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The light of Paris  Cover Image Book Book

The light of Paris / Eleanor Brown.

Summary:

"Madeleine has always felt like a failure. At first when her marriage to controlling, critical Phillip is threatened, Madeleine panics. But when she discovers a journal detailing her grandmother's wild, romantic summer in Jazz Age Paris, she begins to wonder if there is more to life than playing by someone else's rules. Inspired by her grandmother's story, and floored by a long-kept secret she finds in its pages, Madeleine begins to create her own Parisian summer."--Provided by the publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780399158919
  • Physical Description: 308 pages ; 24 cm
  • Publisher: New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2016.
Subject: Married women > Fiction.
Self-realization in women > Fiction.
Self-actualization (Psychology) in women > Fiction.
Family secrets > Fiction.
Americans > France > Paris > Fiction.
Chicago (Ill.) > Fiction.
Paris (France) > Fiction.
France > History > 1914-1940 > Fiction.
Genre: Domestic fiction.

Available copies

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 0 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Burns Lake Public Library AF BRO (Text) 35198000596727 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Castlegar Public Library FIC BRO (Text) 35146001983832 Fiction Volume hold Available -
Elkford Public Library FC BRO (Text) 35170000406801 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Fernie Heritage Library FIC BRO (Text) 35136000431933 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Greenwood Public Library Fic BRO (Text) 35141000200734 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Kitimat Public Library Bro (Text) 32665002063115 Fiction Volume hold Available -
Mackenzie Public Library BRO (Text) 35192000359640 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Nelson Public Library F BRO (Text) 3514830024560 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Pender Island Public Library BRO (Text)
Format: Hardcover
33126000253603 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Salt Spring Island Public Library FIC BRO (Text) 33123009493678 Fiction Volume hold Available -

  • Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 August #1
    Madeleine suffers from an unhappy marriage, a less-than-perfect mother, a controlling husband, and her own self-doubt. She feels trapped in a life she didn't so much choose as fall in line with. Things begin to change when she finds her grandmother's diary. Margie seemed perfect—the kind of woman Madeleine thought she should be—but the diary reveals another side to her grandmother. As she reads, Madeleine learns about a summer trip to 1920s Paris, where Margie lived on her own, sat in cafés, made new friends, and fell in love. Margie's story inspires Madeleine to create a life of her own choosing, as she rekindles her artistic passions and widens her social circle. Brown (The Weird Sisters, 2012) has created a charming, enjoyable read that alternates between time periods and points of view. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.
  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2016 May #1
    The lights of Paris act as a beacon for two generations of women in search of self-determination and fulfillment in Brown's (The Weird Sisters, 2011, etc.) story of loves lost and found. Unhappily married Madeleine resents, quietly and inwardly, the strictures placed upon her by her controlling and ambitious husband, Phillip, and chafes against her perfectionist mother's expectations. Torn between a stultifying existence as a trophy wife and her lifelong but abandoned passion for painting, Madeleine embarks on a voyage of self-discovery, sparked by the unearthing of her grandmother's diaries in the attic of her mother's house. Inspired by the long-buried story of her grandmother Margie's experiences in the Paris of the Lost Generation, Madeleine moves toward an understanding of what will help her navigate through the world on her own terms. With a voice that alternates every other chapter between Madeleine's narration and excerpts from Margie's recovered journals, Brown conve ys the miseries and satisfactions of women's journeys toward happiness in a tale balanced upon a family secret. While some characters—or their motivations—might have benefited from more fleshing out (Phillip is a stock controlling husband), the whimsy and romance of post-World War I Paris and Madeleine's growing comfort with her newly reconstructed life (in a hometown that had previously brought only unhappiness) provide forward momentum. As Madeleine unravels the truths behind her grandmother's story, she gathers insight into her own, equally complicated, story. With growing self-confidence and the aid of rediscovered friends and relatives, Madeleine approaches life in a different light and with the ability to make hard choices. Brown conveys the importance of the arts in creating a life as well as the need to heed all voices, even those from the past, in looking to the future. Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2016 March #1

    Proper and ridiculously accommodating Madeleine has always felt out of step, and now her marriage to rigid Phillip is quaky. Then she discovers a journal revealing that her formidable grandmother spent a wild, love-strewn summer in Jazz Age Paris, and Madeleine decides that she can break the rules, too. From the author of the New York Times best-selling The Weird Sisters; Brown will appear at the LJ Author Party at PLA (see p. 59).

    [Page 82]. (c) Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2016 June #2

    Taking a break from an emotionally cold marriage, artist Madeleine visits her mother in Magnolia, a town that Madeleine had always thought to be too image-conscious, filled with ladies who lunch and fundraisers for the Junior League. Her old hometown has opened up in surprising ways, and not every woman in the Ladies Association is as shallow as Madeleine expected them to be. She also discovers that her mother is selling her longtime residence and moving into a condo. While packing up the attic, Madeleine uncovers the boxes of journals that her grandmother Margie kept as a young woman in 1924. Margie also had worried that she was going to leave herself behind once she got married and spent an extended period of time in Paris, falling in love with the city and a young artist, Sebastien. Stylistically less daring than Brown's previous title (The Weird Sisters), this book still manages to plumb the difference between the things in life that give us joy and the things that we do to stifle that joy. VERDICT For all fans of intelligent women's literature.[See Prepub Alert, 2/21/16.]—Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL

    [Page 65]. (c) Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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