Paris Still Life

by Rosalind Brackenbury

After the death of her art dealer father, forty-year-old Gaby Greenwood’s unmoored grief drives her to Paris alone, leaving her American husband behind. Where better for an existential crisis than the city so many artists have loved?

Walking through the streets, she sees a man with white hair and a worn corduroy jacket—a dead ringer for her late father. A ghost? Or has mourning driven her mad? Then she receives a letter from a woman she never knew existed—her father’s lover of three decades. The mysterious Françoise has been entrusted with her father’s last gift to Gaby, a valuable seventeenth-century still life. The woman is also the bearer of so many of her father’s secrets.

But when Gaby takes a French lover, she starts to question everything she ever knew about her father and her own double life: America or Paris, husband or lover, old life or a new, reimagined one?

Genres: Fiction, France

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Rosalind Brackenbury is the author of several novels, books of poetry, and short stories. She was born in England, and has also lived in Scotland and France. She earned a history degree at Cambridge University, speaks French fluently, and has been a teacher, journalist, and deck hand on a schooner.

Reviews

[Dorothy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Because I received a Kindle Edition as a Goodreads Giveaway, I finished reading this book in order to legitimately offer a review. Otherwise, I would have dismissed it after the first couple chapters. I was frustrated with the shallowness and immaturity of Gaby, the main character, and I cared little about the rest of the undeveloped supporting characters. I found the thin plot implausible and heavily padded with weather reports and tour guide desciptions of Paris. J'aime Paris but was very disappointed in this novel. Quel dommage.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book seeped into my bones.

In many ways, it felt like a book about my life, or at least a version of my life (the main character's artist/art dealer father dies, and she, a writer, runs away to Paris to find herself but ends up seeing him, or thinking she's seeing him, everywhere in the city) coupled with all of the elements of fiction I love (a stolen painting, quotidian Paris, a French lover). Brackenbury bored into my soul with this novel. I read it really quickly--too quickly--and want to go back and give it read it a second time to reabsorb it and savor it all over again. C'était parfait.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was an enjoyable, holiday read with some interesting observations, set in my favourite city.

[Felicity Reynolds · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disappointing read. Her grief over her fathers death seemed over the top and the nonsense with Farncoise a complete waste of time! The sort of book you regret wasting the time spent reading it.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosalind Brackenbury’s sympatico with Paris is evident from the opening scene. Paris is a place out of time where anything is possible, where the old merges with the modern. More importantly, Paris is a place where judgment is suspended.

Escaping Florida and a faltering marriage, Gaby Greenwood retreats to her family’s small Parisian apartment. Both her parents are dead and she is left wondering who she actually is.

The last thing Gaby expected to discover was that her father had secrets, and she begins to see him on the streets of Paris in his old black corduroy jacket, always just beyond her reach. “Once when I was a student, I saw a boyfriend of mine kissing someone else on a bridge in Cambridge, and the pain of that immediate physical jealousy went through me like heart failure. But when I came near, it wasn’t him.”

The search for her father, the provenance of a painting (maybe hers, maybe stolen), and her own marriage are all at stake. She begins an affair with a younger man, mirroring her own father’s long-term split loyalties to his wife and mistress. Perhaps if she could grasp the whole of her father’s life, (Peter, the “secretive man”) she could better understand her own.

But to iterate the plot is to do Rosalind Brackenbury a disservice and not just because of spoilers, but because Brackenbury’s first language is poetry, the sudden phrase that stops me dead in my tracks and does exactly what Brackenbury wants it to do, providing fresh perspective, softening easy judgment.

Many of Brackenbury’s previous novels – (Becoming George Sand comes to mind) are about unapologetic explorations, and this one is no exception, except for the added mystery of the father and the painting. The pacing is leisurely and sensual taking on it’s own rhythm and logic, then building to a greater insight.

This is a novel to savor, a slow unfolding that looks to the mysteries of love, art, memory to show direction and provide a way to carry on.

[Mystica · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a forty year old married woman who troubled deeply by the death of her father, leaves her husband in America behind much to his bewilderment and arrives in Paris - is it to find herself as they would say, to meditate on life and its meaning and what does she eventually hope to do. Right now she is lucky as she has an apartment (owned by her father) and enough money to live without having to work.



Almost immediately she is beset by memories of her father when she sees not once but three times someone who is the image of her father. On all three occasions she is unable to reach him, being either in a bus or somewhere where she cannot access him. On top of that she meets up with her father's mistress whom everyone apparently knew about other than her. This comes to her as a betrayal though the lady is someone whom Gaby begins to appreciate, but slowly. Many characters from her father's hidden double life keep appearing and each one shows another facet of her father's life which he kept well hidden from his wife and family.



Gaby taking on a lover adds to her questions. Where is her life going to take her? Back to her American roots and her husband or to a new life in Paris.



