The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl 

288 pages

Published April 2024 by Random House Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head, and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean. Oysters, she thought. Where have they been all my life?

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store, where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and for the first time in her life Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress—and embarks on an adventure.

Her first stop: the iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces Stella to a veritable who’s who of the Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, she begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed” at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.

My Thoughts: 

I've thoroughly enjoyed Ruth Reichl's nonfiction work and was really looking forward to seeing what she would do with a work of fiction. Of course, it's not a surprise that she would choose Paris for a setting, nor is it a surprise that food plays a major role. I chose this one for my book club to read and it was, by and large, a hit. In fact, I think everyone else liked it much more than I did. 

I had a lot of issues with it, to be honest. There's a scene, very early on, that should have come with a trigger warning. Given that she chose to include it, I expected it to play a much bigger role later in the book, but when I finished the book, I felt it could have, very easily, been left out entirely or at least have been minimized. 

Then there's the fact that once Stella, who has never had any real interest in food and prefers a plain meal, can suddenly discern all the flavors in a dish once she's introduced to food by a real Parisian. I know that some people are born with the ability to taste many more flavors than others of us can, but for her to be able to name them without ever having had them was a stretch. In fact, a lot of the book required a lot of suspension of disbelief. Like Stella having a boss that was ok with her extending her stay by months. 

Despite all of that, the writing about food was, as you would expect, divine and Reichl's love of fashion also comes front and center. As someone who studied fashion merchandising in college, I was familiar with the designers, the fabrics, the styles and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And, I will admit, I did come to long for Stella to find happiness and the family she had never really had (which, of course, we know she will, eventually, even when we can't figure out how she'll get there). 

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico

First published January 1958

157 pages

Publisher's Summary: 

Mrs Harris is a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. One day, when tidying Lady Dant's wardrobe, she comes across the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life - a Dior dress. In all the years of her drab and humble existence, she's never seen anything as magical as the dress before her and she's never wanted anything as much before. Determined to make her dream come true, Mrs Harris scrimps, saves and slaves away until one day, after three long, uncomplaining years, she finally has enough money to go to Paris. When she arrives at the House of Dior, Mrs Harris has little idea of how her life is about to be turned upside down and how many other lives she will transform forever. Always kind, always cheery and always winsome, the indomitable Mrs Harris takes Paris by storm and learns one of life's greatest lessons along the way. This treasure from the 1950s introduces the irrepressible Mrs Harris, part charlady, part fairy-godmother, whose adventures take her from her humble London roots to the heights of glamour.

My Thoughts:

A couple of weeks ago I watched a movie adaptation of this book, starring Leslie Manville, and so thoroughly enjoyed it that when I found out it was based on a book, I decided to read it. 

You and I both well know that's not always the best idea - movie adaptations, no matter how good, are often so different that it's like you're reading a book that has no relationship to the movie. And I'll be honest, there are some big differences between the book and the movie. Mrs. Harris in book form is somewhat older than Manville, less warm, hasn't just recently discovered she's a war widow, has no potential romantic interests, and is certainly more London "salt-of-the-earth." A character that served as the antagonist in the movie almost immediately becomes an ally in the book, how Mrs. Harris raised the money for her Dior gown is different, and the ending is different. 

And yet the heart of the book remains. Here we have a woman who has lived a quiet life, content with her life, who one day has a dream and does everything in her power to make that dream come true. Along the way, through her own personality, she helps people and makes new friends. She doesn't help to save the House of Dior, as she does in the movie; but she saves herself. She will never again be the same person; she is now a woman who has had the courage to fulfill a dream and have a great adventure. 

The book I checked out actually has another Mrs. Harris story in it but I had to return it before I got a chance to read the second story. But I'm happy to know that there are other Mrs. Harris books waiting for me out there, for when I need a story about the kind of woman who changes people's lives just by being herself. 

The London House by Katherine Reay

The London House by Katherine Reay

Published November 2021 by Harper Muse

368 pages

Publisher's Summary: 

Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation.

Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. But pleasantries are cut short. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover.

Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” Popular and witty, they came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming world war.

Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline’s great-aunt actually a traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried in the past? Together, Caroline and Mat uncover stories of spies and secrets, love and heartbreak, and the events of one fateful evening in 1941 that changed everything.

In this rich historical novel from award-winning author Katherine Reay, a young woman is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family’s story. But Caroline must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and proceed with caution if her family’s decades-old wounds are to heal without tearing them even further apart.

My Thoughts: 

I don't remember where I heard about this book. I almost certainly would not have picked up a book with World War II as a piece of the story with having people recommend it to me. But I made an exception for this one because the piece I read mentioned a connection in the book to the designed Elsa Schiaparelli. I have a degree in fashion merchandising; I studied Elsa Schiaparelli so it was the perfect hook for me. 

Ms. Schiaparelli herself, I was disappointed to find, plays a small role in the book. There is too much going on in this book for her to pay a much larger role. There is, in fact, too much going on here. Reay tries to balance the story line of Caroline Waite's role in the war and her relationship with her family (particularly her twin sister, Caroline Payne's grandmother) with the story line of the tragedy that happened in Caroline Payne's life and its aftermath and the storyline of Caroline Payne's relationship with Mat. I found myself wishing that Reay would have found another way for Caroline Payne to wind up researching her great-aunt's past; we knew, after all, how the arc of Caroline's and Mat's storyline was going to go from the beginning. And all of it doesn't allow as much time for character development as Reay might have been able to do if she'd have had a tighter story. 

Putting all of that aside, I did like the storyline of the relationship between the Waite sisters and how their roles in life flipped over the course of one summer and how one omission changed their relationship for the rest of their lives. I enjoyed the way the pieces of what happened to Caroline Waite were discovered and came together and how they eventually led them to a satisfying conclusion. Some pieces were the happily ever after I expected, others were the ending I felt was more realistic than the happily ever after would have been. 

The Tear Dress, Elsa Schiaparelli,
Wallis Simpson wearing The Lobster Dress

House of Schiaparelli itself plays a bigger role, the place that first draws Caroline Waite to Paris, the place where she first becomes engaged in the politics leading up to the war and where she meets the woman who will drive her to become a spy. It was a good hook that taught me more about Shiaparelli's politics and her relationship with the artist Salvador Dali than what I had learned in college. You know how I love a book that teaches me new things!

Despite its flaws, I think this is a book that fans of historical fiction, particularly historical fiction that focuses on women's roles, will appreciate.