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Reviewed by Java Davis for Readers' Favorite
When an author claims that his or her book is funny, inwardly my eyes are rolling. Most people don't have the chops to be either stand-up comics or humorous authors. I am amazed and delighted to introduce readers to Vicki Lesage and her collection of Christmas essays - Christmas Confessions and Cocktails: A Humorous Holiday Memoir with Sassy Drink Recipes.
The back story of this memoir is that Vicki Lesage moved to Paris, fell in love, married, and had two children. She considers herself a French transplant, while maintaining close ties to family back in the United States. Some of these essays cover travel back and forth across the Atlantic - either pregnant, or with a baby or two in tow. What ties everything into Christmas is the time of year that these things happened, not necessarily an account of every Christmas like a chronology. A bonus feature of Christmas Confessions and Cocktails is that, yes, there really are cocktail recipes after every story. They are chosen to highlight the story that came just before it. Many of them looked darned festive!
These essays are just as long as they need to be, and no longer. Some are very brief, and others are longer and more detailed. The writing style is breezy and fun, even while talking about baby poop, vomiting and green boogers. There are comparisons between the work ethic in the U.S. versus the more relaxed ethic in France. There are stories with happy endings, including bottles of champagne. There are also love stories between Vicki and her birth family, her married-with-children family, and her love for her adopted country.
Be prepared to dust off your high school French. The occasional French word is thrown in here and there, but they are common words. I had no trouble and actually felt a tad cosmopolitan. Ms. Lesage has written other essay collections, and she freely admits that there is some cross-over, with some of the same stories included in more than one volume. Having read this collection first, I would be willing to bet that the other books are just as entertaining as this one. Unquestionably, this is a 5-star read.
