Appetizing Essays Capture Full Flavor of French Gastronomy

Nonfiction audio books are often of the weight loss, investment advice or spiritual growth ilk. Much more fun are those describing fattening meals and romantic locales. Few authors provide as much vicarious pleasure as Peter Mayle.

The author, who made a name for himself in the early 1990s with “A Year in Provence,” has recaptured the bel esprit of that first memoir with “French Lessons: Adventures With Knife, Fork and Corkscrew.” (Random House Audiobooks; unabridged nonfiction; four cassettes; six hours and 30 minutes; $26.95; read by Simon Prebble. Also available on six CDs, $31.95.) Mayle, often accompanied by a foodie friend, traverses the French countryside in search of festivals and fetes that glorify French meat, mushrooms and slimy critters.

He attends a Mass for truffles that is followed by a feast and seeks the perfect chicken at a fair in Bourg-en-Bresse. He follows the progress of a marathon in Burgundy in which costumed runners stop to sample the local wine.

Sausages, snails and everything but puppy dog tails are delectably described with Mayle’s gastronomical gusto and sly wit. Each chapter is an appetizing essay with such titles as “The Thigh Taster of Vitel,” in which Mayle explores the glories of frogs’ legs.

Prebble captures the author’s zest for the fine life as well as his ability to laugh at the passion of people who take food so seriously that they gather annually in a Catholic church with their fungi. Prebble understands the warmth of tone needed to gently poke fun at the absurdity, even while acknowledging it’s quite enjoyable.

An established British actor, Prebble has a well-trained voice, and his diction is lovely. While his manner is refined, he never loses sight of the humor in Mayle’s adventures. He adopts a French accent when needed, and even sings “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” in a Gallic accent.

Calling himself a devotee of Paris, but not a Francophile, Adam Gopnik has written a wonderful homage to the City of Light in “Paris to the Moon.” (HighBridge Audio, unabridged selections; four cassettes; five hours; $24.95; read by the author. Also available on four CDs, $29.95.)

A New Yorker writer and a New York native, Gopnik, his wife and infant son lived in Paris from 1995 to 2000, leaving shortly after the birth of his daughter. Not all of the essays from the print version are included in the audio book, and much of the material first appeared in the New Yorker.

Sophisticated and insightful, Gopnik reveals a world most of us can only imagine. He describes, in heartbreaking and humorous detail, “The Balzar Wars,” in which a stubborn group of faithful patrons (including himself) battles to keep its favorite brasserie from becoming just another link in a rich man’s chain of restaurants.

By writing about the microcosm, he is often at the heart of these essays, which sometimes smack, ever so faintly, of smugness. But they are so carefully constructed that while you learn about the author’s life, you also become aware of Parisian philosophies, politics and culture.

Gopnik’s observations are often hilarious, such as his attempt to join the French version of an American gym in which bureaucracy and crpe parties are paramount to maintaining a healthy heart rate. But his essays are also quite touching as he shows how his perceptions were often challenged and his boundaries expanded.

He says, “We went to Paris for a sentimental reeducation--I did anyway--even though the sentiments we were instructed in were not the ones we were expecting to learn, which I believe is why they call it an education.”

The author is an elegant and heartfelt writer, but his delivery is not outstanding. He sometimes reads too quickly and is occasionally staccato, especially at the beginning. But there’s something about hearing an author read his own work that makes it a little more real, especially when the work is autobiographical.

Gopnik’s love for Paris, and for his children and wife, is clearly heard in his delivery, adding a charming warmth to the essays.

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Rochelle O’Gorman reviews audio books every other week. Next week: Dick Lochte on mystery books.