A Grand Dame and a divorcée

The Champagne Letters
by Kate MacIntosh

Toronto: Gallery Books, 2024
$36.99 / 9781668061886     

Reviewed by Valerie Green

*

In The Champagne Letters Kate MacIntosh has successfully managed to create two parallel stories set in two different eras: one in nineteenth-century France and the other in the present day. Her narrative flows seamlessly between discrete eras with plots that build on one another.

In many ways the two stories are similar: both concern women trying to find their place in the world—after the death of a husband in one case, after a painful divorce in the other.

In 1866, at the age of eighty-nine, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot (“la Grande Dame of Champagne”) begins to write a series of letters to her great-granddaughter, Anne. She talks of her life from nearly sixty years earlier in 1805: “I discovered my husband Francois, dead.” The intriguing statement immediately makes anyone want to read further.

The story then switches to present day Chicago, where Natalie Taylor still feels broken a year after the discovery of her husband’s infidelity and their subsequent divorce. During that year she tried everything to get over her loss and accept her new life as a single woman. She gave therapy a go. She then allowed her close friend, Molly, to lead her on a healing journey—with stops that included a sex shop, veganism, chanting, and wearing a crystal bracelet. Yet nothing helped her to move on. 

While sorting out her belongings after the sale of her and ex-husband Will’s house, Molly brings over a bottle of Veuve Clicquot to celebrate a fresh start—even though Natalie does not feel like celebrating anything! Something stirs within her when Will arrives to remove the possessions that are his. Natalie impulsively tells him she won’t be available to sign important papers. Surprising herself as much as him, she tells her ex she’s leaving for Paris.

And so, the adventure begins.

In a book stall on the Seine, Natalie purchases a collection of the Widow Clicquot’s letters to her great granddaughter; the letters become Natalie’s inspiration to slowly rid herself of her past and begin anew. She makes mistakes along the way, and by so doing discovers her similarity to the Widow. 

As a widow, Mme. Clicquot had to make decisions to save her husband’s wine business—not easy in that era for a woman in a man’s world, especially with the imminent invasion of the Russians into France and having to navigate through Napoleonic court politics. She took risks and sometimes made mistakes, but mostly she learned.

Similarly, Nicole in present day Paris and then Reims, finds herself flattered by a charming and very handsome Frenchman, Gabriel, and finding a close friendship with Sophie, the hotel’s kind receptionist. Despite texts and calls from Molly that warn her to take things slowly and warily, Nicole decides that she enjoys being courted and allowing a man to make all her decisions, just as she once did throughout her marriage to Will.

And then a shocking twist that readers will not see coming makes this book hard to put down. 

Centuries of French history are cleverly related as debut novelist MacIntosh portrays these two women. Her Historical Notes section explains how she came to write about the Widow Clicquot and blending that story with fictional characters in contemporary France. It is an intriguing way to tell a story. The fiction is bolstered by historical facts, such as the death of Francois Clicquot from “malignant fever” (most likely typhoid). At the time there were many rumours circulating that he had in fact committed suicide because of his previous bouts of depression.

Using this “trivia gem” of historical information, MacIntosh has created a fictional character, Margot, who she nicknames the Mouse, to be the target the Widow must eliminate because of a possible blackmail threat. The Widow’s later discovery about the Mouse is her biggest regret; the storyline works well with the fact that Mme. Clicquot later established a home for “disadvantaged children.”

“While some of the Widow’s actual correspondence does exists, I created the book of letters to Barbe-Nicole’s great-granddaughter,” writes the author. Those letters, however, become an excellent way to explain history. They enable the author to narrate the Widow’s story as an innovator in the world of champagne alongside a historical background. These include the Napoleonic Wars, the legend of soldiers on their horses using their swords to open champagne bottles, and the intriguing process of remuage, storing bottles on their necks instead of their sides to collect sediment near to the cork.

After reading all that the Widow endured following her husband’s death to save his wine business, Natalie feels capable of being strong. Instead of accepting her foolhardiness at the hands of the people she’s met, she’s determined to fight for what is rightly hers.

MacIntosh’s book sparkles with excitement, history, and the agency of women. It’s well worth reading. Make sure you have a glass of bubbly nearby as you join Natalie on her journey back into a captivating time in French history as she struggles with her own current problems and broken life. You will learn a great deal about history and wines.

Vancouver resident MacIntosh describes herself as “always in search of the perfect bottle of wine, a great book, and a swoon-worthy period costume drama.” If you’re of the same mind, you will find all of this and more in The Champagne Letters. Cheers!

Valerie Green was born and educated in England, where she studied journalism and law. Her passion was always writing from the moment she first held a pen. After working at the world-famous Foyles Books in London (followed by a brief stint with MI5 and legal firms), she moved to Canada in 1968 and embarked on a long career as a freelance writer, columnist, and author of over twenty nonfiction historical and true-crime books. Hancock House recently released Tomorrow, the final volume of The McBride Chronicles (after Providence, Destiny, and Legacy). Now semi-retired (although writers never really retire!) she enjoys taking short road trips around BC with her husband, watching their two beloved grandsons grow up and, of course, writing. [Editor’s note: Valerie Green has recently reviewed books by Rosemary Neering, Winona Kent, Michael L. Hadley, Jason A.N. Taylor, Johanna Van Zanten, DL Acken and Aurelia Louvet, and Carly Butler for BCR.]

*

The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-25: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster