Review: Paris: The Novel

I have been incredibly lucky, despite what my times of incessant whining might suggest. One of the things I have been blessed enough to have done is to have traveled to Paris. Twice. Both times, I couldn't quite believe I was there. I'm one of those people that plans stuff, expecting that something will happen that will keep me from accomplishing my goal.

But not Paris! I've been to Paris. Twice!

That's me and my best friend, from ProlixMe, at Notre Dame, the first time I went to Paris. It's been a while.

And though I honestly believe that Madrid and Barcelona have nothing to envy modern day Paris, it's still one of my favorite places ever.

So, I've read quite a bit about Paris and stories set in Paris. My fascination with the city led me to pick up Edward Rutherfurd's quite hefty Paris: The Novel. I swear it took me ages to finish. The hardcover version is just over 800 pages long and it doesn't have large print, let me tell you.

The novel overall is not written in a linear fashion. Rutherfurd goes back and forth, with the overarching story being the one that goes in order. That one starts in Belle Epoque Paris, with three families at it's center. All the chapters set further back in the past connect to this story.

Rutherfurd goes back as far as 1261 and goes up to 1967. That's a lot to cover in one book. It felt like a novel with several short stories and/or novella's attached. Thankfully, the first few pages includes a family tree for each of the families covered in the novel. It really helped.

The part of the novel set during WWII got to me the most. You know bad things will happen. Of course they will. But the tragedy still made me tear up. It redeemed the book for me. Some parts went far too slowly and I felt didn't really succeed in showing me the heart of Paris. The lack of set focus on any of the characters made the city the real protagonist of the novel. Sometimes that really came through.

If you have the discipline, I would say this book is worth the effort. I stuck to it and I don't do that with books that don't hold my interest. But, though it's not a complicated read per se, it demands the reader's full attention.