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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
My initial thought: I have found my people! Apparently wandering around through cities alone by foot for no other real reason than enjoying walking and experiencing life as an observer is a thing. And of course the French have a word for such a person, a “flâneur” (masculine). This book by Lauren Elkin is about the mythical “flâneuse” (feminine). History did not always permit women to wander around alone as freely as the archetypal man (even think about today and the male gaze), but some achieved it anyway and/or wrote of characters that did. This book was a well researched, heady dive into famous women authors and other artists and their formation around solitary city walking.
While I wasn't swept away by the actual book, I'm taken by the idea at the heart of it. I don't expect that I'll revisit the text, but the idea has already changed the way I think about my own city and how I experience it; I think that will stick with me.
I got about 90% of the way through and DNF. This was not at all what the description said and is more of an examination of how much Elkin loves Paris. You might be a fan if you’re into Virginia Woolf because there are smatterings of history but I am clearly not the target audience here.
What a great concept for a book! Sadly, IMO, it was not really focused on the concept and was too scattered. I mostly enjoyed the memoiristic components and the Tokyo chapter, but most of the Parisian chapters were too focused on (to me) random parts of history and less on the city itself.
Me pasa con CASI TODOS los libros de ensayos cortos: los leo de a poco y regreso a ellos un tiempo después. Este fue de las lecturas que me sacó de la "mente de pandemia", pero no he sentido la necesidad de regresar a él.
adventurous
emotional
informative
medium-paced
It felt like the author was trying to write a memoir, a biography of influential women authors and a commentary on social issues all in on.e Instead, it made fora clunky series of essays that didn't really work for me. I enjoyed the Paris protests chapter and the Tokyo memoir chapters but the rest left me oscillating between bored and wanting more.