"Whether you have lived in Paris or not, this captivating collection will transport you there." —National Geographic Traveler
Paris is “the world capital of memory and desire,” concludes one of the writers in this intimate and insightful collection of memoirs of the city. Living in Paris changed these writers forever.
In thirty-two personal essays—more than half of which are here published for the first time—the writers describe how they were seduced by Paris and then began to see things differently. They came to write, to cook, to find love, to study, to raise children, to escape, or to live the way it’s done in French movies; they came from the United States, Canada, and England; from Iran, Iraq, and Cuba; and—a few—from other parts of France. And they stayed, not as tourists, but for a long time; some are still living there. They were outsiders who became insiders, who here share their observations and revelations. Some are well-known writers: Diane Johnson, David Sedaris, Judith Thurman, Joe Queenan, and Edmund White. Others may be lesser known but are no less passionate on the subject.
Together, their reflections add up to an unusually perceptive and multifaceted portrait of a city that is entrancing, at times exasperating, but always fascinating. They remind us that Paris belongs to everyone it has touched, and to each in a different way.
"Whether you have lived in Paris or not, this captivating collection will transport you there." —National Geographic Traveler
Paris is “the world capital of memory and desire,” concludes one of the writers in this intimate and insightful collection of memoirs of the city. Living in Paris changed these writers forever.
In thirty-two personal essays—more than half of which are here published for the first time—the writers describe how they were seduced by Paris and then began to see things differently. They came to write, to cook, to find love, to study, to raise children, to escape, or to live the way it’s done in French movies; they came from the United States, Canada, and England; from Iran, Iraq, and Cuba; and—a few—from other parts of France. And they stayed, not as tourists, but for a long time; some are still living there. They were outsiders who became insiders, who here share their observations and revelations. Some are well-known writers: Diane Johnson, David Sedaris, Judith Thurman, Joe Queenan, and Edmund White. Others may be lesser known but are no less passionate on the subject.
Together, their reflections add up to an unusually perceptive and multifaceted portrait of a city that is entrancing, at times exasperating, but always fascinating. They remind us that Paris belongs to everyone it has touched, and to each in a different way.
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December 13, 2010
In original and previously published essays, 32 diverse writers share both exciting and depressing Paris moments. Diane Johnson, evaluating French stereotypes, was surprised that French hostesses serve store-bought entrees. Jeremy Mercer was taken in by the owner of the famous bookstore Shakespeare & Co., living there rent-free (downstairs “with the riffraff,” and Janine di Giovanni saw French mothers hit their children to enforce good manners. In three of the most substantial essays, Alicia Drake muses on the disconcerting ability of the French to accept human faults as she visits sites from which the Nazis, aided by French police, deported Jews to their deaths; Stacy Schiff finds that picking up the dry cleaning was less of a chore when done on ground Ben Franklin and John Adams trod before her; and Roxane Farmanfarmaian escaped revolutionary Iran for springtime in Paris. Many of the original pieces are wordy, mired in mundaneness, and lacking forceful editing by journalist Rowlands (A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Arts and Letters), But overall this book should strike a chord in those harboring love/hate relationships with Paris and Parisians. -
November 1, 2010
Design writer Rowlands (A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art, and Letters) here returns to the city to which she sailed in her twenties to live the intriguing life she'd seen in French films. Many of the writers in this anthology moved to Paris to work or study, drawn by the culture, history, architecture, and romance. But the gorgeous light, the art and theater, and the beauty of the skyline were not always compensation for the humiliation, indifference, hostility, and loneliness these writers encountered in this city with a past. Edmund White describes it as a "mild hell so comfortable that it resembles heaven." Others find it sinister, melancholy, and full of contradictions. Featured are writers from diverse backgrounds and nationalities and such well-known authors as David Sedaris, Joe Queenan, and Diane Johnson. VERDICT Not a guidebook to the Paris that most travelers see, this compilation provides an honest view into Parisian life for an outsider. Absorbing reading; essential for anyone thinking of living in la Ville-Lumiere.--Melissa Stearns, Franklin Pierce Univ. Lib., Rindge, NH
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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January 1, 2011
Rowlands compiles into one volume 32 works, about half of which have never been seen before, by different writers who relay their experiences of living in Paris. Although the contributors are as mixed a bag as the City of Lights 20 arrondissements, they report universal similarities: In Paris, the customer is, if ever, only rarely right. The citys taunting, melancholy beauty is unsurpassed. And any moment passed in the Luxembourg Gardens can be considered time well spent. Rowlands does a seamless job of presenting a city as seen by so many eyes (those of David Sedaris, Stacey Schiff, and Zo' Vald's, to name a few) that readers whove visited will recognize their own memories, and those who havent will glean a globally in-depth portrait. (The piece by a Parisian single-mom, blogging about her homelessness, is particularly poignant.) Judith Thurman perhaps sums up the whole endeavor best when she writes that one of the greatest charms of having lived in Paris is the Proustian glamour of being able to claim that one did so.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