Despite the varying nuances of the story, the story reads as a formal novel. The characters were multi faceted and added to the enjoyment of the story. At the same time it seemed slightly unreal and removed from day to day life as it happens. How many can move from the expected or unexpected death of a parent, move continents, leave a husband, start even temporarily a new life without any clear understanding of where this is taking one.



I enjoyed the story very much. It was the unreal, removed from real life bit that I enjoyed the most.

[Marguerite Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be honest, this got three stars primarily because of the way it evoked Paris. I didn't much enjoy this book, which I got free from Amazon Prime, though I think reading the blurb I would have bought it anyway. But the narrator was really, really, really tedious. The narrative had far too much overblown navel gazing, and the story itself was disjointed, and unresolved. I'm sorry to have to be so critical. Paris is my favourite city in the world, and the author did it justice, but even Paris couldn't sustain me when the person inhabiting it was so determinedly dull, and determined on the one hand to be as miserable as possible, but on the other, to make sure no-one could help her. None of the rest of the cast, seen through her eyes, came to life. I couldn't have cared less, in the end, about either the mystery of the picture or of her father, which is just as well, because no answers were provided. As you'll have gathered, this really didn't work for me. Sorry.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gaby has lost both her parents in a very short time, and now has left her home in Miami to live in Paris for a while. Engrossed in watching a movie being filmed, she sees a man whom she thinks is her father. In the blink of an eye, he is gone, and she is convinced that she imagined the whole thing. She was watching the making of a film about the '50's, an alternative reality, and she just got caught up in the moment. Didn't she? But, then, a few days later, she sees him from her seat on a bus. "You see what you want to see, and you don't see what you don't want to see", she supposes.

She is determined that she will "not risk sounding absurd, even crazy; I would not doubt my own sanity; I would not become one of those mad-eyed people...grasping at...memory, hope."

An extremely well-constructed novel with a make-you-think ending.

I read this EARC courtesy of NetGalley and Lake Union. pub date 01/01/18

[Lorraine Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure what I made of this book as it is so different from the books I normally read. I certainly found it easy reading and did enjoy it in many ways but was glad it was not too long a book and, looking back on it, cannot quite describe how it developed. The story is from the point of view of a forty-year-old American whose parents have each died in unusual circumstances. She leaves her husband and goes to France to live for a while in the flat which her parents left. There she meets some interesting people and gains some knowledge about her parents' lives and her own priorities in life. All is set against a background of the world of the art expert and in the context of a still life painting.

I enjoyed reading the book but was left asking questions and not particularly interested in the answers. I gave it four stars because it was a style of writing that I liked and I definitely got some pleasure out of exploring the protagonist's world.

[Debra B · Rating 2 out of 5]

DISCLOSURE: I received this book from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway in exchange for an honest review...

I admit I struggled with this book because I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be... a mystery? historical fiction? an art book? But I continued since I won the book and felt I owed a review in return.

In the end, I saw this as a story about the main character's (Gaby) search for herself. She's emotionally lost after the death of her father and struggles to accept his death while also struggling with her marriage. So she escapes to Paris where her parents had an apartment. As she attempts to sort out her life, she thinks she has seen her father, meets his former mistress and takes on a lover.

If you enjoy the angst of life, then you will enjoy this book. I, however, did not and apologize to the author as I am probably not her intended audience.

[Lorna Gundaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this as an ARC. I found it difficult to get interested in Gabby, the 40 year old woman who leaves her husband in Florida with no explanation, to head to Europe. First, she must bury her father in Scotland. Constantly weeping. She makes the decision to leave her husband and fly to Paris, where her parents owned a choice apartment. Her grief for her father seems rather overwhelming for a 40 year old woman. We find her crying an amazing amount. Where did this grief for an older father come from?
Gaby quickly takes a hook-up lover and observes the Paris scene. Money doesn’t appear to be a problem, Three times she thinks she sees her father, She also meets her father’s mistress, part of his double life.
Readers who enjoy contemplative, contemporary novels will enjoy Paris: A Stll Life. It was too slow for me.
Thanks, Goodreads, for the chance to read and review this book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaby flees to Paris to recover from the deaths of both her parents, but especially her father. She begins to see him on the streets of the city, and wonders if he is really dead. Is she seeing a ghost or a man who had a double life? Or both. The author skillfully weaves together the strands of Gaby‘s life, the characters she knew and the ones she will meet in this sabbatical she has taken from her marriage. We meet Françoise, her father’s lover, Yves, the man she falls in bed with, and Fabrice the wily, unreliable art dealer. And so strongly does Brackenbury evoke Paris, that the city itself becomes one of the characters. A rich, evocative read filled with characters that will stay with you long after you finish the novel.

[Denise Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover of this book intrigued me; a girl moving past a painting, a still life of a moment in the seventeenth century lasting forever whilst the girl is passing through life. The themes of this book are; grief, memory and Paris.
Gaby's English father has recently died and she is discontent with her life in Miami with her American husband so has come to stay in her father's Parisian apartment, a place she lived in as a child, now she is forty.
Although I am older than Gaby in recent years I have lost both my parents and I was empathetic to her grief. Gaby is a poet but the book's style is not lyrical and, at times, I found the writing tedious. However, when describing Paris, a city I love, it drew me in. I'm glad I persevered and read to the end, but at times it wasn't easy.

