It Was Gonna Be Like Paris [Paperback]

Emily Listfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1988

New York's East Village: a vibrant, decadent scene of young artists who emulate bohemian Paris of the 1920s. In this landscape populated by aspiring rock stars, addicts, Hell’s Angels and misfits, eccentric spontaneity is a way of life. This is where Sara, a struggling painter, works, lives and loves. She hasn’t made it yet, but she’s confident that her talent will carry her through. Sometimes. Sometimes she thinks she’s only fooling herself.

Her ally is sardonic, witty Carrie, whose look is part Vogue model, part bag lady. Her undoing may be Brett, an irresistibly charming, fitfully romantic “trouble boy.” A musician, he is by turns boyishly playful, surly, impetuous and thoroughly unreliable. Sara finds her love for him as addictive as the habit into which he slips more irrevocably every day. But release from her obsession is as elusive as art itself.

Emily Listfield, author of Variations in the Night and Slightly Like Strangers, was born and raised in New York City. Her short fiction has appeared in 20 Under 30, Bomb and the East Village Eye. She also writes book reviews for The New York Times.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Listfield captures the disillusionment of young artists in vignettes that combine the rawness of graffiti with the sentimentality of country music.” —Esquire

“The Book’s appeal lies in Listfield’s powers of description and the way her short, insightful paragraphs capture the look and feel of the Lower East Side and its inhabitants." —East Village Eye

“Listfield skillfully paints the picture of a young woman questioning herself in a transitory, aimless world where many people are not even aware that there are such things as questions.”—Sunday New York Daily News

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553345435
• ISBN-13: 978-0553345438
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,831,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a brilliant novel of punk NYC in the lost world of the 80s, March 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: It Was Gonna Be Like Paris (Paperback)

Emily Listfield's "It Was Gonna Be Like Paris" was one of the first novels of the East Village in the days of its all-in-black post-punk art-scene glory... I first read this in the mid-1980s and I was thrilled and intrigued by the world she depicts... Listfield offers little cold vignettes of life in the punk world of artists, failed junkie musicians, and imminent violence and love... Her style is austere, cold, and clear. I was living in New Orleans when I first found this book, and I instantly gave copies to all my friends. We read it and spent a long spring and summer trying to live the novel in dance clubs and galleries in both New Orleans and Houston. The fact that this novel is out of print is a major indictment of Listfield's publishers. "It Was Gonna Be Like Paris" is a minor clasic, a small gem of a novel about a lost world and time... (Lohr Miller

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it isn't really like that..., January 25, 2003

By 

"dramamine" (st. petersburg, fl) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It Was Gonna Be Like Paris (Paperback)

it isn't really like that. it's not just some disconcerting look into the underground of the east village full of drugs and sex and blah blah blah -- that's every other review. what's actually in this book is centred more around style than substance. ms. listfield writes powerfully, artistically, and honestly in these vignettes; she writes like comfort food. this is the kind of book where every line is the type of line you're prone to underlining or reading allowed to whoever will listen, the kind of sentences you want to carry along in your pocket for their brilliance. i recognised myself on every page.

all in all it's not the work of the century, but genuinely, genuintely worth the read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Are There: early 1980's Manhattan, August 25, 2000

By 

C. Ebeling "ctlpareader" (PA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: It Was Gonna Be Like Paris (Paperback)

... Every generation wants its twenties to be like Hemingway'stwenties in Paris, poor in pocket but rich in creative work, artist companions, great conversation and wine. Except on the lower east side of Manhattan in the 1980's, the artist part gets buried in drugs, booze, dancing 'til dawn in clubs. Love gets mangled in the partying, too. This is told brilliantly, unapologetically, in the voice of Sara who is resisting her family's call back to the suburbs, back to dependable, bland men and unexciting, secure jobs. Written in the time it portrays, just before AIDS changes everything, it is straightforward, not dripping with the irony of hindsight or regret. Above all, it is written with artistry, rendered in short cuts where every word is crafted, every word counts. It is of a particular time and place, but not dated. It is more honest than Bright Lights, Big City, more genuine than the recent retro film 200 Cigarettes.