Customer Reviews

A Cruel Calm: Paris Between The Wars

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Patricia Daly-Lipe is an inspired writer with a flair for incorporating well researched historical facts with fiction. Her book, A Cruel Calm: Paris Between the Wars is an enchanting romp through the streets of the City of Lights with flamboyant well developed characters during the most creative and artistic periods in the 20th century. I had the opportunity to interview her on my radio show, and one interview is not enough to discuss this wonderful tale. You may listen to the interview at [...] for March 25, 2010. Buy the book, bon voyage, and ENJOY!

Cynthia Brian, New York Times best selling author, TV/Radio personality/ Founder, Be the Star You Are!® charity, [...], [...], [...]

This novel can be summed up in one word - magical! The author strings her words along in marvelous articulation as she tells a wonderful story well worth experiencing.

The following is a review by the Historical Novel Society. You can find the review online at [...].
A CRUEL CALM: Paris Between the Wars
This well researched novel covers the years 1927-1939, a time when Paris was the cultural center of the world. Paris, still recovering from the ravages of the First World War, faces the growing shadow of the next "great war." Young, naïve, American socialite, Libby Whitacker, moves to Paris with her new husband during this period of artistic, technological, and cultural dynamism. Libby witnesses Charles Lindbergh as he makes the first transatlantic flight in 1927, and she meets and gets guidance from James Joyce, who lives in the same apartment building as she does. As Libby moves in the circles of high society, she also meets Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and Joseph Campbell among others. However, the heart of the story is how Libby deals with the reality that her husband is not who she thinks he is.
Patricia Daly-Lipe does an excellent job of including accurate historical details that enhance the story. Additionally, we learn about the artists and their works through the clever use of their own words. The novel also shows how, despite all the changes in the larger society, the Catholic Church refuses to deviate from tradition. The church's refusal to adapt has terrible consequences for the heroine.
The book does a good job of capturing the spirit of the time--an age when everything seemed possible as a result of the pace of technological change. The combination of historical detail and poignant romance make this novel well worthwhile. The author should also be commended for the creative way she introduces historical figures into the novel. Anyone who is interested in learning about the time in history between the two world wars should read this novel.
--Gerard Shea

Elisabeth (Libby) Whitaker, a young socialite from a wealthy Washington, DC family, married her husband out of convention rather than love. As a spoiled young woman, she had everything, yet had little character or ambition. She went with the flow and allowed events to engulf her doing little or nothing to direct their course.

Yet, she observes and drops names as if other people's stories are much more interesting than her own. She reports on life in Paris during the 1920s where she and her new husband moved after their wedding. Libby encountered many of the intellectuals gathered there in her social circle, and she reported their likes, dislikes and activities like a true journalist. Even Joseph Campbell, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Charles Lindbergh crossed her path.

Since marital problems appeared early in her marriage, Libby had an affair with a count and eventually became pregnant. As events unfold, Libby gradually takes a little more interest in her own destiny, and makes choices that lead her in a different direction although not leading to her ultimate happiness.

A little unbelievable, but certainly telling the story of the lull between the two great wars, A Cruel Calm contains some nice storytelling as well as some weak editing that would otherwise have made this a great book for a high school history class.

by Susan M. Andrus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women