A French Affair: The Paris Beat 1965-1998

by Mary Blume, Ronald Searle

Release Date: 05 September, 2000

Edition: Paperback

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A good book for your lunch break.....

I think A FRENCH AFFAIR will be best appreciated by those who have seen Paris once or twice. Those who have no familiarity with Paris and it's residents may become lost. If you know the difference between Simone de Beauvoir and Simone Signoret you may find the book entertaining.

If I had not known Mary Blume wrote her Paris beat pieces for the International Herald Tribune, I would have thought they were written for The New Yorker magazine. She wrote tongue-in-cheek stories that begin in the middle and assume the reader already knows a great deal about Paris life. If she pops up in London you don't blink an eyelash because you know it's a day trip to travel from London to Paris, or Paris to anywhere else for that matter since Paris has made itself the travel hub of Europe.

I read these articles over lunch--spread over a few months. I carried the book in my book bag and broke it out when I needed a little light reading. This is a perfect book for travel because if you put it away and don't look at it for a month you won't loose your train of thought. If you read it straight through it may be as disappointing as reading a week of newspapers.

Disappointing

I have visited France frequently, and am an avid reader of books about France. I loved the title and cover photo on this book, and had great hopes for the book since the writer had reported from Paris for The International Herald Tribune for many years. While the book is well written, I felt that many of the essays failed to connect with the French spirit and joie de vivre. I found some of the writing to be dry and the book slow. Each story was originally an article in the paper, and while they might have worked reading them with the morning coffee, they did not work for me as a collection.

The book title would lead you to believe that the book is about France, some of the stories take place in other countries and I could not figure out how they ended up in the book. Additionally the last section of the book focuses on a group of European filmmakers that would have worked well as a Filmography, but for my money did not belong in a book of this title.

Don't get me wrong, there are some interesting and well-written pieces in this book, but you have to trundle through pages that I feel are slow and dated to get to them. If you have not read much about France, I recommend Adam Gopnick's "Paris to The Moon," John Littell's "French Impressions," or for a humorous perspective any of Peter Mayle's "Provence" works. Of course, don't miss the grandfather of all books on France, Hemmingway's "A Moveable Feast."