Places - Literary Anthologies, European Studies - France

Paris in Mind

Name: Paris in Mind
Author: Jennifer Lee
ISBN: 9781400031023

by Jennifer Lee (Editor), Jennifer Lee

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Overview

Including essays, book excerpts, letters, articles, and journal entries, this seductive collection captures the long and passionate relationship Americans have had with Paris. Accompanied by an illuminating introduction, Paris in Mind is sure to be a fascinating voyage for literary travelers.

Jennifer Allen
• Deborah Baldwin
• James Baldwin
• Dave Barry
• Sylvia Beach
• Saul Bellow
• Bricktop
• Art Buchwald
• T. S. Eliot
• M.F.K. Fisher
• Janet Flanner
• Benjamin Franklin
• Ernest Hemingway *Langston Hughes
• Thomas Jefferson
• Stanley Karnow
• Patric Kuh
• A. J. Liebling
• Anaïs Nin
• Grant Rosenberg
• David Sedaris
• Irwin Shaw *Gertrude Stein
• Mark Twain
• Edith Wharton
• E. B. White

Synopsis

“Paris is a moveable feast,” Ernest Hemingway famously wrote, and in this captivating anthology, American writers share their pleasures, obsessions, and quibbles with the great city and its denizens. Mark Twain celebrates the unbridled energy of the Can-Can. Sylvia Beach recalls the excitement of opening Shakespeare & Company on the Rue Dupuytren. David Sedaris praises Parisians for keeping quiet at the movies. These are just a few of the writers assembled here, and each selection is as surprising and rewarding as the next.

Including essays, book excerpts, letters, articles, and journal entries, this seductive collection captures the long and passionate relationship Americans have had with Paris. Accompanied by an illuminating introduction, Paris in Mind is sure to be a fascinating voyage for literary travelers.

Jennifer Allen
• Deborah Baldwin
• James Baldwin
• Dave Barry
• Sylvia Beach
• Saul Bellow
• Bricktop
• Art Buchwald
• T. S. Eliot
• M.F.K. Fisher
• Janet Flanner
• Benjamin Franklin
• Ernest Hemingway *Langston Hughes
• Thomas Jefferson
• Stanley Karnow
• Patric Kuh
• A. J. Liebling
• Anaïs Nin
• Grant Rosenberg
• David Sedaris
• Irwin Shaw *Gertrude Stein
• Mark Twain
• Edith Wharton
• E. B. White

The Washington Post

Paris in Mind is terrific in just about every respect. Rather than yet another assembly-line product -- Here-I-am-in-Paris- and-isn't-it-picturesque-and- aren't-I-great? -- it is a real book about what some Americans have brought to Paris, what they have found there, what they have taken away from it. — Jonathan Yardley

About the Author, Jennifer Lee

Jennifer Lee is an experienced editor with two previous anthologies, Martial Arts Are Not Just for Kicking Butt and 2sexE: Urban Tales of Love, Liberty and the Pursuit of Gettin' It On. She lives in the Bay Area in California and is happy to trade Paris and San Francisco restaurant tips.

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Editorials

The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Seeking to offer readers "pleasure and variety," Lee (who has edited anthologies on martial arts and urban lifestyles) compiles 29 essays and book excerpts on the City of Light. The collection covers various subjects such as seduction, eating, "the art of living" and tourism; yet all the essays share one trait: they're written by Americans. The usual suspects are here-James Baldwin, Art Buchwald, Ernest Hemingway, David Sedaris, Gertrude Stein and Edith Wharton (though no Diane Johnson or F. Scott Fitzgerald)-as are some surprising voices, including Dave Barry (who discusses how he learned to pronounce the infamous French "R") and Langston Hughes (who reflects on hearing "the cream of the Negro musicians" play at the Grand Duc). A good overview of expatriate writing, Lee's offering works well as a springboard to other, more in-depth anthologies of Paris-themed essays and works that feature the city as their backdrop. (Aug. 4) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Gathering the writings of 18th- through 20th-century American authors, editor Lee (Martial Arts Are Not Just for Kicking Butt) here presents an entertaining anthology that provides different views of the Paris experience. Like other books in the "Departures" series (e.g., France in Mind; Italy in Mind), this anthology does not include work by obscure writers, instead focusing on notables such as David Sedaris, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Jefferson, and Mark Twain. Lee has arranged the excerpts by themes, e.g., love, food, living, and tourism, and prefaced each excerpt with a brief biographical sketch. Overall, the excerpts focus on three aspects of the American in Paris experience: early American diplomats; the art scene of the world war era, which receives the greatest coverage; and humorous views of the present, containing none of the French bashing that has been popular recently. This book will make a good addition to any travel collection and is appropriate for public libraries.-Sheila Kasperek, Mansfield Univ. Lib., PA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A host of literate Americans, from Ben Franklin to Dave Barry, go mostly gaga over Paris. There's a name for the spirit of this uneven collection-topophilia, love of place. These pieces are old familiars, but for many, their shopworn quality has burnished their power rather than dimmed it. A.J. Liebling took a date to Montparnasse, which, "although not a long walk from the Quarter, had all the attributes of a foreign country," while David Sedaris seemed rarely to leave the movie house: "Aside from the occasional trip to the flea market, my knowledge of Paris is limited to what I learned in Gigi." Much humor follows: Art Buchwald, Mark Twain, Dave Barry, who has a delightfully goofy conversation with a waiter, in French ("Good day. I suspect you are an American." "But I am not wearing the sneakers!" "OK, Mr. Smarty Pants, pronounce the word 'Rouen' ") and rubs shoulders with T.S. Eliot, who appears to have sat on a broomstick when he got to the city: "The right way is to take it as a place and a tradition, rather than as a congeries of people who are mostly futile and timewasting." Thomas Jefferson figured that "had there been no queen, there would have been no revolution," and Saul Bellow understood that even "God would be perfectly happy in France. . . . Surrounded by unbelievers, He, too, could relax toward evening, just as thousands of Parisians do in their favorite cafes." Absurdly, food gets short shrift: even with such treasures to choose from, Lee has selected forgettable material and squandered her M.F.K. Fisher opportunity on something that can seem only, if graciously, understandable as some insider's joke. Not that Paris needs more lovers, but it's good to know that she stilloverwhelms all, even the comics.