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Literary Criticism. Travel. Nonfiction. HTML: Thirty-two essays�??many never before published�??of life in Paris from writers who were drawn by the city's charms to take up residence there. In thirty-two personal essays, more than half of which are published here for the first time, authors 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 as Parisians; some are still living there. In Paris Was Ours, these outsiders-turned-insiders share their observations and revelations about the City of Light. The collection includes entries from celebrated literary expats, such as Diane Johnson, David Sedaris, Judith Thurman, Joe Queenan, and Edmund White. Together, their reflections form 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. "[A] wonderful collection . . . The essays capture the mood of the city in all of its dark and light shades, evoking the spirit of Eugene Atget and Marcel Proust." �??Chicag… (more)
User reviews
In all, this was a fascinating glimpse of a much different culture than ours, one that has been around for much longer yet not changed as much over time. I'm not sure if it made me want to visit Paris more or less than I did when I started. At least I will feel that I understand a little more about it when I do make a trip!
In the collection of 32 essays, both previously published and original works, Rowlands has collected the Paris experiences of a new generation of writers who have lived in this most intriguing of cities. Their experiences are not all of a kind but their varied writings serve to create a rounded portrait of the multi-faceted city and its inhabitants. Tackling subjects as different as fashion, food, and their famed intolerance of the etranger (among other topics), all of the writers in this collection share their Parisian experience in ways such that anyone who has him or herself visited Paris will recognize truths and swim in their own memories, good and bad, of the fabled city.
As is generally the case, certain of the essays are more poignant or better written or simply more enticing to individual readers but overall, the collection is quite strong. It is diverse enough to cover many aspects of life in the city but also specific enough to draw a detailed view of the different arrondissements and the various people who inhabit them. It was fascinating to hop from essay to essay, dipping into life as a writer researching a book, as an African-American student frustrated by the fact of her Americanness defining her, as a homeless mother speaking of the cost to live in Paris and the need for a solution, as a witness to French parenting, and so on. Because of the nature of the book and the length of most of the essays, this was the perfect choice to read intermitently, in the car, at kid events, and the like. It was a small bit of escape in an otherwise mundane task.