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A review by laurieb755
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
4.0
I loved this story! Part fairytale and part believable as a possibility (at least in the movies!) I was smitten by the locations, sensory experiences (I could practically taste what Reichl describes) and characters.
This is my first book by Ruth Reichl and I now have her first memoir on reserve at the Library. But back to THIS book - Eater.com has an informative interview of Reichl here and the conversation is focused, no surprise, on this book. The interview pairs nicely with the Author's Note at the end of the story, both offering further illumination of the story. It may be fiction but there is a lot of non-fiction contained within its 265 pages.
I urged a friend who knows her way around a kitchen and food to read this book, telling her she will appreciate the Reichel touch with food and restaurant descriptions. As someone who also knows about setting a stage (she was a former actress/stage manager/drama teacher) she will appreciate Reichl's descriptions of the many places in Paris (and in France) that are mentioned and described.
Shakespeare and Company, Paris, is a very real brick and mortar shop, both the shop and the owner playing a major role in this story of Stella and her journey from New York to Paris. Alienated by choice from her mother, Stella is surprised to learn of her death and even more surprised to learn the terms of her inheritance - take the money and go to Paris. Stella will have the kind of experience in 1983 Paris that seems at times like a fairytale and then again seems like it could have actually happened.
A copy editor by trade, and a very good one at that, Stella's boss encourages her to take time off after the death of her mother. Stella has always been a person of habit and routine, with her days planned down to the last minute, so the very thought of heading to Paris unscripted is a bit unnerving, yet she manages to acquiesce, and it becomes a trip of self-discovery among other discoveries: making friends, doing things she never would have done if she was still in New York, using her copy editing skills of research to search for and uncover the story behind the model and artist Victorine Meurent, and finding the father she never knew she had (because her mother said he didn't exist).
Once Stella stepped outside of her New York routine she made yet another discovery thanks to Jules (read the story to learn about him!) - she had a phenomenal sense of smell and taste. She already knew that paintings could lure her out of her mundane and not happy existence, having spent days on end in the art museums of New York dreaming her way into a painting as a way to escape. She hadn't realized that she would respond to food in quite the same manner.
And to think that my reading this book stemmed from listening to Ruth Reichl interviewed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the Wiser Than Me podcast!
This is my first book by Ruth Reichl and I now have her first memoir on reserve at the Library. But back to THIS book - Eater.com has an informative interview of Reichl here and the conversation is focused, no surprise, on this book. The interview pairs nicely with the Author's Note at the end of the story, both offering further illumination of the story. It may be fiction but there is a lot of non-fiction contained within its 265 pages.
I urged a friend who knows her way around a kitchen and food to read this book, telling her she will appreciate the Reichel touch with food and restaurant descriptions. As someone who also knows about setting a stage (she was a former actress/stage manager/drama teacher) she will appreciate Reichl's descriptions of the many places in Paris (and in France) that are mentioned and described.
Shakespeare and Company, Paris, is a very real brick and mortar shop, both the shop and the owner playing a major role in this story of Stella and her journey from New York to Paris. Alienated by choice from her mother, Stella is surprised to learn of her death and even more surprised to learn the terms of her inheritance - take the money and go to Paris. Stella will have the kind of experience in 1983 Paris that seems at times like a fairytale and then again seems like it could have actually happened.
A copy editor by trade, and a very good one at that, Stella's boss encourages her to take time off after the death of her mother. Stella has always been a person of habit and routine, with her days planned down to the last minute, so the very thought of heading to Paris unscripted is a bit unnerving, yet she manages to acquiesce, and it becomes a trip of self-discovery among other discoveries: making friends, doing things she never would have done if she was still in New York, using her copy editing skills of research to search for and uncover the story behind the model and artist Victorine Meurent, and finding the father she never knew she had (because her mother said he didn't exist).
Once Stella stepped outside of her New York routine she made yet another discovery thanks to Jules (read the story to learn about him!) - she had a phenomenal sense of smell and taste. She already knew that paintings could lure her out of her mundane and not happy existence, having spent days on end in the art museums of New York dreaming her way into a painting as a way to escape. She hadn't realized that she would respond to food in quite the same manner.
And to think that my reading this book stemmed from listening to Ruth Reichl interviewed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the Wiser Than Me podcast!