Select language, opens an overlay

Comment

Jul 08, 2019Indoorcamping rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This isn't the book you think it is, so don't judge by the cover or the American-in-Paris or the midlife crisis subject matter. It is a book about getting older, sure, it is a book about living as a foreigner and raising kids in Paris, of course, but it is also a well-written guidebook to how to live. Like Montaigne only less male and privileged and old. There are hard lessons that you could either learn from this book or learn the hard way, through failure. And that sounds incredible. It is. She's done the hard work, thinking and failing and walking through mistakes with a close eye and clear voice, and all you have to do is slog through the icky parts and get to the brilliance. Okay, icky parts. Yes there are a few. But you can skip those chapters (no I don't want to read about ANYBODY'S threesome) and still close the book at the end and have somehow become a better, more empathetic, more interesting, more wise person. There are hard lessons, there are lists, there are epiphanies and there are lots of thoughts. Of aging and of life and how to live it without being an asshole. When you drop yourself into another culture, you can't help but switch it up and think about all the things you do and think. You assess your habits and assumptions. How much of this is me being a jerk and how much of this is me being an American? Americans are a certain way when it comes to reading a room and social cues, and you probably didn't think you had anything to learn about this but you do. Americans don't leave anything out of the conversation. We TMI everything. A French person hates asking an American a question because, she writes, they know in return they will get a lecture. Before you say, "not me!" you might want to just read this and see if she has a point. Other cultures are not all wrong and we are not all right. More than this, though, is such a delightful meandering through staying alive when you're no longer the young thing you think you will always be. When age hits, there are ways to feel blessed and this is the guidebook for the best of it. Except for the threesome parts. Ew.