- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Random House Trade; Reprint edition (Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0375758232
- ISBN-13: 978-0375758232
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 2 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 502,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Paris to Moon: A Family in France
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Commissioned by The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik spent five years in Paris with his wife, Martha and son, Luke, writing dispatches now collected here along with previously unpublished journal entries in Paris to the Moon.
A self-described "comic-sentimental essayist", Gopnik chose the romance of Paris in its particulars as his subject. Gopnik falls in unabashed love with what he calls Paris's commonplace civilisation--the cafés, the little shops, the ancient carousel in the park and the small, intricate experiences that happen in such settings. But Paris can also be a difficult city to love, particularly its pompous and abstract official culture with its parallel paper universe. The tension between these two sides of Paris and the country's general brooding over the decline of French dominance in the face of globalisation (haute couture, cooking and sex, as well as the economy, are running deficits) form the subtexts for these finely wrought and witty essays.
With his emphasis on the micro in the macro, Gopnik describes trying to get a Thanksgiving turkey delivered during a general strike and his struggle to find an apartment during a government scandal over favouritism in housing allocations. The essays alternate between reports of national and local events and accounts of expatriate family life, with an emphasis on "the trinity of late-century bourgeois obsessions: children and cooking and spectator sports, including the spectator sport of shopping." Gopnik describes some truly delicious moments, from the rites of Parisian haute couture, to the "occupation" of a local brasserie in protest of its purchase by a restaurant tycoon, to the birth of his daughter with the aid of a doctor in black jeans and a black silk shirt, open at the front. Gopnik makes terrific use of his status as an observer on the fringes of fashionable society to draw some deft comparisons between Paris and New York ("It is as if all American appliances dreamed of being cars while all French appliances dreamed of being telephones") and do some incisive philosophising on the nature of both. This is masterful reportage with a winning infusion of intelligence, intimacy and charm. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
The finest book on France in recent years - Alain de Botton, New York Times Book Review
A conscientious, scrupulously savvy American husband and father meets contemporary France, and fireworks result, lighting up not just the Eiffel Tower - John Updike --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
A conscientious, scrupulously savvy American husband and father meets contemporary France, and fireworks result, lighting up not just the Eiffel Tower - John Updike --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Not long after we moved to Paris, in the fall of 1995, my wife, Martha, and I saw, in the window of a shop on the rue Saint-Sulpice, a nineteenth-century engraving, done in the manner, though I'm now inclined to think not from the hand, of Daumier. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Not long after we moved to Paris, in the fall of 1995, my wife, Martha, and I saw, in the window of a shop on the rue Saint-Sulpice, a nineteenth-century engraving, done in the manner, though I'm now inclined to think not from the hand, of Daumier. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having lived and worked on the outskirts of Paris I was eager to read Adam Gopnik's account of his five years in the French capital. Alas the light - hearted, impartial read I was hoping for soon disappeared into page after page of heavyweight literary philosophy, which is what this book is.
Gopnik is undoubtedly an intellectual, a highly educated writer who is much respected within his own circle. He analyses Paris to a philosophical depth which at times sounds pompous and just plain arrogant. Gopnik seems to look down on Paris and its inhabitants, and his frequent biased comparisons to his native New York become tedious. The reader could be forgiven for wondering why he opted to live there at all.
If name - dropping were an Olympic sport, Gopnik would send America to the top of the medal table. He seems keen to flex his intellectual muscle with references to writers, journalists and philosophers who most of normal are unlikely to have heard of. For mere mortals who do not mingle in high brow literary circles (eg most of us) this makes the book baffling in places.
This book's one saving grace is that there are some sections of information: dubious dealings of French politicians, high - profile trials of former war criminals and the famous Paris fashion scene.
That said, this book is best suited to literary luncheons and does not fall in the category of "read for pleasure". This is the first of Adam Gopnik's books that I have read, and it will probably be the last.
Gopnik is undoubtedly an intellectual, a highly educated writer who is much respected within his own circle. He analyses Paris to a philosophical depth which at times sounds pompous and just plain arrogant. Gopnik seems to look down on Paris and its inhabitants, and his frequent biased comparisons to his native New York become tedious. The reader could be forgiven for wondering why he opted to live there at all.
If name - dropping were an Olympic sport, Gopnik would send America to the top of the medal table. He seems keen to flex his intellectual muscle with references to writers, journalists and philosophers who most of normal are unlikely to have heard of. For mere mortals who do not mingle in high brow literary circles (eg most of us) this makes the book baffling in places.
