Paris to the Moon (Read by the Author)

Rating:
Summary: Fin de sicle finery
Review: Humor! Pathos! Sports! Food! Shopping (or not)! Wine, women (the heavenly Cressida) and song!

Not to mention, just plain life a la Parisienne.

This book is a modern sentimental sojourn through Paris which is not only a delight for the senses, but truly captures the essence of the French in all their guises. Having recently fallen completely in love with Paris on a short visit, I was longing for more and this book gave me that "You Are There" feeling I sought. Not only does M. Gopnik bring the Paris of today alive, but in the storyline dealing with all things human- his family, his adopted community, and the costume of French nationality which he endeavors to don- we see a glimpse into the Paris that generation after generation has attempted to make its own.

This book was so enjoyable that while reading, I was overcome with the desire to return and have already booked another trip. How lucky is this man to have had 5 years in this most sublime city!

Tres charmant! Merci beaucoup, M. Gopnik!

Rating:
Summary: What's everybody's problem with this book?
Review: I found this book to be perfectly charming. This is a New Yorker writer, whose wife is a filmmaker. Repeat that sentence and ponder its meaning. Some of the readers who have posted review here seem to expect Adam Gopnik to write a book about somebody else's experiences. They wouldn't do this themselves, or have their children do so. They wouldn't expect Hemingway to write about feng shui or Jane Eyre to write about the Peloponnesian Wars. This isn't a history of Paris, or a guide to the subway system. Perhaps Paris brings out self-obsessiveness; perhaps living in any other country does; but I compare Gopnik favorably with Anais Nin and Henry Miller, two other self-obsessed American writers in Paris, and wonderful writers they are, albeit in the 30's. (And by the way I think Gopnik is possibly Canadian; certainly his wife is.) His touch is lighter than Miller's. His affection for his family creates a warmer sort of familiarity than Miller's (which is very winning in its own way). There's a can-you-top-this aura to Henry Miller, whereas Gopnik just marvels at things and shows off his whimsical humor and gift for association. At the same time I find his prose to be more concrete and outwardly directed than Nin's. Not a high bar, that!

Gopnik makes it clear from the outset what his and his wife's admittedly enviable plans are for the next five years, for the duration of this book. Buyer beware.

I would agree that he takes awhile to hit his stride, but Gopnik's talent for generalizing from common experience is wonderful. The parallel he finds between Americans' attitudes toward sport and the French's toward government officiousness is priceless. He manages to come to an understanding of soccer, a feat that to my mind compares favorably with writing, say, War and Peace. He may wander for a time in fashion circles (were I in Paris with the appropriate press pass I would too), yet he has a talent for bringing the whole crazy scene down to earth. He and his wife are raising a boy and (near the end) giving birth to a girl, and I find nothing wrong, and everything praiseworthy, about giving this side of his life center stage from time to time. The description of pregnancy and childbirth in France is one of the most memorable parts of the story.

As you might expect, there is plenty here about food, and about restaurants, and about language, and about globalization, and about New York, too, aka home. As with New Yorker writing at all times, the prose is idiosyncratic, breezy, maybe a little unedited. That's just the way it is. I guess if you like it, you love it, and if you don't you don't.

Rating:
Summary: The man's got writing talent - why doesn't he use it?
Review: I love Paris (so much so that I live here), and I love good writers (Adam Gopnik is one). So, inspired by all the rave, I picked up a copy of this book. It sounded like a nice, easy read. I was disappointed.

After bravely having worked my way through it (does that happen to you, too? Once you start a book you have to finish it for better for worse?), I agree with all those readers who commented that while it was very well written from a linguistic point of view, and does have some amusing passages, the majority of his stories are yawn-inspiring. Who apart from family and friends cares about his son's adventures and preferences when all you want to know is the writer's own view of Paris - after all, he IS a well-reputed "New Yorker" essayist? I particularly disliked all his American "Look what fancy part of Paris I live in" showing off. Very clearly, the typical French understatement hasn't rubbed off on him in all his five years here.

I understand that his book is a collection of Adam Gopnik's essays. Pity about his talent.... he could have used this opportunity to write a different kind of "American in Paris" book.

Rating:
Summary: best consumed in small portions
Review: I remember liking Gopnik's "Letters from Paris" series when I still subscribed to the New Yorker in 1996. This book, frankly, is a disappointment. Although parts of it was still enjoyable (he's good at the craft of writing -- often witty on a sentence-level, and technically strong (I liked his use of the parallelism in A Tale of Two Cafes)), in a book form, some troubling characterstics show through more than his New Yorker pieces. He is fond of trying to turn small daily details into some deep metaphor about the cultural differences between NYC & Paris; but more often than not, the attempts seem forced and unreasonable. Either he was willfully, pretentiously trying to be deeper than his experiences afforded him, or perhaps he was just a lost foreigner who misunderstood his environs a lot. In terms of actual insights, this book offers no more than the same sort of thing one would expect to hear from a college student returning from her study-abroad program (granted he expressed them in a more entertaining fashion).

