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Dec 17, 2009

Kara rated it:

I have to be honest. I bought this book because I liked the title. Then I got sucked in by the back cover. Who doesn't think the idea of running away w/ your adult family to Paris wouldn't be fantastic?
Gopnik is excellent at revealing the sutle differences between life in the States and France that make up two completely seperate cultures. I felt upon finishing the book that I actually knew the secrets of French thought and behavior. Unfortunately, I now know exactly why I'd never be More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Mar 20, 2008

Allen rated it:

These essays provide insight into the mundane, every-day differences between living in Paris and living in New York. Each piece, whether it addresses cooking or sports or fashion, is centered on an epiphany moment, which makes the reading rewarding each time. Of the book's many themes, the most prevalent trope is rearing a young boy in Paris during his first five years. This becomes a special focus after the first two years, when the boy has learned to speak.

One of the special treats More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2007

Cristin rated it:

Adam Gopnik's memoirs of his times spent in Paris is a Sex and the City for grown ups. Seen through a male perspective, Gopnik's Frasier-like love of France, the arts, fine food and wine and a hatred for cheesy American pop culture (AKA Barney) allows anyone who's ever dreamed of dropping everything and leaving for a more romantic lifestyle the ability to do so vicariously through his family. What's refreshing about Gopnik's writing is that he realizes he's living a ridiculously privileged life More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2008

Eleanor rated it:

Yes, I realize this is getting cliche, but I am putting this book in my category of "Americans abroad." Even though I don't connect to the "isn't raising kids just a gosh darn trip" facet of this book, I think Gopnik is a fantastic writer and his observations about living in Paris and being American ring very true. What's also interesting is that because this book concerns the years 1995 to 2000 (that is Pre-Euro as the currency, Pre-Sarkozy) it is very interesting to see h More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 30, 2008

stefanie rated it:

I can't say enough positive things about this book. Such intricate descriptions of such small things... you can savor it the way the French would want you to. It's a story of a beautiful life in a far away place-- but Gopnick tells it in a way that makes it so accessible (sometimes even ordinary) that he achieves an intimacy that I have not experienced in most books I've read. He also offers a social lens that is stimulating as well as enlightening.

I purposefully took forever readin More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2008

Maggie rated it:

"After all, spinning is its own reward. There wouldn't be carousels if it weren't so."

"And the slightly amused, removed feeling always breaks down as you realize that you don't want to be so lofty and Olympian- or rather, that being lofty and Olympian carries within it, by tradition and precedent, the habit of wishing you could be down there in the plain, taking sides. Even the gods, actually looking down from Olympus in amusement, kept hurtling down to get laid or More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2010

Heather rated it:

On a re-reading streak, and after having just finished Gopnik's other essay collection, thought I'd take myself on a vacation of the nostalgic imagination. Serendipity strikes me again: upon opening the book the other evening, I found my boarding pass to the flight that officially relocated me to Paris. If that was not enough, it just so happened that this slipped out from between the pages exactly eight years to the DAY- February 26- that I took the trip that changed my life forever.

Does t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 18, 2007

Paula rated it:

My husband and I decided to be appropriately literary on our last trip to Paris -- he took Hemingway, I took this book because I love travel memoirs. The basic premise is that Gopnik, a writer for the New Yorker, flees to Paris with his family to save his young firstborn from the insidious influence of Barney the dinosaur.

It's well written, more complicated sentence structure than my usual vacation reading but engrossing. It travels an arc beginning with successfully conveying his n More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 23, 2007

Kelly rated it:

This book is actually a collection of essays from the New Yorker, and they're very insightful. His arguments mostly stem from his own family's experiences and are naturally just small scenes from which he draws grand conclusions. Like most other authors.

However, his awareness of the political scene and the major infighting going on culturally speaks of a very sharp mind. His essays have enough political analysis to show his intelligence, but then will transition into a colorful story More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2007

Andrea rated it:

I'm re-reading this love letter to Paris, a collection of essays by Adam Gopnik. He writes with such fierce intelligence, and even though some of the "current events" are ten years old, his perspective has a timelessness. Never mind that he's lived my dream- pack it all in and go live and work in Paris.

