I'm looking for something to buy for my mother's birthday, so this request is going to be both quite specific and quite vague at the same time, as I kind of know what I'm after, but can't put my finger on it.
Anyway, are there any good books currently easily available in the UK that are set in France, preferably Lille (but Paris will do as long as they're not too urban-apartmenty)? I'm looking for something quite intellectual, with a good, evocative sense of place, and nothing schmaltzy or too completely mainstream.
I'd prefer fiction, but if anyone can suggest anything about Lille and art/architecture/history, that might do also.
Ugh, this is a bad question, sorry, but I'm getting stuck thinking of anything to buy.
― emil.y (emil.y), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)
Nothing to do with either Paris or Lille, but allow me to suggest "The Chateau" by William Maxwell.
― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)
Maybe kind of obvious but how about "Madame Bovary"? Though it maybe doesn't evoke France but a sense of place as in the immediate space of Madame Bovary's daily life.
― Mo Baht, Wednesday, 9 February 2005 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)
You might want to check out Julian Barnes' collection of esasys "Something to Declare" ...
― Mark Sarvas, Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)
If your mother doesn't mind older books, you might want to investigate Emile Zola's "The Belly of Paris" which is set in the Les Halles fodd market and has a lot of about food and how food came into Paris, as well as politics, etc.
― Sredni Vashtar, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)
On this one I would have to recommend my main man James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. I don't know if your mom would like a book about a relationship between men, but it is Paris in the 60s and a beautiful read.
― scout (scout), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)
Maybe Paris Trance by Geoff Dyer? Although personally I didn't like it.
― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 24 February 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)
For nineteenth century Paris, I'd suggest
Sentimental Education by Flaubert, or
Cousin Bette or
Pere Goriot by Balzac.
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 24 February 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)