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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
lighthearted
There were some charming, delightful tales. There really were. But there was a lot of tedious detail inbetween them.
"Come with me down this street and meet the ghosts of our earliest years," Julien Green quoted by Ms. Sciolino. I finished this book at speed because I was off to Paris in May and wanted to visit the Rue des Martyrs. One recent form of Creative Non-fiction is a sort of homage to a very small place--one beach, one small village, one street in Paris. Of course, this book is the latter, one woman's affair with her neighborhood, its history and the people that inhabit it. Ms. Sciolino tells a good tale and enjoys doing so. This book is great fun if you are a Francophile, have been to Paris or intend to go in the near future. Don't expect the usual tourists routes, however. This expresses the joy of living and shopping in Paris, of the minutiae of every day life. And by the way, the street is great. I found a bookstore that I definitely will return to next trip to Paris. Sadly we had no time to shop for food or eat there. Next trip maybe we will try to stay in the area. My advice would be skip Sacre Coeur and go to one of the small neighborhood museums. Thanks for sharing, Ms. Sciolino.
This book makes you want to find an urban neighborhood to settle into and become one. I would just prefer it not be France. Elaine describes the fish monger who taught her how to cook, the book stores for regular folk vs book stores for the intellects and the best place to find 2nd hand designer clothes for bottom basement prices (must find this summer). My favorite bit was when she introduced the concept of potluck with a Portuguese opera singer singing Italian for entertainment.
3.5 stars
This nonfiction book reads like a comfy introduction to one kind of modern life in Paris as an expat as well as an intricate cultural study of the history and life of one neighborhood bordering one famous street. We meet fishmongers and thrift store owners, local celebrities and working folks trying to put dinner on the table. I enjoy intimate histories like this, the story of one specific place that has changed and morphed over time but still keeps an aura of the years that came before. All the name dropping made me annoyed at the author (often because I felt like SHE felt I should know who someone was but I didn't!) but I learned a lot and I was entertained.
This nonfiction book reads like a comfy introduction to one kind of modern life in Paris as an expat as well as an intricate cultural study of the history and life of one neighborhood bordering one famous street. We meet fishmongers and thrift store owners, local celebrities and working folks trying to put dinner on the table. I enjoy intimate histories like this, the story of one specific place that has changed and morphed over time but still keeps an aura of the years that came before. All the name dropping made me annoyed at the author (often because I felt like SHE felt I should know who someone was but I didn't!) but I learned a lot and I was entertained.
We are planning a trip to Paris in a couple of months and this was the perfect book to get me in the mood. A day in Montmartre was a definite- we'll now be starting at the bottom of Rue Des Martyrs on our way up!
Bought in Paris at Shakespeare and Co., this book helped me feel connected to the daily life of those who live in Paris while I was visiting. Visitors can get a sense of the shops and the sights, but the stories of the people you interact with can really only be learned over time. It's a good reminder to learn those stories where I live, too.
I love Paris. I love snapshot stories. I love learning small, quirky pieces of history. There is a lot of all these things in this book, but somehow it didn't all come together for me. Sciolino and I are very different kinds of people, and the way she approached people and businesses on this street where she lives occasionally left me feeling rather anxious. I've been on the Rue des Martyrs before, but I would like to revisit now that I know a little more about it to see how it feels. Mostly, I guess, this book reminded me just how much I'm ready to travel again.
Wonderfully intimate memoir. I liked that narrator is the memoirist as her descriptions of the street and this part of Paris paint a loving portrait of the people she cane to know.