One of my favorite elements of the book is how strongly the feeling he has for his family permeates his writing. Even an essay on a quest to save a beloved neighborhood bi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 13, 2007

Susan rated it:

What a priviledged crank. His recent column in the New Yorker about eating locally makes me glad that he is aware of the effects of the world around him but he doesn't seem to appreciate so much of what he has. He was involvement in the bistro takeover and the gym were the highlights of the book, with his difference as the American, but really were these the only times he actually did anything in Paris, other than go to the carousel with son and eat out? I want the New Yorker to sponsor me to l More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jessica rated it:

I love, love, love adam gopnik's writing. he can write about tying his shoes and make it sound like the most fascinating subject on earth. this book is about his experience living in paris with his family, a city near and dear to my heart. paris is the perfect subject for his writerly observations. the chapter where he describes his wife's pregnancy and the interactions with the french medical system in contrast to new york (where they had their first child) is fascinating, hilarious and incred More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2007

Elaine rated it:

I read this when I was studying abroad in Paris and was on a kick of reading books written by American expats about living in the city. Some of Gopnik's stories interested me more than others. Particularly dramatic and fun was the story about Parisians battle with a British restaurateur who was about to take over their local brasserie in the Latin Quarter. Gopnik's is a good book to read in order to get some idea of the French cultural battles against globalization/Americanization. I have to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 15, 2007

Cayt rated it:

One of my very favorite reads of all time. Adam Gopnik has a lovely way with words, specifically words that detail everyday, real life. I have found very few writers who have such power to keep me enthralled no matter what the subject matter.

I had the privilege of hearing him lecture a few years back here in Chicago, his topic "The American Dream of Paris." His eloquence astounds me. Hearing him speak only made me wish I could read the book over and over again and forge More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 01, 2011

Malati rated it:

Absolutely loved this book. Gopnik is a talented story teller and is truly skilled at turning the micro into the macro. The book is full of beautiful written personal stories that are often used to make a broader point about cultural or political issues. I happened to be reading this while in Paris so I was particularly taken with his detailed descriptions of specific street corners, cafes and idiosyncrasies of Parisians. But much of his description about cultural assimilation is also appli More...

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Feb 17, 2011

Roxane rated it:

Fabulous essays, combining enjoyable writing with a great American lens on Paris and all its endearing, infuriating, and comic ways. Gopnik and his wife Martha Parker move to Paris with their very young son, try valiantly and in vain to keep him from crass Americanisms like Barney (little Frenchies are sucked in as well), and actually have their second child in a Paris hospital, which is Quite An Experience. One chapter on the corruption of housing in Paris was a bit dull because bureaucracy i More...

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Sep 27, 2010

Tanya D rated it:

This book was fine, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. I was certainly interested in the subject matter: living in paris, the expat life, culture clashes, etc. But the author's style is rather long-winded and unnecessarily dense; some passages reminded me of esoteric literary criticism I used to have to read in college, not particularly suited to light observational journalism. Perhaps I'm too critical as I just finished a Bill Bryson book of travel essays that were thoroughly entertaining and More...

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Apr 24, 2010

Nat rated it:

Towards the end of Gopnik's five years in Paris, his son eats a hamburger for the first time:

"He took three bites, pushed it away, had some ice cream...but the next morning he said, 'I liked the hamburger'--decisively--'but I did not like that sauce you served with it'.

'What sauce?' I said, puzzled. I hadn't made a sauce.

'That red sauce', he said, disdainfully, with exactly the expression I have seen on the face of Jean-Pierre Quélin, the food critic of Le Mond More...

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Dec 15, 2009

Joe rated it:

If on your way to Paris as a student or "on a shoestring" budget, this book might make you salivate for a bigger wallet or purse. Gopnik's Paris is replete with expensive cafes, dinners out at the Ritz, gourmet cooking, and visit to the frommage shops with his son Luke (c'est tres adorable!). Still, there is much here to revel in, like his essay about the World Cup and his efforts to keep Barney away from his kid, and his weirdly successful metaphors (he somehow manages to equate Bar More...

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Nov 21, 2009

Harry added it

After reading a book about Watteau and another by the French novelist Simenon, I zipped through this book as a way to continue the oo-la-la. Gopnik's prose is like beautiful stacked fruit and vegetables at the greatest market you've ever been to. It's colorful, seemingly endless, good for you but delicious. It makes you think of the moment and where the moment came from. Sometimes it seems too abundant, as Gopnik piles simile upon simile, then going into a discourse about how comparing things di More...

