Liam Callanan

Leah and Robert’s relationship is formed through literary connections, specifically two French children’s works: Madeline, and The Red Balloon. Leah has always wanted to visit Paris and Robert, a struggling writer, promises they will someday. They marry, have two daughters, and settle into a fairly typical American suburban lifestyle. But their relationship begins to fracture when Robert’s career stalls, and one day he just disappears, seemingly without a trace. Even as the family is show more trying to figure out what happened, they discover he left behind airline tickets for Leah and their children. Was this a hint? Could he have gone to Paris? They decide to make the trip and see what they find. After a few missteps they end up living in and operating a once-profitable Paris bookshop, but they never stop looking for Robert and hoping he will re-enter their lives.

On one level, this works. Literary references abound, the wonders of Paris come through on the printed page, and the struggle to adjust to a new country is portrayed well. But: this is a family dealing with unresolved loss. While Robert’s spirit was nearly omnipresent, Leah and her daughters coped with it all a little too smoothly. Leah repeatedly decided not to talk to her teenage daughters about what they are going through. And somehow the daughters just carried on with their lives and occasionally even saved the day in difficult situations. I just didn’t buy it. There was also a lot of “is he/isn’t he” about Robert which made sense but went back and forth too many times.

This was a decent read with some shortcomings. show less

Leah Eady has relocated to Paris with her two teenage daughters in the wake of her husband's disappearance, in which a complete lack of evidence leaves Leah and her daughters completely in limbo as to whether he left them or has died. All Leah is left with is an incomplete manuscript from her husband that seems to foreshadow the life she has chosen to lead in Paris, running an English-language book store. However, when Leah and her daughters start to feel like they're seeing her husband show more around the city, they all must grapple with whether he's there or if grief is causing them to see phantoms of a man who is no longer there.

Callanan has written a beautiful book that evokes the world and emotional life of Leah so very well, while also crafting a compelling plot that pulls the reader along. I went into reading this book having completely forgotten what it was about and why I had put it on The List and so the narrative was a surprise and a delight to me. Callanan describes Paris beautifully and in a way that will make readers long to visit or to return to the City of Lights. While some of the supporting characters feel a bit less fleshed out than Leah, Callanan's real focus is exploring Leah's internal emotional life and how she deals with being the one left behind and not knowing the fate of her husband. Recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction with a bibliophile flavour. show less

The elevator pitch for this book must have been a Paris-smitten bibliophile’s dream book: an author vanishes leaving behind a wife and two adolescent daughters who find a clue that he might be in Paris, follow him there, end up staying, buy a bookstore, and continually scan the Paris streets for him. It’s a mystery, a love story, a love affair with Paris, and an emotional exploration of loss and remembrance. It’s one part Bemelman (author of the Madeline stories), one part Lamorisse show more (writer/director of The Red Balloon) and one part Modiano. It sounds incredibly enticing. And there are moments — more than just moments, to be fair — in which the mélange becomes something altogether new and a bit wonderful. Alas, there is also the difficult problem of going from elevator pitch to full-length novel. The huge leaps the reader is asked to take, the implausibility of some situations, the plot holes, and the tricksy business of 21st century passports and identity tracking, which make the reading at times a bit of a slog. Nonetheless, I think most lovers of Paris will still say they enjoyed the book. Just thinking yourself into Paris page after page is probably enough.

And so, gently recommended for lovers of Paris only. show less

Leah met Robert when he saw her shoplifting “The Red Balloon”, chased her down, only to reveal he not only paid for the book she stole, he also bought her another, “Madeline” by Ludwig Bemelmans. So begins the great romance that led them from Paris, Wisconsin, to Paris, France, though not together. She dreamed of Paris, but they didn’t have the money so he took her to Paris, WI, and proposed, promising someday. But marriage and children and work and his faltering career as a writer show more kept postponing someday.

Leah was all for Albert Lamorisse and “The Red Balloon” but then she wanted to be a filmmaker and Robert was all in for Bemelmans, but both of them were fascinated by Paris. They raised their two daughters to love both stories and they were a mostly happy family. Sometimes Robert would take off for a writeaway–a break to get some serious writing done by holing up somewhere without distraction. But then he leaves without a note promising his return and does not come back in a few days or even in a week, or ever.

Leah discovers he bought tickets to Paris for the whole family, including himself, so they go. She can’t help hoping he will be there at the airport but no luck. While they are there, they learn he entered a story into a contest and won a small prize. They print out the story outline and it sounds like it’s about them, a family moving to Paris to open a bookstore, so they follow the story, find a bookstore, and try to fulfill the story. Unspoken but always in their minds, the hope that he will find them persists.

I love stories set in Paris and I adore stories with bookstores, so Paris by the Book didn’t just speak to me, it stood up, jumped up and down, waved its arms, and yelled at me from across the room, “This book is for you!” Then I read it. So much of it did speak to me. I love the writing about the books, the city, the bookstore and geographical shelving. I really loved the geographical shelving and it’s worth reading just for that alone.

On the other hand, Leah and Robert were a problem. I am completely unable to understand Robert at all. I know it “takes all kinds” but he seems unnatural. I also think Leah was so very wrong not to talk it out with her children when she had information one way or another, or even to discuss her doubts and fears. They were teens, old enough to deserve an open conversation about what is true, false, and real about their father’s disappearance or death. Here’s the thing, you just know someday, perhaps in five years, or ten, or twenty, they will learn the truth and lose faith in their mother, their only remaining parent.

I received an e-galley of Paris by the Book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Paris by the Book at Penguin Group Dutton | Penguin Random House
Liam Callanan

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/08/18/9781101986271/ show less