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The Paris Architect
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Buddy Read for The Paris Architect
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I am in-will be a week or so before I can start it though. Did you ever find your other copy? You know the copy I have is one you sent me-you said you had two, mailed it off, and then could not find your other copy....
Joanne wrote: "I am in-will be a week or so before I can start it though. Did you ever find your other copy? You know the copy I have is one you sent me-you said you had two, mailed it off, and then could not fin..."Oh yes, I found it, lost it again, found it once more and moved it to a prime spot between sofa and tv. Now glares at me whenever I sit on sofa and click tv on. I am set.
Reading my Feminerdy for Sunday. Started and hour ago and at page 71. Perfect to read after this week, month. Delightful and thank goodness it is a fast read because it is 400 pages.
I started this week, I am reading consistently so it won't be a DNF for me. I truly dislike the Architect at this point-but more on that when the rest of you have started
Joanne wrote: "I started this week, I am reading consistently so it won't be a DNF for me. I truly dislike the Architect at this point-but more on that when the rest of you have started"I should be starting it by end of next week. Looking forward to it!
I've got one to finish and then I can begin to read.
I’m in! But I have a book in between. I am finishing the Venice sketchbook tonight, and then I’m onto her Hidden genius by Marie Benedict, because it’s overdue at the library. Then the Paris architect. Followed by my third attempt at a detective book, which I know really has one in it. I can’t wait to see if you’d liked it Joanne!!!!
I am all excited! Looks like I will start tomorrow or Wed! Just put it on my ottoman and stuck a bookmark magnet in it. Was thrilled to see a map!I love books that have maps.
I've just begun. Will delve into it deeper tomorrow.
Starting it today! Finished Her Hidden Genius last night, which was wonderful! Now have to fish Paris Architect out of my car. Bringing three books on our trip to DC. Paris Architect, Violin Conspiracy, and Defending Britta Stein.
Ok great! I am into chapter 6 or 7, so I will wait a day or two and then pick it back up.
Amy, I am hoping this is better than our last buddy read. Let me know when you start Violin Conspiracy and I will move it up.Lucien, the architect, doesn't seem to be the nicest guy.
I’m picking this up at the library tomorrow, so I’ll probably start it this weekend.
Amy wrote: "Starting it today! Finished Her Hidden Genius last night, which was wonderful! Now have to fish Paris Architect out of my car. Bringing three books on our trip to DC. Paris Architect, Violin Conspi..."@Amy, I'm driving to New England from DC tomorrow! See you on I95. :)
Also the book blurb looks really good. Excited to see how you all like it.
I am at end of chapter 3 already, after picking it up just in last half hour. Format, language, and style are making this an easy quick read.My thoughts on Lucien so far: he is being portrayed as most French were perceived to be who lived and worked relatively unscathed in Occupied France, and as a result were considered cowards, little better than collaborators. I remember seeing and experiencing this perception even in the 1970s in all written references, even discussions in France and Europe generally. However, during last couple of decades, that is being re-examined, with distance of time.
I suspect Lucien will evolve, given title.
But agree he at this point seems shallow, self-serving, and unlikeable.
I just started it this morning and last night. I’m excited to get deeper into it. Yes he is unlikable, but I love books that evolve, and as Theresa said, this attitude was not uncommon for the time, and was more of the prevailing stance. It was however very hard and insulting for the Parisians to be occupied by Germany. And in fact there’s still a German presence today. Although the French will really like to maintain their uniqueness. I find the premise of the book really interesting, and it was striking to see how easily this guy walked by the unnecessary shooting. I’m really excited for this book and I’m glad we are all reading it together.@Jen! Are you from New England or just visiting? We are flying to DC on Sunday, have to throw two Passover Seder’s first. Feels like half the world will be in DC over winter break!
Just over halfway. I will definitely finish it Friday...it is Good Friday and I close my office. Somehow it feels singularly appropriate to finish this book on that day.Have been enjoying it and it continues to propel me forward. There are a lot of secondary characters, many passing through briefly. That could feel too much but the author makes it work, even seem necessary. I also have decided that he has really pulled together a great cross section of who was living - nay surviving - in Occupied Paris, describing few just in black and white/good vs. evil, but in the grayness of humanity with both strengths and weaknesses pushed to extremes.
