#21: Me, Myself and Paris - Ruth Yunker

Synopsis & Book Info:
Me, Myself & Paris is author Ruth Yunker's droll pastiche of her days, free and unaccompanied, in Paris. Three years in a row she rents an apartment, stays for six weeks, and takes on Paris, half resident, half visitor. She is a short attention span tourist, a wide-eyed voyeur, and irreverence saves the day when the chips are down. Her stories are about bonhomie and savoir-faire, American style, while treading the hallowed and slippery cobblestones of Paris.

It's about every day errands, and sorties into dutiful sightseeing. It's about run-ins with grocery store cashiers and metro ticket agents. It's about desperately trying to speak French. It's about attempting to emulate the chic, windblown Parisian woman wearing no lipstick, while Ruth wouldn't be caught bare lipped outside the boudoir.
She conquers the metro, no mean feat for a Californian glued to a car. She hears ghosts in cathedrals, and smells bread toasting every morning across the courtyard. She learns to make correct change without her reading glasses. Comes to understand that direct eye contact is a flagrant disregard of manners, even when she most needs a hug.
Me, Myself & Paris is what Paris looks like, feels like, smells like, tastes like, to an American woman, free and unfettered, sense of humor and bonhomie alive and well, alone and loving it, in the most beautiful and temperamental city in the world.

Hardcover: 206 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 9781432757144
Purchase at Amazon


©2010


My Opinion:
I had seen this book around, and saw the rave reviews on Amazon, and thought it was going to be a funny look at one woman's journey to Paris.
It was a good story, in essay format, but it lacked in humor for me.
It was set in Paris, a city I hope to one day see. Even more so after reading this book and hearing how Ruth describes it. You really do get a feel for what it must be like there.
Just not a book I will remember a week from now. Sorry.


2/5


Recommend? No.


~I received a copy from the author. I was not compensated for my opinion.~