Interesting Reads: Paris in Love: A Memoir

Eloisa James is a favorite author of mine. Every time she has a new book come out I'm usually at the store that day (or a day or so after) in order to buy it and gobble it up. This pattern has changed in the last few years as I have gotten busier and graduated college. That is why it has taken me this long to read Eloisa James' memoir Paris in Love.

Unlike other things she writes this book was not a novel. It is a compilation of stories in more or less chronological order of occurrences and happenings when her and her husband moved themselves and their two children (Luca and Anna) to Paris for a time. I found just the idea of dropping everything and moving to Paris for a year to be truly exciting. I did similar things in college where I went to new places not knowing anyone but this was a true adult version of my dream.

One of my favorite sections of the book was entitled "Of Rice and Men." James tells about how love and rissoto will always be linked together in her mind. She first learned to make the Italian deliciousness of risotto after her boyfriend of 10 years broke up with her. The recipe that she used came from Paul Bertolli's Chez Panisse Cooking. Her art of cooking involved cooking, reading romance novels, and "crying every now and then when it seemed the heroines had a better life" than her while stiring the risotto to perfection. She tells how the risotto helped to heal her from her breakup and help her secure her Italian husband's family. This section along makes me want to learn how to make risotto in the true Italian form. 

Throughout the book James is reading a Paris memoir by her relative Claude, that had been written almost 100 years prior. In a particular section James draws a comparison between herself and Claude. They both went to Harvard, both moved to Paris at a point in their lives, both wrote memoirs, and both wrote novels that were not admired by the literary establishment. They both also had opinion pieces in the The New York Times. One on Italian Politics and the other on the use of the term "bodice-ripper."

She also used a marvelous quote from Miuccia Prada to describe the French's take on fashion; "Being elegant isn't easy. You have to study it, like cuisine and art." This quote really inspired me. It is really true. Fashion is an art form. You have to study it and learn how to do it. 

One of my favorite lines was towards the end of the book. She describes Paris in the rain. 

"Today is rainy, cool, and windy. The sky is silvery gray, like 

the watered silk skirts of a 

Victorian lady, long widowed, and still regretful."

Her conclusion to her book and to that of her year in Paris really moves the point of why her and her husband uprooted their lives and their children's lives for a year in Paris. They, as a family, learned to talk to each other, eat and squabble together, and play together. They "learned to waste our moments - together. And then we brought that lesson home with us."