This book's one saving grace is that there are some sections of information: dubious dealings of French politicians, high - profile trials of former war criminals and the famous Paris fashion scene.
That said, this book is best suited to literary luncheons and does not fall in the category of "read for pleasure". This is the first of Adam Gopnik's books that I have read, and it will probably be the last.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a charming book, a collection on wonderful pieces on one of the world's favourite cities from an American journalist based in the city.
Paris to the Moon ranges right across the full scope of Parisian life. There's no real reason to say much more than this. If Paris is a city that you hold any affection for then read this book.
Throughly enjoyable.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The title, Paris to the Moon, derives, as the author points out, from a book by Jules Verne (From the Earth to the Moon [1865]). It may also conjure up, as it did in my mind, George Melies silent masterpiece, "Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902), with its unforgettable image of the man in the moon wincing as the rocket hits him square in the right eye. Unfortunately, this is only one of many of Gopnik's rather forced allusions, and for the most part, his prose doesn't quite measure up to his aspirations. His attempts at coming across as a reverse-crossing Alexis De Toqueville never acquire the necessary intellectual weight to be taken seriously. This leaves him in Peter Mayle territory, the French capital equivalent of the Provencal ex-pat, wending his way somewhat comically through the trials and tribulations of Gallic bureaucracy, with large dollops of cultural commentary along the way. Here again, however, the comparisons do not lend themselves favorably to Gopnik. Mayle is much better at this sort of thing. For one thing, Gopnik's anecdotes are far less amusing than Mayle's. Whereas Mayle's vignettes capture perfectly the charming idiosyncrasies of his Provencal neighbors, Gopnik's come across as recherche, almost contrived. Again like Mayle (who must at the least, have been in the back of Gopnik's mind as a model for this sort of writing), Gopnik frequently digresses in his story to discuss cultural and particularly political variants in Parisian society. Yet whereas Mayle might take off on a tangent that actually leads to some new insight into "the French character," Gopnik provides no real revelation or compelling portrait. We just get his less than insightful musings in too many instances.
The book's strong points, on the other hand, look, at first glance, as among its most glaring weaknesses. At one point in the book, he writes for several pages about a bed time story he made up for his young son. It revolves around an infant baseball player, named the kid, who becomes a pitcher for the early-century New York Giants. What starts out as gaggingly cloying, turns out to be rather inspired story telling. It also provides a very sweet, genuinely touching portrait of the relationship this father had with his little boy.
Another high mark goes to Gopnick for providing some genuinely useful information for Americans who might wish to make a prolonged sojourn in Paris. His discussion of the differences between American and French appliances and the varied assortment of outlet prongs should serve as a valuable warning to Yankees who want to follow in Stein's, Fitzgerald's and Hemingway's footsteps, as should his depiction of apartment hunting in the city of lights.
Some reviewers I've read have objected to the fact that Gopnik was in too privileged a position and vantage point to be somehow "authentic." This is beside the point. These were "New Yorker" articles, after all, not Michelin Guides. Though a little pseudo-intellectual at times, Gopnik does not come across as a snob.
There are shortcomings and merits to this book. As a family journal, it succeeds, as we do get a clear picture of what it is like to raise a small nuclear family (later a "choix du Roi [sp?]) in the environs of Paris. Where the book fails, is in its measure of wit, which by Maylesian standards, is sub-par.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing read
I was looking forward to reading this book based on the strength of reviews and hoped that it would add to my understanding of Paris, or more specifically an outsider's take on... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Kittycat
Terrible book
This book is terrible. I lived in Paris for 10 years including the time the author was there and was looking forward to a good read. How disappointed I was. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2009 by Mr. Eamonn Young
Learning about Paris from the Inside by an Outsider
Living in Paris was the dream and wish of this author since he
first visited during his teenage years. It has been said, "once, you visit Paris, you must return ... Read more
first visited during his teenage years. It has been said, "once, you visit Paris, you must return ... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2004 by Erika Borsos
Overwritten but a good insight into Paris
"It was one of those dog days when even the fan attached precariously to ceiling has trouble cutting through the sultry Paris air. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2003 by D. Harvey-George
Not that impressed
This book is fairly shallow and contains some incredible demonstrations of lack of knowledge. For example, Gopnik describes his surprise reaction in discovering the "AZERTY"... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2002
American in Paris - living it out.
"Paris to the Moon" is a funny and intelligent book. Adam Gopnik has a lot to say and he writes well. Read more
Published on 5 May 2001
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