Foreign Parts

by Janice Galloway

Book Overview

From the beginning this novel's tension weaves warp and woof between hilarity and hell. Two women friends travel through France, encountering backroad-European misogynist crudities and the awkward experiences of being female, over thirty, with your teeth almost literally at your closest friend's throat, and "fancying men, but not liking them very much." Throughout Rona's random acts of innocent irritation and Cassie's caustic reactions, the funny...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564780821
• ISBN13: 9781564780829
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Delightful armchair vacation

Although I can't say this was a totally knockout read, I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed traveling the French countryside with Cassie and Rona, the book's enormously likable female protagonists. Once I adjusted to Galloway's rather inventive literary style (no punctuation to denote dialogue, stream of consciousness narrative, loose spacing within sentences and paragraphs, etc.), I was off and running. Cassie's contrary and cynical nature is the perfect foil for Rona's perpetual Pollyanna personality, the clashes well illustrated in short vignettes and terse conversations that will leave the reader laughing out loud on occasion. Stopping at various French tourist attractions and sites along the way (many highlighted in hilarious travel book lingo within the text), the Scottish duo cope with rude male behavior, snarling dogs, decrepit hotel accomodations and their own dramatic mood swings. With a long history of taking "holidays" together, Cassie and Rona explore not just the unfamiliar terrain of the French countryside, but also the sometimes startling interior landscape of their own psyches. The resulting literary journey is well worth the reader's time, so sit back and enjoy the ride! This book is a wonderful testimony to the power of female friendship.

reading it right

A fan of Galloway's first book, I loved this even more. I am horrified to read that the only on-line review here is by a man who think this book is somehow a slight to him! It's not about men at all, it's a book about two women, and their thoughts on men occur as part of the narrative they have between themselves. That the two women have an exrtemely funny, leg-pulling as well as tender relationship with each-other doesn't seem to reach the over-sensitive British male reader, though it does reach the male reader with a sense of humour. It's not a "story" (go to the movies for those), it's a meditation about love, aging, what success might be, European identity and, above all, companionship. I have taught this book in high school (Brit Lit) as well as given it to friends and have yet to find a US male who doesn't find it a hoot (or who didn't learn something from it about the weaknesses and strengths of women alone). In short, it's a wonderful, thought-stuffed, gentle yet stimulating book that says it all about modern Scottish fiction. If Galloway isn't appreciated at home, maybe she should to the States!