Flânerie as explicated by Edmund White is less about actual locomotion than the exploratory urge, the quest to investigate the cracks within the city, specifically Paris. He details the flâneur as a distinctly Parisian creation, drawing upon the city's nuances and dichotomies, its ethnic character, literary and artistic traditions, and the nature of the Parisians themselves.

This is not a book about walking in Paris, and yet, that is all it concerns. The stroll White takes us on touches upon a great deal of history, not to build the city as a whole, but rather to linger on places and people that contribute in some way to the spirit of Paris, not the clean and shiny version of which White is frequently trenchant, but rather the outskirts and substrata and fringes. He relates tales of home-grown literary figures such as Colette and Proust and Baudelaire, the expatriate black Americans like Baldwin and Bechet who found a wholly different attitude toward skin color than they were accustomed to in America, prominent Jewish families who built banking empires or museums and then suffered under the puppet Vichy government during WWII, and the remnants of royalist feeling for the overthrown monarchy and the escapades of the descendant heirs.

Perhaps the most fascinating diversion White took for me concerns gay Parisians. Comically comparing cruising to flânerie - with the important difference the flâneur has no objective and the cruising gay male is the object to be had - he progresses through the rather lax attitude the French have had in general toward homosexuality. Though it was never an acknowledged behavior and arrests for sodomy are on record, punishments were light compared to the much more vilifying English response. After WWII there was a slight regression left from the remnants of Nazi influence on the government, replaced when the socialist government took control in 1981, but the gay population did not experience the same kind of persecution that their American counterparts were facing during the 60's and 70's, and by the 80's gays were accepted in many circles.

What struck me as strange was that during this time, the AIDS epidemic was entering the world consciousness, and yet France resisted. For being open to the nature of homosexuality, they were extremely resilient to dealing with the crisis, and thus education and health services were slow to develop or non-existant. White explains this in context of the French character versus the American character: minority politics were increasingly gaining weight and status in America, but in France, perhaps due to the more accepting nature, such a build up of networks and support and community mind was not necessary and did not occur. In fact, such segregation of minority politics seemed laughable and destructive to the French. This left no cohesive response until 1989 when Act Up first formed. White explains further that much of this hesitation stems from the French attitude that sexuality is a private affair and not to be politicized, whereas political is what grew the gay American response.

White does not emphasize the hows of the flâneur, but instead his whole travelogue with its divergent tangents is an example of what the flâneur does - in a very literary and engaging tone that traipses about the streets and parks and isles of Paris in a perambulatory journey to see what is to see and to experience without the impetus of formulating knowledge. ( )

Towards the end of this book I was making mental plans to spend 3 months in Paris to do my own flaneuring. White ruminates on history, writers, artists, musicians, monarchy, architecture, culture in such an interesting and meandering revealing a fascinating city and history. ( )

This is a MUST HAVE book for the traveler or the Francophile! Or both. Edmund White's years of living in Paris are brought to life in his stroll through the neighborhoods of Paris. In barely 200 pages he gives us a tour and a history of the City of Lights. You will drool and be amazed at how this city thrived and became a model for other cities. The city's loves and hates are discussed as well as its obsession for museums. It's now in paper and take this with you. Forget the guide books, take this and you'll plunge headlong into a city that will make you fall in love. Oh, and please take me with you!

Paris (France) > Description and travel/Paris (France) > Social life and customs/White, Edmund, 1940- > Homes and haunts >/France > Paris

White ia a facile writer. I have enjoyed many of his books. He lived in Paris for many years. If you want to take a stroll through Paris with him I recommend this book. ( )