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230 reviews for:
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Lauren Elkin
3.54 AVERAGE
230 reviews for:
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
Lauren Elkin
3.54 AVERAGE
I love walking in big cities. Although I prefer traveling with my husband, I love walking on my own. I'm interested in all the cities covered in this book and in several of the women she focuses on. But. This was somehow at once both too academic but not researched, not detailed enough yet too rambling, and I wondered how this ever became a book.
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
wonderful concept. some parts were stronger than others, and I dont have much patience for paris-supremacy, but overall, I loved this book. it really made me think about things differently, and open myself up to a whole new world of connections.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
as someone who has lived in two countries and loves to linger in the places where literature and history intersect, a lot of what elkin says resonated with me quite deeply. i too have walked around paris looking for things (both external and internal) and the familiarity of her perspective was nice.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I was not sure about picking up this book, especially after catching sight of some of the reviews. I am so glad I decided to give myself 50 pages to decide. I found this to be an interesting balance of travelogue, memoir, history and literature. Maybe it is the fact that I read it while quarantined and with an empty passport burning a hole in my lockbox but I loved the virtual journey Lauren just took me on from my living room.
More of a 3.5 for me; interesting saunter through Paris, Venice, Tokyo, and New York (though different amounts of time are spent on each), particularly when the author focuses on tying each place to a woman artist who spent time there. But it's a little too free-floating and autobiographical, trying for a Rebecca Solnit effect that doesn't always hold together here.
I was expecting this book to be about female writers praising the cities they live in. Instead it was an autobiography of the author, who came across as a bit of a spoiled brat. She basically bashed any city other than Paris.
informative
medium-paced