I'll Always Have Paris
by Art Buchwald
Overview
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The renowned humorist continues his best-selling memoirs, into the dazzling Paris of the late 1940s and the 1950s. Here we find twenty-two-year-old Art, in June 1948, one of the army of "fresh, peach-cheeked Americans" invading postwar France, and ready to embark on the greatest adventure of his life. Over the next fourteen years he would invent himself: a foster child from Queens suddenly hobnobbing with some of the most powerful and famous people in the world; landing a job with the legendary Paris Herald Tribune, with no legitimate experience whatsoever; and telling people where to go and what to eat mostly on the basis of his food-tasting experiences with the Marine Corps mess and the USC student union. He crashed costume balls in Venice, hunted bats in Sussex, ran with the bulls in Pamplona, clashed with police in Paris, spoofed Hemingway in the Congo, and dined with gangsters in Naples. From sidewalk cafes to society weddings, Buchwald reported on the folkways and foibles of the International Set, becoming everybody's favorite American in Paris - and one thing more. For in meeting and marrying a redhead named Ann, and then adopting three children, he also became what his foster childhood had never prepared him to be: a family man. This was perhaps his greatest invention of all.
My thoughts
I'm not quite sure how this book found its way into my reading stack but I'm fairly certain I picked it up at the used bookstore. I suspect the word Paris reeled me in, as I knew nothing about Art Buchwald prior to reading the book!
For those of you who are still unenlightened, Art Buchwald is a newspaper writer/author who wandered off to Paris as a young man and made quite a name for himself. Paris was different then, and "everyone" was going there. His work allowed him to mingle with the rich and famous; it put him into a prime position to meet the most amazing people!
I'm enjoying the book because first and foremost, Mr. Buchwald tells a lively and interesting story. I'm also enjoying it because it's giving me some insight into Paris in the way that a travel journal cannot. Working and living there are quite different things from being a tourist there.
I haven't found anything that makes me want to share the book with all my friends, but if you want to escape from reality for a while by burrowing your nose into a book, there are worse books than this one! :-)
Favorite Passage
Another housing story concerned a friend who answered an advertisement for an apartment on the Seine. The lady took him out on the balcony and pointed to the river. "In the morning you see the barges going up the river as the sun rises. At noon you see the children playing on the Quai and lovers stroll by. In the evening, as the sun sets, the barges come down the river and -- it's so beautiful -- it's so beautiful -- it's so beautiful -- I will never rent it. Get out of here. And don't ever bother me again."
