MY FATHER’S GLORY AND MY MOTHER’S CASTLE: Memories of Childhood <i> by Marcel Pagnole (North Point Press: $11.95).</i>

These charming memoirs describing his idyllic boyhood in the Provencal country provide the subject matter for Pagnole’s most recent film. His father, a solidly middle-class schoolteacher, and his marginally wealthier uncle purchased what they grandly termed a “villa” (actually an isolated old farm house several kilometers from the nearest village): Marcel found it an ideal place to spend the summer as he roamed the nearby hills hunting, exploring, playing “Indian” and observing the affectionate interactions of his somewhat befuddled father and his shy, gentle mother. The author’s delighted recollections of trapping and cooking the local songbirds may appall conservation-minded American readers, but this dismaying attitude is a minor flaw in a book that overflows with the author’s love for his family, his friends and the Provencal landscape. “Such is the life of man,” he reflects. “A few joys, quickly obliterated by unforgettable sorrows. There is no need to tell the children so.”