is infinitely better than living alone. And that friends, dear, dear friends, can provide a sense of belonging when family is absent or cancerous.

If my one gripe is that the ending is too predictable, I have to still admit that I kept reading with the same fascination 'til the end. Probably because a skeptic like me expects failures too often. Failed relationships. Failed love. Failed careers. And each one of these characters has failed. Failed in big ways. And still, these characters find solace in each other, making me realize that human compassion, love, and hope survive calamity. So long as there are others and that they stay together. That's everything.

Now a motion picture, starring Audrey Tautou. Trailer for the movie at: http://www.huntingandgathering.com.au/


PS Stay tuned. Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times is up next. And I'm the chef. Any suggestions for menu items?