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A review by whitneymouse
The Paris Hours by Alex George
4.0
I had a hard time with the star rating on this one. It was so squarely a 3.5 for me that it was hard to decide if I should round up or down. I decided to round up purely because the issues I had with it were a "me" thing and not a writing thing.
The Paris Hours is written from the POV of four different people living in Paris in 1927. Their lives intertwine over the course of the book. They each meet someone famous who shapes their lives in some way.
I could see this making a very intriguing and artistic movie, but as a book, I was upset about the ending. The writing across the book was well done, but George sets up some really high stakes situations and then leaves all four stories open-ended. That really bothered me. I'm not a fan of open endings, but to have four open endings was so unnecessary that I just was irritated by the end. I wanted more closure for the characters.
The only other thing that bothered me was a character saying at one point he understood why Black celebrities like Josephine Baker would come to Europe because France had "liberated them" from racism like they would have faced had they stayed in the States. While it's objectively true that Europe was an easier place to be for Black people during this time period, I wouldn't have gone as far to say that they were "liberated" from racism, especially when another character is discussing how they're watched for the color of their skin (This character is Middle Eastern).
⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Paris Hours is written from the POV of four different people living in Paris in 1927. Their lives intertwine over the course of the book. They each meet someone famous who shapes their lives in some way.
I could see this making a very intriguing and artistic movie, but as a book, I was upset about the ending. The writing across the book was well done, but George sets up some really high stakes situations and then leaves all four stories open-ended. That really bothered me. I'm not a fan of open endings, but to have four open endings was so unnecessary that I just was irritated by the end. I wanted more closure for the characters.
The only other thing that bothered me was a character saying at one point he understood why Black celebrities like Josephine Baker would come to Europe because France had "liberated them" from racism like they would have faced had they stayed in the States. While it's objectively true that Europe was an easier place to be for Black people during this time period, I wouldn't have gone as far to say that they were "liberated" from racism, especially when another character is discussing how they're watched for the color of their skin (This character is Middle Eastern).
⭐️⭐️⭐️