Confessions of a Concierge: Madame Lucie`s History of Twentieth-Century France

by Bonnie G. Smith

Book Overview

Bonnie Smith here tells Madame Lucie's colorful life history, first by skillfully recording the concierge's reminiscences and then by describing her own observations as a participant in Madame Lucie's world. The overall effect is an unusual, richly textured image of modern France as it was experienced by a figure of the working class. Madame Lucie's life and her memories--moving, engrossing, entertaining--are a valuable source of insight into French...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300040385
• ISBN13: 9780300040388
• Release Date: September 1987
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An Insider's View

Who has not wondered about those strange creatures; concierges. Just about every apartment house in France, new or old, has its own gatekeeper called a concierge. Having traveled many times to France, I never spent any time talking and finding out the details of the life of a concierge. They always seemed extremely unapproachable (or it could have been my insecurity with the language.)This slim volume does a very good job of profiling Madame Lucie's early years living outside Paris with her family, before she became a concierge. With many insites into the French mind and traditions, the reader is given a detailed veiw of family life in France before World War II. The later parts of the book reintroduce the reader to Madame Lucie as concierge and her job of running an apartment house and all of its interesting inhabitants, most of them artists and craftspeople. It is made quite clear how dominating and hard the Madame has become since the end of the war.A well written story that moves along quickly. I now know more about concierges than I did over the last thirty years of traveling to France and dealing with them first hand.