I just finished Adam Gopnik's marvelous book of essays about life in Paris, Paris to the Moon, and think I have a new favorite writer.
Gopnik is a New Yorker writer and in this book he writes about the five years he and his wife lived in Paris with their young son in the mid-1990s. He is a marvelous writer--the flow and richness of the language, his story-telling skills, and his focus on the little things that make up a life together make this an absolute joy to read. This was my bedtime reading for the past few months, wherein a read just a few pages or a short chapter each night to savor the experience.
I loved exploring neighborhoods, trying new foods and recipes, making friends, hanging out at the Ritz, and dealing with French bureaucracy along with Gopnik.
Here are my tweets in which I quoted the book while reading it:
“Not really liking it much is a precondition of art criticism of all kinds.”
“...religion depends on being able to find the holy in the ordinary.” Jean-Philippe Derenne, as quoted by Adam Gopnik in Paris to the Moon
“...good cooking is made up of familiar things done right.”
“ We breathe in our first language, and swim in our second.”
As you can see, Gopnik has a lovely turn of phase. I've added a few of his books to my GoodReads want-to-read list, with The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food high on the list!
Counting down to my vacation to France, starting in Paris in 31 days!
Bonjour!