Love all the architectural and design detail - I found myself down a few Google rabbit holes of Bauhaus design.
Yet much as I am enjoying it, there is something about the writing itself that doesn't quite work. I can't quite put my fingure on it. It's as if it is written too simply for the story, almost with an edge of talking down to the reader. Not sure. Not stopping me from adding one or two of his later books to my TBR.
I agree with the questionable writing Theresa-I did not mention it earlier, I wanted to wait until others checked in to see if it was just me, being picky me. However, I also find it too simple for the subject matter and know I will knock off a star for that. I may finish this week-end-depends on how I am feeling and if I can get back on the couch for my afternoon reading session
I expect to finish today as well. I am at about the 80% mark. I did find a few torture scenes a bit much and skimmed those.
I expect the ending and possibly an epilogue or author's explanation to decide my rating.
@JoAnne - I held off to see if it was just me or even because I just finished one of the most beautifully perfectly written books ever - Madame Bovary. I mean any book suffers by comparison! But that feeling isn't going away and I am juggling reading an escapist detective thriller which isn't giving me the same reaction.@BnB - there is a Q&A with author at very end. The one question I glanced at was about his favorite author who influenced him. His answer was Ann Tyler a writer I don't like and stopped reading decades ago. Hmm - could that be my problem with his writing?
I just cannot seem to get past 10% because I am busy prepping for Passover tonight and tomorrow night! But by the time I get on vacation Sunday, I won't be that far behind!I am just deliriously happy today. So filled with joy and love! may you all have a beautiful weekend.
I've finished, but haven't looked over the question and answer. I'm not sure about Ann Tyler. I loved The Accidental Tourist, so then I read Breathing Lessons and was so annoyed with that< I never read another of hers.
I liked The Paris Architect, but it could be because my last WWII book, The Venice Sketchbook was so unsatisfying that I didn't have high expectations.
I am anxious to talk more about it.
I did take some time to look up Church of La Madeleine. It is quite beautiful and unexpected.
I was pleased to find out that Charles Belfoure is indeed an architect.
La Madeleine is an incredible church, though was in need of restoration for a long time which led to the entire area deteriorating. I even attended an Armistice Day concert there one visit. Some of my favorite gourmet food shopping destinations surround it: Hédiard, Maille, and Fauchon. Used to be famous for flower markets but those have disappeared. Not sure if the street walkers are finally gone - moved out as the area gentrified and the highend food emporia moved in.Sorry, I get carried away on Paris. My soul lives there and it has been too long since I have walked its streets.
I am finishing a detective story today, after reading The Paris Architect late into the night.
The architecture discussions and descriptions are among the highlights. This was only his 2nd book. He has a more recent one I want to read. The Fabergé Secret. Perhaps his writing has improved.
FINISHED! Here's my review behind spoilers: (view spoiler)
I gave it 3.5 stars - the writing was weak, there were too many torture scenes and frankly a few too many secondary characters. BUT, the basic story and the way the architectural details, including existing buildings, was interwoven and described was top notch. It was a good read.
I found myself thinking a great deal about the current war led by a 21st Century mad man -- Putin's Russian war against Ukraine -- and the plight of those in occupied areas. I also was thinking about the Serbo-Croatian war where citizens of occupied areas were massacred for their religion. This may have been written about 1942 Paris, but unfortunately it could be set in the late 20th and early 21st Century. Sad, troubling, but true.
I also kept remembering an old French movie that comes through an art house movie theater here in NYC from time to time - set in Occupied Paris, it tells the story of a group of Parisians trying to sneak a butchered blackmarket pig across Paris after curfew. It's more a comedy than a drama, but it is by far the best representation of Occupied Paris and how its citizens survived as you can get. Title: A Pig Across Paris - La Traversee de Paris - made in 1956 when the memories of occupation were still fresh -- and it is set in 1942, the same year as The Paris Architect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Trav.... You might be able to find it to stream - it was definitely available through an arthouse streaming service during COVID lockdown.