From a human perspective, I think that Gopnik was cruel for making his very young child adjust to unfamiliar countries (twice!) just to satisfy his own vanity/childhood fantasy. I find his constant attempt at trying to fit in, trying to become more "Parisian," (and failing) rather pathetic; though in an odd way, it makes a rather moving American tale (immigrants trying to fit-in in the US).

Rating:
Summary: Moony Over Paris
Review: Just as the world is divided into New York City haters and lovers, so are we divided over Paris. Adam Gopnik, his wife, and young son Luke decamped to Paris in 1995 to let Luke grow up, if only for a few years, in a great city besides New York, and this is their story. It's a family tale, or a variety of them, and the theme is always the City itself. And why not? If ever there was a city that deserves its own chroniclers, it's Paris. Gopnik does it right: He's got a genius for turning the personal into the general, and for bringing to fruition some terrific insights into French character (at least, where that intersects with Parisian character). "Trouble at the Tower" is without equal -- maybe only O'Henry, in his New York stories, could pull off something equal. If you loathe Paris, fine, buy another book. But if you're educable and recognize that cities and their residents can demonstrate the best and most contradictory sides of human society, then dig in. -- Incidentally, now back in New York, Gopnik's work remains the best reason to subscribe to the New Yorker; his essay on The Map of The City (November 2000) was a treasure. My only regret? That some of the favorite pieces he wrote in Paris weren't included (viz: The Virtual Bishop...).

Rating:
Summary: Over-hyped
Review: The cover said "The finest book on France in recent years" and I opened the book with great expectations. I barely made it through the first self-indulgent chapter. Urged to read on, I continued and the book improved -- although not a whole lot.

I enjoyed the chapters on "The Crisis in French Cooking" and "The World Cup." Most of the rest was pretty dull. The author found great meaning in commonplace events. I didn't. His view of France is elitist and intellectual. I would have been more interested if he had interviewed French customers at McDonalds in Paris -- or American tourists wearing shorts and carrying cameras.

A hilarious feature of "Paris to the Moon" is "Questions for Discussion" at the back of the book. Seven serious questions are asked of the reader -- just as if he were a college sophomore taking a test in literature! The presumption is, of course, that what he has just finished reading is worthy of discussion. What a hoot! The guy who thought of this should be assigned to guard duty on the Maginot Line -- or a week-long seminar on French culture.

Despite all, Gopnik is a likeable fellow and a good writer and "Paris to the Moon" is marginally worth reading

Rating:
Summary: A Must If You Love Paris
Review: This book is a wonderful memoir of a New York family that moves to Paris for a period of 5 years with a young son in tow.

Adam Gopnik writes this book in a style of short stories or essays that weave into one great book. He offers a well thought out idea of what must be said from an American in Paris. His comparisons are very real, some light-hearted, some blatantly profound. Gopnik shows his vulnerability many times as a fish out of water, but he tries harder than the average American to blend into his surroundings and take on some of the easier characteristics of becomming French like developing a fondness for a life of profound beauty, a taste for well prepared food, relaxing into the dining experience of the cafes and brasseries, showing his son the art of the carousel rather than the brainlessness of "Barney", and eventually creating another child born a Parisian.

The best chapters in this book are the ones that Gopnik writes about his son discovering himself in Paris. His favorite food becomes croissants rather than ketchup fast food burgers, his puppy love with a young French girl in the Ritz pool, how he would rather play at the Luxembourg Gardens than with a television and most importantly how he adapts to becomming a childish little Frenchman. With this said the one chapter I would skip is "The Rookie" a portion in the book that somehow just dosen't fit. From the elegance of the French life back to the world of baseball? Personally I would have just left the entire chapter with an editor and walked away.

Gopnik shows how well he has adapted to French life in the portions of the book that he dedicates to the cafe Balzar. This cafe becomes the victim of a corporate buyout and is almost lost until a band of dining brothers glue themselves together and form a secure fortress in pure French flair to save the cafe in its original form, garcons and all! It is an interesting look at how easy and yet how complicated life can be in Paris, all that French discussion can lead to something good.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Paris and craves a walk down its Rues. Gopnik makes little things seem absolutely important and accurately describes all of the large and small nuances between the French and Americans. His wife, Martha, says it best, "We have a beautiful existence in Paris, but not a full life, and in New York we have a full life and an unbeautiful existence." This must be why Paris remains in the minds of most Americans who walk along its streets but slowly find themselves returning home, to the rush and bustle of America with an over-inflated heart.