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Oct 31, 2009

Gail rated it:

"Just after the move, for my birthday, Luke and Martha gave me a wonderful toy, La Machine à Dessiner le Monde, a machine to draw the world. Really, all it is is a camera lucida, but nicely done in plastic, with a viewing stand on top. You put a piece of vellum on it, and if the light's bright enough, and it has to be very bright, it projects the thing you're looking at right onto the paper. All you have to do is trace it.

All! For just tracing turns out to be the hardest thing o More...

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Sep 21, 2009

Jill rated it:

I might have given Paris to the Moon a higher rating if I hadn't read this right after Edmund White's Le Flaneur, truth be told. I liked White's approach of tackling the little known fringes of Parisian life. Gopnik's book just seemed very typical by comparison - the expatriate's musings on the cultural differences between Paris and his native country, anecdotes of his efforts to adapt to a new lifestyle, etc.

There are some gems in the series of essays - compiled from Gopnik's wri More...

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May 18, 2009

Raymond rated it:

Paris to the Moon

Note:This was originally posted to my journal on January 11, 2009. I meant to post it here, in Goodreads, also, but I was still learning how to be on this site, and my good intentions went awry.

I have just finished reading Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon. It is a collection of essays about a expatriate American family living in Paris. I read it over a period of months, with time off to read some other things, work in my journal, live my ordinary life. I don’t thi

More...

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Nov 30, 2008

Cheryl rated it:

I put this book down TWICE after the first chapter thinking that it was really boring and not so much fun. After a crisis where it was the only book around, I picked it up again and forced myself into that 2nd chapter. I think the editor did a real disservice by putting such a long forward and then the first chapter where it was- the book is a set of essays, somewhat linked and tied together, but perfectly able to be read as standalones. There are some insights in this book that I haven't read i More...

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Jan 25, 2011

Susan rated it:

I found this at Cattail Cove Sate Park near Lake Havasu, AZ. This is one astute journalist whose sense of humor and humanity are fully engaged, writing a comparison between living in NYC or living in Paris. That's it. I have never been to Paris, nor lived in NYC. I am not a thirty-something father of a toddler. This didn't matter. The stories within the story are political, culinary, marital, and each interesting, funny and charming.

"After a recent trip to New York one French jou More...

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Mar 27, 2011

Laura rated it:

I would give this a 3.5 or 4 star rating. It was really interesting to experience the author's opinion on differences between Paris and New York (or America). I had fun reading this, and though there were several times where I disagreed with his assessment of certain situations and comparisons, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about them because they definitely spurred my inner debate and brought back great memories of Paris. It was fun to try and figure out..."ok, so which does he like bett More...

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Jul 09, 2011

Reid rated it:

I am one of those people (and we are legion) who have an unrequited love affair going with Paris. It's not that Paris disdains or rejects me, of course; Paris has no idea I exist and wouldn't care less if she knew. Sigh.

Adam Gopnik's book is one more love letter from another lover of Paris, and his is an articulate, cultured, experienced voice indeed. He is mostly fluent in French and his love affair has stretched over nearly the whole of his life. This is a book written during and a More...

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Apr 24, 2010

Katherine rated it:

My sister lived in Paris for a few months with her husband and four children. She used to tell me stories about their lives there that illuminated for me both the differences between my and Parisian culture and the beauty that she encountered there every day. I expected this book about Adam Gopnik's experiences in Paris to be similar except, well better. I mean this was a collection of carefully thought out articles written by a professional (and well respected) writer not the ecstatic rambling More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Samantha rated it:

I love this book! Gopnik moved to France with his family in 1995 and stayed until 2000, writing about his experiences for the New Yorker. The book is an extension of those essays. Anyone who loves both France and America, or who is going to visit France for the first time will benefit from Gopnik's ability to make fun of and love America and France at the same time.

While I would recommend it to all, I think it is particularly essential read for any American who is going to France and More...

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Jun 20, 2010

Christopher rated it:

Paris to the Moon left me with the feeling of really wanting to have a family of my own to navigate through some city life somewhere. Gopnik and wife come across as wonderful, caring parents who experience life anew and profoundly through their children. After the birth of thier daughter, Olivia, in a Paris hospital he contemplates how their lives seemed to have been pointing to her birth all along:

"The universe doesn't need a purpose if life goes on. You sink back and hear the More...

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