[Diane Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the death of her art dealer father, forty-year-old Gaby Greenwood’s unmoored grief drives her to Paris alone, leaving her American husband behind. Where better for an existential crisis than the city so many artists have loved?

But when Gaby takes a French lover, she starts to question everything she ever knew about her father and her own double life: America or Paris, husband or lover, old life or a new, reimagined one?

This was a quick read for me, and I guess it is about Gaby discovering herself and her life after the death of her father. It was decent, but did not totally pull me into the story. I did enjoy the book though.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected. It seemed to be in my opinion kind of selfish, well Gaby was selfish I should say. I do not believe in affairs and although it is just a fiction story she had an affair. How different is she than her father. I was a bit disappointed with this book. It was descriptive and I did like that. Made me feel like I was there. But I could not connect with the characters at all. I’m sorry but this book just was not my kind of story.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
I’m sorry but it just was not for me.

[Tina O'reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author truly brought Paris to life - descriptions of sights, sounds and smells were spot on. I could feel the baking heat of that August summer, see the Parisians leaving for their annual holiday, smell the fresh baked bread, imagine lovers ambling. The story had real potential - woman in a bit of a crisis returning to a familiar place to get back on track or rediscover herself - I enjoyed so much of this book.
However, there were too many loose ends towards the end which left me frustrated and wishing it had continued, rather than being able to imagine the finale myself.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received a free Kindle copy of this book through Goodreads book promotions.

Always wanted to revisit Paris, and for a brief 200 and some pages, "A Paris Still Life" put me back there. I felt as if I was with Gabby in the cafes, the Louvre, the streets, the wine, the food..... It was wonderful. The story was well written, and the characters well developed throughout. All in all, a great book in which to lose ones self.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous, gorgeous walk through the Latin Quarter of Paris, through flea markets, old architecture, surrounded by art. But, is this little literary walk accompanied by something supernatural, or a bit more down to earth? I'll never tell.....

Even if you're not a Francophile, nor an art enthusiast, this book is just such a good and quick read, and a reminder to appreciate the subtleties of life surrounding us.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gaby’s parent’s recent deaths and the uncertain future of her marriage inspire her to go to Paris to try to figure life out. There she discovers her father’s long-time mistress and sees a man around town that looks exactly like her father.

I felt that the middle portion of this book was great; I couldn’t put it down or wait to find out that direction Gaby would take things in. She gets very philosophical several times throughout the book and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This book has a lot of interesting ideas but I don’t feel that they have been executed as well as they could be. It definitely feels more like a draft rather than a finished book.

I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Charland Garvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would happily recommend it. It was by an author totally unknown to me and I had always thought of myself as a reader of books. The story takes place in Paris and the story revolves around a woman of 40 trying to sort her life out. It was well written and in a style which I liked - just a little off balanced. In any case, it is well worth reading.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept

An interesting story about a woman who thinks she keeps seeing her dead father walking the streets of Paris. I enjoyed observing Gabby’s encounters with her Father’s mistress, her lover, and the various others involved in the story but the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

[mr robin tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable reading

I very much enjoyed this story, it made me want to visit Paris ! In her short escape in Paris she learned so much about her father she loved but did not know, and more importantly she learned so much about herself and who she was and who she is going to be

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this for the descriptions of Paris, not for Gaby, who I found annoying. This is short- a quick read- and other might find something in it that I did not. Becoming unmoored by a parent's death is natural and everyone's reaction is different. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

[Christie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Try as I might, I just couldn't care about Gaby and her wanderings. Or really about any of the characters or the plot. Gaby is pretty selfish, and I was pretty immediately turned off about her musing about not wanting to hear about her sister's dream because it wasn't about her.

[Kathie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tough call

Parts of it were wonderful......fascinating.......beautiful.........
But it was also convoluted & sometimes just plain Strange.........
Really not sure how I feel about it......

[Alisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

There really isn’t a plot to this book. It’s more a series of snapshots and moments as the narrator does...well..nothing. There are some beautiful images and descriptions of Paris but not much to keep your attention as far as a story is concerned.

[Lynnezone · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very interesting premise for a book that appealed to my love of books about art and artists. The book has a plethora of interesting and less interesting plot lines that start and then remain unsolved.

[BMGA · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently reading this book. So far I am really enjoying the Paris atmosphere and the story. Will post more as I get further in the book.

[Sheri Lohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiction as poetry

Beautiful descriptions like little paintings of Paris and England. Characters with depth, also elegantly drawn. A story about a work of art, which is itself one.

[Sharon Stine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment. The characters, the story felt shallow. It was filled with street names
in Paris and repetitions of the main characters 'struggle'. Boring