Ruth Reichl, THE PARIS NOVEL
Stella is a lovely young woman with a literary bent and a
taste for good food. She has had a lonely and miserable childhood with a mother
who doesn’t seem to care about her and an absent father whom her mother doesn’t
want to talk about. When her mom passes on, the single bequest to Stella is
strange indeed. She leaves her only a plane ticket to Paris and a few traveler's
checks. Stella works up enough courage to take the bait and goes off to Paris to
find both herself and the father her mother refused to talk about. What ensues is
a pleasant, warm-hearted love affair with food, books, and France. Stella ends
up as a so-called “tumbleweed” living at the famous literary bookstore
Shakespeare and Company. She meets famous authors, French food, and a rich
patron.
I don’t want to spoil the dinner or the search, so let’s
leave it with this. The Paris Novel is a delicious little book that will
delight any lover of gastronomy, literature, and travel. Do I need to remind
you that Ms. Reichl is a former editor of Gourmet magazine and was also the
restaurant critic for the New York Times.
I give it a 4.5
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