Customer Reviews

Paris Cafe: The Select Crowd

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Worth buying for the elegant b/w drawings alone. Tulka's caricatures magnificently capture the essence of every individual depicted... as you look at each page you feel that you are actually sitting with him observing the staff and patrons. A great book for artists, people-watchers and Francophiles.

This book is a treat for anyone interested in Parisian café life. Noel Riley Fitch presents a history of Le Select, one of Paris' most famous brasseries and situated on Bvd Montparnasse. Added to this are Rick Tulka's superb caricatures of the staff and the customers who frequent Le Select. Highly recommended for any Anglophones who live in or are thinking of visiting France.
Francophones, don't worry. I believe that there is a good possibility that a French edition is in the pipeline.

Author of a number of histories of literary Paris, as well as a study of Europe's "literary cafés," Noël Riley Fitch now does the trend of Americans writing about their favorite Parisian neighborhood one better by giving us a warm and charming portrait of her favorite Parisian café, Montparnasse's Le Sélect. Accompanied by wonderful illustrations (or, as the cover says, just "drawings") by Rick Tulka, this short book is an experience to savor, much like a trip to the café itself would be.

I've read a number of books over the last few months about Paris cafés, as my vicarious substitute for actually being in one. There's a great variety of such books, all trying in their own way to capture some of the ineffable (and perhaps exaggerated?) romantic charm of Parisian café-dom. Some are glossy photo albums, portraying cafés, brasseries, and restaurants in all their visual diversity. Others focus on the history of various cafés and their neighborhoods, while still others give us recipes designed to recreate café flavors and smells in our own homes. But "Paris Café: The Sélect Crowd" is the first such book I've seen that really takes a close, personal look at an author's own chosen café (in this case, one she shares with her illustrator). I found it a remarkably successful effort, and I feel like were I to visit Le Sélect someday, it wouldn't feel entirely foreign to me.

If I could improve anything, I might wish for more discussion of the people depicted in Tulka's evocative portraits, though there may not have been a way to do that while still respecting their privacy -- Le Sélect is, after all, a neighborhood institution. I also didn't particularly care for the odd covers and binding Soft Skull Press chose to clad this thing in: the cover is uniformly a quarter-inch wider than the pages inside, which made this somewhat awkward to hold. Besides that one wish and one complaint, however, this short book was a fine way to spend a few hours. I hope other authors rise to the challenge and produce similar looks at their own chosen café haunts.

When I learned my cousin had illustrated a book written on a Paris Cafe, Le Select, I thought, "How nice. I'll have to get a couple copies to take with me so I can get his autograph!" I really didn't intend, necessarily, to read it...
Well I got the book and started flipping through and then was just lured right in and read the whole thing in a rather brief period and enjoyed every minute! What a pleasant and illuminating book! And the illustrations are out of this world! To be expected from this seasoned MAD caricaturist.
Whether or not you are going to Paris, this is a must read if you, not only love Paris and, but also want to get a true understanding of the significance of the Paris Cafe!

The moment you open PARIS CAFES, you're transported to one of the most prestigious and traditional cafes in all Paris. Le Select is unchanged and unadulterated, still serving the same food by the same waiters and run by the same owner.
Turning the pages generates that special "je ne sait quoi" ambience that we all think of as Paris.
And Rick Tulka's drawings capture the subtle Parisien look, the Parisien style and humor impossible to experience in any other city in the world. Cafes exist everywhere, but none of them feels quite like sitting in a cafe in Paris. That's the special fun of reading PARIS CAFES.

Fitch's etched words and Tulka's loving illustrations provide a no-hassle jet to Paris and one of its treasures. This is an account to be sipped, savored and saved. Le Select's bracing aroma and eye-pleasing sights permeate every page of the francophiles' extended love letter.

Those who've roosted there over a cup of coffee or tingled after a wine will re-experience their warm pleasure; those who've yet to make it to Le Select will find a delicious foretaste of Paris at its best.

A votre sante!

From its opening in 1925 when sex, drugs, alcohol and art defined Les Années Folles Le Sélect was a favorite of Hemingway, Kiki, Foujita, Hart Crane, Henry Miller and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Except for the regulars not much has changed in 82 years -tan walls, brown banquettes and old-fashioned globe lamps.

It is the least touristy of the great Montparnasse cafés and the owners intend to keep it that way!

I have begun to hang my `hat" there for a few reasonably priced glasses of Cotes du Rhone before heading out for an evening of jazz. Packed with regulars it feels like home.

One of those regulars is Rick Tulka, for twenty years an illustrator for MAD Magazine and for thirteen years a sketcher of quotidian life at Le Sélect. His lively Hirschfeld-inspired illustrations reinforce Noel Riley Fitch's prose in their delightful collaboration, Paris Café: The Sélect Crowd.

An internationally recognized biographer and historian of expatriate Paris in the first four decades of the 19th century, Noel has written biographies of Sylvia Beach, Anais Nin and Julia Child as well as several books about Ernest Hemingway's Paris.
Paris Café: The Sélect Crowd sparkles with wit and humor and makes an ideal gift for your Paris-bound friends.

I enjoyed reading Paris Cafe, The Select Crowd very much. It was like taking a trip to Paris and sitting in a cafe people watching. The only problem is that I can't go there right now to experience The Select first hand!

What a treat you'll find this book to be! Sit back and relax as you're introduced to a delightful cast of characters who wander in and out of the famous Le Select café in Paris, (or, as Noel Riley Fitch describes it, "the soul of Montparnasse.")

Fitch and the book's illustrator, Rick Tulka, educate you about that wonderful Parisian institution, the café, but a very specific café, where locals come to wile away an hour or two over coffee, a meal, a glass of wine, or a newspaper or two. They sit and people watch while they, in turn, are being watched. You'll learn why this particular café is such a historically rich Parisian prize.

The drawings are fabulous: Through them, you'll meet the manager and his staff, catch glimpses into the café's décor, learn about its history and famous clientele, and smile again and again as Tulka deftly depicts a myriad of fascinating personalities. ("The French nose is a wonderful object to draw. At Le Select on any given day, more nasal varieties will pass through than there are cheeses in France.")

Finally, since you're reading about food and drink, the book even features a few recipes, such as a mean "Croque Monsieur," "Onion Soup," and a "Welsh Rarebit."

Treat yourself to this charming little book--you won't regret it.

This small, artfully produced book is wonderful as well as charming. The characters who appear within are memorable. They range from hysterically funny to amusing to insightful. This book is the real thing, done by two people who know Paris through & through. Riley-Fitch knows more about the paris literary cafe (as well as others across Europe---see her book "Grand Literary Cafes of Europe") than most and Rick Tulka personally knows probably everyone in this book. Even though these are simple line drawings, they are artful and immediate. One can almost smell the coffee! This is a five star book.