The Light of Paris

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Book Reviews, Eleanor Brown, The Light of Paris, women's fiction

It is no secret that Paris is one of my favorite places in the world. I dreamed of going to the city of lights from the time I was 12 until I was able to go in 2001 and I have returned two more times since then. Needless to say, books set in Paris are always of interest to me.

I picked up Eleanor Brown’s The Light of Paris with curiosity and joy and when I put it down I felt fulfilled and satisfied. The novel alternates between Madeleine in 1999 and her grandmother, Margie, in 1924. There are similarities in both women. They are stuck in archaic and bourgeois notions of what a woman’s role should be and feel suffocated by their reality and dream of escape. Both do not fit the mold of the women they are told they should aspire to be (thin, perfectly coifed, elegantly dressed, with no thoughts other than being good wives) and are instead awkward artistic women – Madeleine a painter and Margie a writer.  Margie gets the opportunity to escort a wily cousin to Europe in 1924, but when the plan goes awry she chooses to stay in Paris against her parent’s consent and wishes. Margie finds a job and falls in love with the city and a painter and I fell in love with Paris all over again with her.

Reading through her grandmother’s notebooks, Madeleine becomes inspired by her story and decides that it isn’t worth crushing herself into the mold of the luncheon ladies and begins to imagine and create a different future for herself.

Given that yesterday I was at the Women’s March in Philadelphia, finishing the story felt particularly poignant. It reminded me of how far women have come and yet the continued need to be able to create our own stories and follow our own dreams.

The Light of Paris isn’t a terribly heavy book, but it was an enjoyable and quick read. A final note – if you enjoyed The Help, you will enjoy The Light of Paris.

 

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Commonwealth

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Ann Patchett, Book Reviews, Commonwealth, fiction, recommended reads

We all have authors that we love and when they publish a book there is a great excitement to see what they have to offer. But then we might read some reviews and some of those reviews might claim that the latest offering is not as good as the proceeding novels, leading us to put off reading it and worrying that the reviews will be right. Ann Patchett is one of those authors for me and yet, I found Commonwealth to be a well-written novel with well-developed characters and a plot that kept me reading late into the night.

No, it wasn’t as shocking and dramatic as Bel Canto, but Patchett is not the same writer she was when she wrote Bel Canto nor am I the same reader. But Commonwealth is just as good, if not a better, a novel than her more recent offerings. (Looking back at my past reviews of her work, I note that I compare all Patchett’s books to Bel Cant0)

What I liked about Commonwealth was the exploration of family relationships complicated by divorce and remarriage and the experiences that bind those relationships that are both intimate and distant often influenced on changing external factors.
Commonwealth centers on the Cousins and Keating children. Four Cousins (two boys and two girls) and two Keating children (two girls) are thrown together for most of their childhood summers after Mr. Cousins and the formerly Mrs. Keating marry and move to Virginia from LA. Time jumps from their childhood summers into their twenties and forties, as we track the six children along with their four parents. They deal with romantic relationships, illnesses and deaths, births and the rest of life’s moments both large and mundane in the shadow of what happened one particular summer. What is most interesting is tracking the relationships that are maintained and how the assumptions of the past fade and change.

I think readers who enjoy interesting, almost human characters and a compelling story would enjoy Commonwealth, especially if they leave any expectations at the door and just enjoy this well-written novel.