Saturday, April 6, 2024

Paris by the Book (book, 2018)

"Paris by the Book", by Liam Callanan, 2018, Penguin Random House

Read September, 2017

The first half of the book alternates between bright and dark, which is OK and we are endeared to the family. There is too much academic bloviation over the differences between the books "Madeline" and "The Red Balloon", but, we get to Paris! In the second half, we hope for clues to solving the mysterious disappearance of the husband, as suggested by the jacket. I did not expect a mystery novel, but I didn't expect hopeless misery. The second half plods through a single parent's introspection over making a living, family emergencies and social failures. Even when the mystery is resolved, the plodding introspection continues. Not a difficult read, but in the end I was not uplifted, and maybe even a little annoyed by the author's final self-aggrandizement.

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