The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl was the restaurant critic for the New York Times from 1993 to 1999, and although I doubt we frequented the same places, I often followed her reviews and enjoyed reading about the disguises she wore to avoid being recognized. Staff at high-end restaurants used to post pictures of her in the back, hoping not to be caught unawares. Somewhere in this house I have a copy of Tender at the Bone, the first of her five memoirs, but I have never got around to reading it. Last week, I was at my mother’s for dinner and she told me she had just enjoyed The Paris Novel and wanted me to read it because there were certain things I would appreciate. She was right: I started reading that very night and found there were many parts of Stella's travels that spoke to me.

The main character is Stella, a lonely New Yorker working in publishing in the 1980s. When her unpleasant mother dies, she leaves Stella $8,000 and instructions to use it on a trip to Paris. It takes Stella six months to decide to go and once there she dutifully sight-sees, without gaining any insight into her mother - or herself. But everything changes when she returns to a dress shop she had wandered into her first day in Paris. Stella finds herself trying on a vintage Dior dress and it transforms her into someone who radiates confidence and glamour. The shopkeeper agrees and insists Stella buy it:

“I will make you a bargain, Mademoiselle. Buy the dress, wear it today, and do exactly as I tell you. Tomorrow, if you have one single regret, I will return every franc.”

Stella pays thousands of francs, nearly all that is left of her inheritance, but it is worth every centime because exciting things start happening to her that very evening when she walks into the famous restaurant, Les Deux Magots. A casual conversation with a stranger leads Stella to actually start enjoying her Parisian adventure – soon she is traveling to Vézelay (which my mother and I visited in 2021), conducting research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and spending time at Shakespeare and Company, where she meets James Baldwin and John Ashbery. More importantly, she is making friends and finding purpose, leading to many surprising outcomes.

This is an enchanting story, which will appeal to anyone who has been to Paris as well as armchair travelers. Stella is astonished to discover she is a foodie, surrendering herself to fabulous meals at fancy and casual restaurants alike. Alas, this was the only disappointment of the book – it was rare that Stella ate anything I would enjoy: too much crunching of tiny birds and munching of foie gras. I still appreciated her passionate enjoyment of everything she ate as well as her first attempt to make gingerbread.

Shakespeare and Company is a famous bookstore, established in1951, drawing English speaking residents and visitors. I went there on my first trip to Paris, donated the books I had read on the plane, and enjoyed the atmosphere. Stella goes to look for a used book she could not afford at a museum:

She had passed Shakespeare and Company many times, but she had never felt the urge to go inside. Bookshops made her anxious. Each volume was like an eager animal at the pound, striving for attention, hoping for a home. “Take me, take me,” they called out, until the chorus grew so loud she had to turn and flee.

Clearly, that is my problem – I don’t turn and flee but run towards the books; hence the piles of books everywhere!

The only negative aspect of the book was too much focus on a bad experience in Stella’s childhood, which seemed unnecessary and creepy. Her relationship with her mother bordered on abusive, which was sufficient to explain Stella’s repressed personality.  This was my eighth book for the Intrepid Reader's Historical Fiction Challenge.

Title: The Paris Novel
Author: Ruth Reichl
Publication: Random House, hardcover, 2024
Setting: 20th Century France
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Library