I did read the Q & A - and Belfoure was inspried to become a fiction writer (he'd done non-fiction writing previously) by John Grisham, a practicing lawyer who incorporated his legal work into his fiction. Belfoure thought he could do something similar as an architect and write fiction around architectural themes. As I mentioned before, his favorite fiction writer is Ann Tyler. Now I love reading Grisham, but I have similar problems with his writing style as I do Belfoure. This is only Belfoure's 2nd fiction effort. I definitely plan to read his The Fabergé Secret which was only published last year. Will be interesting to see how it compares.
I thought this passage that starts on the bottom of p. 219 - Lucien's thoughts as Herzog has included him in a meeting with Hitler's architect, Speer - was particularly noteworthy as a pivotal moment in his journey:Speer didn't look evil at all. He was an architect, a respectable- looking, professional man like himself. A man of great intelligence and charm who was responsible for the implementation of the death and destruction of tens of thousands of people in the past six months. He was a cold-blooded murderer, but he didn't personally use a gun or a knife. Instead, he ordered others to use the weapons he planned and produced. And to what end? The pure evil of dominating other nations merely because the Nazis deemed them inferior?
Lucien wondered why such an upstanding man like Speer would serve a madman like Hitler. Were there others like him? As intelligent and capable? If so, Germany would win the war. ...
Theresa, immediately after I finished reading it, I gave it a 4, but after thinking about it, I rounded it down to a 3.The writing wasn't great, but I can often ignore that if the plot is good and for the most part it was. I liked that it brought Paris alive and gave varying shades of gray to the characters.
The conclusion was satisfying, but after thinking about it a bit, I thought it perhaps too "Hollywood." (view spoiler)
BookNBubbles - yes - I totally agree -- plotting was at times weak just as the writing itself. On the other hand, there are really sufficient sad depressing hopeless endings to Occupied Paris books out there - The Nightingale comes to mind - that a more Hollywood ending was a nice change. BTW, in his Q & A he mentions that a large part of his research on life in Occupied Paris came from a Jean-Paul Sartre essay: Paris Under the Occupation. I'd never heard of it and now of course have it on my TBR.
Theresa wrote: "BookNBubbles - yes - I totally agree -- plotting was at times weak just as the writing itself. On the other hand, there are really sufficient sad depressing hopeless endings to Occupied Paris books..."I need to read the Q & A.
The ending was why I rated it a 4 to begin with, but when I thought about it., I wasn't completely satisfied that the book deserved it. I did enjoy reading it.
Did you hear? I left the damn thing on the plane! Would have finished it tonight. Was at 67%. Library book. Will find a bookstore tomorrow. Cannot leave this hanging….
Amy wrote: "Did you hear? I left the damn thing on the plane! Would have finished it tonight. Was at 67%. Library book. Will find a bookstore tomorrow. Cannot leave this hanging…."OMG! I did that once...a murder mystery and just before the big reveal! Only I lost it in the subway.
You can at least give your new copy back to the library.
Amy wrote: "Did you hear? I left the damn thing on the plane! Would have finished it tonight. Was at 67%. Library book. Will find a bookstore tomorrow. Cannot leave this hanging…."I would hate that! I hope you can find a copy!
They won't take my new copy. I will have to buy the thing and pay the library. I do think there is a chance that the plane will mail it back to the library.Where I was in the book, our Lucien has just started to gain a conscience. And his wife left him. Now we meet the Jewish pregnant girl whose husband is abandoning her. The new kid hire is snooping around and is about to figure it out. Adele might link him too to the work. Meanwhile, I was "right there!" One bookstore didn't have it, but I have another two to try tomorrow. The hotel is in Dupont Circle, and we are having a lazy day, which we all desperately need. Its going to be 100% rain tomorrow, so we might try to catch a museum or two later, or see friends. But plenty of time for me to call and get to a bookstore in DC. Great weather for the tours of UMD and UDel on Wednesday and Thursday. Meanwhile, I started the Violin Conspiracy.
