Love and Rutabaga

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In a gentle memoir, the sprightly daughter of a French mother and Chinese father recalls her childhood in France during World War II. The author was exposed early to a rich cultural heritage, including colorful grandparents (she an Armenian pianist, he a kindly martinet) and the simple joys of extended family. Although her father was detained in Russia, where he had traveled on business, the family was fairly comfortably situated in the countryside, controlled by the Vichy government. Nonetheless, they felt the tremors of the Nazi occupations, and young Claire became increasingly aware of underground activities in her own home. The author, who turned seven in 1944, amusingly describes her complaints when General Eisenhower failed to march, as she expected, through her village after the Normandy invasion--she had wanted to see the exotic Americans. These and other reminiscences of a childhood world are evoked in language that strives to express a young girl's viewpoint. (July)

Library Journal

The author paints a vivid portrait of personal devastation and deprivation during World War II in Vichy, France, doubly poignant from a child's perspective. In 1941 Claire Hsu and her brother, Louis, arrive with their French mother, Nicolette, in Rohan to endure the German occupation with their Armenian grandmother and French grandfather. Absent is the children's father, who is working in China. Amid such misery and fear, minor daily events attain great significance, but the account, written by Accomando many years later, retains childhood's essential ingredient: hope. Indeed, the bane of the family's existence--rutabaga--actually sustains them, along with the bonds of love. The author skillfully strips her prose of the superfluous to portray more palpably the family's struggle and creates a compelling narrative, gripping from start to finish. Highly recommended for most libraries.-- Bob Ivey, Memphis State Univ.

Caroline Paulison

Accomando's memoirs of her childhood spent in Vichy France, from 1941 to 1946, excellently portray family life in World War II as seen through her six- to nine-year-old eyes. With Accomando's father, a Chinese diplomat, reassigned to China and unable to send for his family, Accomando's mother moved her children from Paris to her own parents' home in Vichy. Even with stringy rutabaga and sawdust bread on the table each day, this family as well as the small town are determined to live life as usual, which is not only a testament to the strength of the human will but also an insult to the Third Reich and its strategy of terror. Together, the family, strengthened through love, manages to continue on through the abduction of Tante Ninette and Accomando's grandfather, German officers pillaging their town and home for food and living in their home while hunting for Ninette's resistance-leading husband, and, of great concern to Accomando and her siblings, Christmases of recycled gifts and clothing.