9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A POWERFUL "CARPE DIEM" NOVEL!, October 30, 2009
This review is from: Rooftop Soliloquy (Paperback)
A modern-day Casanova, with a half- crazy mind and elegant clothing, tramps around Paris from adventure to adventure in this latest (and perhaps greatest) book by American expatriate author Roman Payne. While this Don Juan gallops around Paris like Don Quixote galloped around Spain, his numerous `Dulcineas' are the luxurious ladies he finds in Parisian society parties, or the university girls he finds along the river Seine, or up near the Sorbonne; whereas Quixote fought windmills, Payne's hero battles the artistic oeuvre he is working to create.
The narrator (most frequently named `Aleksandre') of this highly-entertaining, innocently erotic, and lyrically beautiful book, is a composer of operas who isn't sure if he should lock himself in one of the many apartments he keeps in Paris to compose night and day; or if he should go out and "seize the day!" by enjoying the thrills offered to one in the French capital--not least important among them: copious amounts of French wine, and lavish French beauties.
Payne's experience as a novelist shows through in this, his fourth novel, as he masterfully weaves two other narratives into the first, to create a rich and thought-provoking story. If not for this, the novel might have been no more than a light adventure tale; but Payne tops off the narrator's corporeal quest with a murder mystery (with scenes worthy of Dostoevsky in a setting Payne calls `The Bone Shop') and a love story (vaguely reminiscent of "Lolita" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"). References within the book travel from Ancient Greece to tropical islands--yet the book is first-and-foremost a `story of Paris.' Like Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer," Lord Byron's story of Don Juan, Ovid's "Metamorphoses," and a Paris Travel guide all poured into one great 21st century read. Payne has created a new Parisian mythology.
The 1st-person "Soliloquy" method of narration allows Payne a sort of freedom to communicate with unprecedented ease with reader. One imagines him perched like a bird on a rooftop, fluttering to a new district with each chapter.
Rooftop's are fabulous (often frightening) locations: here, one can see out over the city, meet a lover in private; contemplate life, or contemplate a self-propelled leap into the abyss of the unknown. On a rooftop, one is a `spectator'--watching the comings and goings of the multitudes bustling in the streets below. One is also `not a spectator,' but the `center of the universe'--like a god, or a child atop an anthill. Such is the perspective that is offered to the reader of this book. Its pages allow a certain airy freedom that is fun, exciting, and refreshing to those who are used to reading books with sad subjects or negative themes. "Rooftop Soliloquy" is a pleasure to read. One begins the book feeling curious, and one finishes it feeling happy.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Book, December 4, 2009
This review is from: Rooftop Soliloquy (Paperback)
Sublime, in every sense. Payne weaves the stories in his book intricately and beautifully. He possesses what is seldom seen nowadays, the flavor of the old masters of literature.
It took me just over a day to read the entire book and I couldn't bring myself to put it down, thoroughly enjoying every page, every adventure, and every setting. If you are searching for a modern classic, this is it.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
perfect portrait of my city..., December 9, 2009
This review is from: Rooftop Soliloquy (Paperback)
I was attracted first to this book because I am parisian and it tales about my city. I read it in english original version and as I am french the english was a little beat hard to read ( I have not yet finished, because I read a little slow). I love the characters and I like too the Paris described because it shows the real Paris I know. Reading this book it's evident that the novelist has lived a long time in the French capital. When I read aloud the sentences are very musical. I recomand this book to anyone who wants to know Paris from the viewpoint of a real Parisian.
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