Paris Carousel, photograph by Shawn Duffy
Destination: France
Book: Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
I seem to be reading backward in time through my pile of French books. First I read A Sweet Life in Paris, released just this year and about an American in Paris in the present. I have just finished Paris to the Moon, published in 1999 about..well read on.
Soon I will be reading the expanded version of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast, about life in Paris in the twenties. Although I read the original years ago, I did not think about getting a copy of the expanded version in time for the publication today, unfortunately. My recollection is that the book is more about Hemingway and the Americans who hung out with him than it is about Paris, but from what I read in Christopher Hitchen’s review in the Atlantic, the new sections may relate more strongly to the other two books.
I found it very interesting to read two such different books about Paris and come away with the same general definition of what it is to be French. David Lebovitz simply shows us the culture through his experiences with minimum comment, whereas Adam Gopnik philosophizes at length on the exact same observations.
- Parisians worship bureaucracy and filling out the correct form, the way we worship the rule of law and hiring lawyers.
- Parisians don’t like to stand in line.
- Parisians sound rude to Americans because Americans say things that sound rude to them.
- Paris does not represent the whole of France, instead it is even more insular than Washington D.C.
- Everyone dresses well, even the garbage collection men, and particularly the apartment owner carrying the garbage out to the curb. In short, appearance counts.
- Eating is an appreciation of food in the way that museum attendance is an appreciation of art.
- They are inclined to sympathize with a strike by workers or students or anyone.
Lebovitz takes food as his theme, naturally, since he is a chef. Gopnik’s book revolves around the raising of his child. He and his wife moved to Paris when the child was born to keep him away from American TV and Barney in particular. (Of course that did not work.) They stayed five years and when they had a second child, a girl, they said a sad goodbye to Paris in order to enroll their boy in an American school. (The pieces were written for the New Yorker originally, and the direct appeal to the narrow, upper middle class liberal private-school obsessed Manhattanties means there are frequent references that go right over my head.)
We all hang on every amazing development of our first child. For Gopnik, his first child is a foreign culture within a foreign culture, and he observes and analyzes both with intellectual acuity worthy of the French intellectuals and journalists he pals around with. He also uses the ever-so-clever statements of a three-year-old to illustrate his truths, in the way, according to Hitchens, Hemingway uses his son in one of the restored sections to Moveable Feast.
Gopnik, with some very fine, evocative writing goes deep into the history and traditions that shaped today’s Paris, and tries to puzzle out the answers to “Why are they the way they are?” I like his eventual conclusion that instead of comparing them to us, we need to just say, “this is what they are.” Perhaps a good guideline for dealing with all of our culture shocks.
Do you agree with Gopnik’s conclusion that we should just say “this is what they are?” I am also interested in people’s reactions to the Carousel Photograph. Gopnik’s book ends with a carousel moment, introduced early in the book as a metaphor for his child’s development. But to me this photo had more to say than just a direct reference to his choice.
Photo obtained by Creative Commons license through Flickr by photographer Shawn Duffy.
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About the Author:
A freelance writer who loves to travel. When she is not traveling she is reading about travel. When she is not reading or traveling, she is sharing with the readers of A Traveler's Library, Reel Life With Jane and other websites. Also co-author of a biography, Quincy Tahoma, The Life and Legacy of a Navajo Artist. Contact Vera Marie by e-mail.
Vera Marie Badertscher – who has written 680 posts on A Traveler's Library.
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Tags: Bastille Day, BlogSherpa, France, French culture, Gopnik, Hemingway, Lebovitz, Paris
Well, having just finished writing about cognac, I’m in a Parisian mood. So I’d love to read Adam Gopnik’s book — if say, it were a prize for a contest…
.-= Edie Jarolim´s last blog ..Cleanliness: Next to Dog-liness? =-.
“Paris to the Moon” has been on my TBR stack for ages! I don’t know why – I’ve enjoyed Gopnick’s New Yorker articles.
You might also like “My Life in France” by Julia Child. A wonderful recounting of her time in Paris and Marseilles, the people she met and became friends with, and details behind her cookbooks and TV show. I’m a bit of a “foodie,” but think her story would appeal to people who like her and/or France.
I read “A Moveable Feast” on the flight to Paris for my 2nd visit to that lovely city. It was an interesting look into the time and place, but the ending with the breakdown of his marriage just made me sad…
i loved paris to the moon – and remember reading his essays as they came out in the NYer. i haven’t read the lebovitz book yet. but there is lots of food for thought. paris, i think, is in a class of its own. great review!
.-= Jessie Voigts´s last blog ..Book Reviews: Immigration and US Citizenship Made Simple =-.