And of course, the lavish descriptions of rural French country towns, the art itself and the luscious food so typical of Provence and southern France were really the redeeming parts of the book. The book had a lot of promise, and the basic premise could have been done so much better. The rest of book is the tale of Lisette moving away from Provence, following her “list” that she had put together with Pascal of all the things she wanted to do with her life, including finding those family paintings before the Nazis get their nasty little hands on them. Before he went off to fight, he hid away some family paintings worth millions.

Andre goes off to fight the Nazis and of course, dies. Pascal, before he dies, gradually teaches Lisette about painting and colors and life. The basic premise is a young woman, Lisette, who moves with her husband Andre, to a small town in Provence to help care for Andre’s ailing grandfather Pascal in the late 1930s. It was beautifully written and moved along brilliantly. The author of this book, Susan Vreeland, had previously written a wonderful novel called Girl in Hyacinth Blue, which told the story of a Dutch painting and its owners starting in modern times and going back through when it was painted, in a series of interconnected short tales. I’m sorry, I hate to slam on books and writers because God knows, I am not an author. (sigh) That being said, Lisette’s List was boring. When you’re recuperating from any medical procedure, minor or major, you don’t really want anything too heavy or deep.

I minored in Art History and of course, I am a foodie par excellence and love travel, so I gave it a whirl. It was recommended by two friends of mine as a book filled with art and food and set in France, and both of them were sure I’d love it. I went into this book expecting a nice, escapist type of read as I recovered from minor outpatient surgery this past weekend.

Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland