A Town Like Paris: Falling in Love with the City of Light, by Bryce Corbett (c. 2007)

A Town Like Parisa: Falling in Love with the City of Light, by Bryce Corbett (c. 2007)

This is a little memoir about a (tabloid/celebrity writer) Londoner who moves to Paris for a job, and ends up staying in and loving Paris. It's supposed to be very funny and entertaining, so I'm looking at this as just a light, fun Paris travel book.



Review to follow.

Carolyn
Admin

I never know quite "if" I should review a book I do not finish, but figured it's good to put it out there in case someone wants to read it. I put this one down at page 149 as I just didn't care for the guy who wrote it ~ so in turn, I just did not care about what he did or felt. I mean, he seems nice enough in a drunk, clueless kind of way, but it's not enought to sit through for 285 pages.

This memoir (or travel narrative?) plays out sort of like an Australian expat's guide to where to get drunk in Paris ... then where to endure your hangover ... then were to get drunk again. He picks up these people he calls his "Posse" (only one of which is French); and they basically run around cafes and clubs and you guessed it, get drunk. Oh wait, they do start a band and I had to sit through that, which is super boring. Maybe it's just me, but the whole frat boy gone wild in France just didn't do it for me. We're also supposed to believe how "cool" he and his friends all are/were, but I kinda felt they were a bunch of dorks, or just these really shallow uninteresting people ~ or at least none had anything of significance to say or do (unless it involved alcohol or perceived "cool stuff").

This all wears thin very soon as there is so little of substance about anything in Paris. There are some kind of funny things about the abysmal work ethic (basically, pretend), the quirkiness of French sensibilities (conflicted, to say the least), and Arnold at the "Terminator 3" interviews at the Cannes Film Festival, etc. Supposedly, the author falls in love with a Parisan woman in the latter half of the book. I just couldn't bear it.

So, I guess I'd give it a star and a half or so, even though I did not finish it. If you know anyone who is a true party kid and that is the aim of their travels to Paris, this will be a goldmine! But if you want to actually go and see anything historical (or the beautiful art and architecture) and learn about Paris's fascinating history (or geez, at least a mix would be nice), this is surely not for you.

Carolyn
Admin