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fengyuseah 's review for:
The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue Des Martyrs
by Elaine Sciolino
“I can never be sad on the rue des Martyrs,” Sciolino says. It was hard to be sad reading her book about this single glorious street in Paris as well. This is a joyous little book that made me desperately want to visit the street on Paris, which I suspect was very much Sciolino's aim.
I admit I'm a sucker for travel books, but what made this so enjoyable was the sense of neighborliness and communal joy that pervaded both the book and the actual rue des Martyrs. The book is made up of short chapters, all tangentially related to each other, all telling different stories of the myriad personalities found along the street. Reading the book is very much like walking down the actual rue des Martyrs, popping in to each shop along the way and conversing with the shop owners and maybe buying some cheese or some vegetables to bring home to cook and then share with your neighbors.
This book, in a way, reaffirmed my belief in humanity's capacity for good - it cumulates, essentially, in a celebration of the diversity of the street and the human experience, letting me imagine for a moment that the whole world can be like the rue des Martyrs, where everyone knows everyone else and is part of one big family.
I admit I'm a sucker for travel books, but what made this so enjoyable was the sense of neighborliness and communal joy that pervaded both the book and the actual rue des Martyrs. The book is made up of short chapters, all tangentially related to each other, all telling different stories of the myriad personalities found along the street. Reading the book is very much like walking down the actual rue des Martyrs, popping in to each shop along the way and conversing with the shop owners and maybe buying some cheese or some vegetables to bring home to cook and then share with your neighbors.
This book, in a way, reaffirmed my belief in humanity's capacity for good - it cumulates, essentially, in a celebration of the diversity of the street and the human experience, letting me imagine for a moment that the whole world can be like the rue des Martyrs, where everyone knows everyone else and is part of one big family.