Customer Reviews

Paris France

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

 

 

This is an excellent starting point for exploring Gertrude Stein, although I might recommend 'The Autobiography of Alice Toklas' more, as a first that is. That is simply because 'The Autobiography' introduces you to all of Gertrude Steins world in Paris, and all of the characters and scenes she encountered while living there. Such information is really very handy when coming across a book like 'Paris, France'. Without first reading about who she was it is hard to imagine someone just diving in to a small story about and by this woman, I would be very interested to see what they think of her given no prior information. I say this because Gertrude Stein was not only an interesting writer but a very interesting person who led a very interesting life. From this point of view 'Paris, France' was a delight. It is part love letter to her expatriate home of four decades, and part war memoir (World War II). Despite what the cover looks like and what the first few pages might lead you to believe, this is a rather dark book. It was written during the Nazi occupation of France where Stein was living in a tiny French mountain village. (Also keep in mind that she was Jewish). The last half of the book seems almost obsessed with fear, which is very raw and uncharacteristic for Gertrude Stein. It is part memoir and part an escapist story of the village and villagers with which she was living. And by escapist I mean solely for her and not the reader. Yet this all takes on a unique beauty of its own. She starts a motif or rhythm where she ends almost every paragraph with a sentence using the phrase 'war-time'. It keeps the reader aware that 'war-time' was the sole concern of almost everyone. It is a worrisome thumping always in the background. Yet throughout all of this and the whole book she manages wonderfully poignant aphorisms about French life, people in general, the world, time, experience and a great deal else. The best part for the weary might be that all of this takes place within just 120 pages of breezy writing. She uses unconventional sentence structures and there is much to be had here for the discerning eye, but really this book is so breezily written and enjoyable it will hardly take you any time at all before you are searching for another Stein book to satisfy you. That's why I say this is a good introductory Gertrude Stein, even if it isn't the exactly ideal choice for someone trying to get the full experience of what this woman and her writing are all about. That said this is without a doubt an unmissable book by any measure, but especially those interested in France, World War II, Gertrude Stein herself, and just about everything else possible. Get it, read it and learn to love her the way that someone who started out on 'How to Write' could never love her. And maybe most interesting in that regard is that once you read enough of Gertrude Stein's accessible work, you cannot deny that you are in the presence of an intricate artisan of words. From this perspective you gain a new appreciation, or at least a new determination toward her more difficult, some would say impossible, works. As she said herself, 'you must have good sense to make good nonsense.'

Paris France is filled with nuggets of Ms. Stein's idea of "common sense". She makes no apology for her abrupt and take charge way of communicating, nor does she apologize for her feelings of superiority of intellect. The book begins with her first memories of Paris at age 4, and continues through 1940. The culture, food and fashion of Paris are summed up by Ms. Stein in one word....civilization. The French, says Ms. Stein, will "leave you inside of you completely to yourself". That, she suggests, is why so many artists chose to make Paris their home. Many friends are mentioned and often quoted in the book....Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Picasso, Juan Gris, and of course, her life companion, Alice B. Toklas.

If you like Stein, you'll like this book. It's funny, thought-provoking, and totally in your face!

This book is a quick read about Ms. Stein's time in Paris, but was quite informative and enjoyable.

turned outward to the greatest city in the world instead of inward to her own rhythms, this is Stein's best book.

I expected to be able to sense and feel somewhat the Paris of Stein's time. The writing is so poor grammatically that one wonders how it was published.
Rambling, with little focus, it was a disappointment. Perhaps I didn't find the nuances that were intended to engage the reader.