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parlez vous Paris?

"Paris to the Moon" is Adam Gopnik's funny, poignant and insightful memoir of the year he lived in Paris with his wife and their little boy. Gopnik has written for "The New Yorker" for many years (including a column called "Paris Journal"). The book was a New York Times Notable Book in 2000.

This book is a view of Paris different from that of the tourist or the native: it's more that of an ex-pat (think Hemingway, Baldwin, Stein, James...if they had young children).

The book is a collection of short essays on topics as wide ranging as French cooking, swimming pools, jazz, and Barney (remember that awful purple creature?).

Here is one line I especially liked: "We breathe in our first language, and swim in our second."

Posted by
6538 posts

Another winner from Monty! Gopnik's current writing for the New Yorker isn't as accessible as this earlier book, or maybe I'm just not smart enough to get it. But "Paris to the Moon" is a wonderful account of the time he and his family spent there.

Posted by
4051 posts

The kid's an adult now and Paris has seen changes despite being an 'eternal' city. Still, the atmosphere is dead on. Gopnik has become the New Yorker's all-purpose cultural critic, no doubt helped by spending some of his own youth in Montreal.