Amy wrote: "They won't take my new copy. I will have to buy the thing and pay the library. I do think there is a chance that the plane will mail it back to the library.Where I was in the book, our Lucien has..."
You can always have Amazon deliver it to you at the hotel. Give Politics & Prose a call to see if they have it and will hold for you to get there to buy it.
I will Try politics and prose!
Amy wrote: "I will Try politics and prose!"I need to finish the book I am reading and then I will pick up the Violin Conspiracy.
I am only 1/2 way through, determined to finish it, barley reading a chapter a day. could be a while....
They have it at Kramer’s! It’s a 12 minute walk in the rain! Meanwhile I’m 30% done with the violin Conspiracy!
Amy wrote: "They have it at Kramer’s! It’s a 12 minute walk in the rain! Meanwhile I’m 30% done with the violin Conspiracy!"I read the first page of the Violin Conspiracy, but will be reading more today.
Fran, you and I are seriously on a roll!In the meantime, the book has been acquired. This place Kramer‘s, it’s actually a phenomenal bookstore restaurant. But I already ate a huge breakfast at the hotel, so I went to the Starbucks two doors down and I’m sitting there. And I’m just gonna finish reading the damn thing. Maybe I’ll even find somebody in Starbucks to give it to. Or somebody at the hotel.
*Joanne, possible spoilers in here if you haven't finished it.I know there have been some complaints of weak writing and contrived plots or moments of plot, but I rather loved it anyway. It was a really clever look at the underside of German occupation of Paris and France near the end of the war, and of efforts of the Resistance. What was fascinating, is that Lucien was not an eager collaborator to either side. He was raised with a heavily anti-semitic father, and not a great care about what was happening to the Jews. His interest on both sides, was solely money for survival, trying to somehow survive unscathed, and in interesting architectural challenge and beauty. For him, it was all about design. The change that befalls Lucien is not a natural or easy one, and it doesn't come from a moral standpoint.
There is a lot of senseless violence in the book, which is hard to see, but there is also the miraculous saving of lives, and the creativity involved in saving individuals and networks supporting the resistance and Paris itself. But the hugest movement in the book is the transformation of consciousness of Lucien himself, and his ability to build something beautiful in the face of this destruction.
I thought a powerful contrasting theme was fathers and father figures. We have Lucien's father, Pierre's father, Alain's Uncle, and of course Lucien as a new father figure, learning about fatherhood on the spot. Each of them have had to figure out what being a man means, and how to stand up for what you believe is right, and who you wish to become. I thought that theme was the most powerful aspect of the story. Who Pierre becomes, and more strongly who Lucien becomes as a result of becoming a father himself. I actually teared up at the end. With all the senseless atrocity happening in the book, a contrived beautiful ending is exactly what was called for.
I am pleased to have had the opportunity to read this with a few others in a buddy read, some of my favorite people to read books with. I am looking forward to hearing others thoughts, and anyone else who wants to comment. I also want to add that this book was in my top ten oldest books on my TBR. I have been wanting to read it for a very long time, and was thrilled at the opportunity to do so. Plus, this book will be forever associated with the debacle of leaving the library book on the plane. But when I was finished, I gave the newly acquired one to a guy on the hotel elevator, and I just knew he would appreciate it. I love passing a book forward. I enjoyed it, but now need to return to the book I started in its brief absence. It's an older book, but I thought it held up.
Excellent thoughtful review, Amy, bringing to light other themes than already discussed.I do believe Belfoure did a decent job of portraying and interweaving the multiplicity of ... means by which Parisians endured the Occupation on every level. I still think he got a bit sidetracked into an attempt to show the whole picture of resistance through full collaboration, and every nuance in between.
And yes, the big Hollywood ebpbsing was needed.
I too have had this on my TBR for a long time. So glad to have read it finally.
Great assessment, Amy. I hadn't thought about the fathers.I did like the ending, even if at the same time, I thought of it in a film. I think we can both agree that it was 100% better than the last ending of a book set in WWII that we read.
Like you and Theresa, this has been on my TBR long enough for me to forget about it. It is great taking those of and finally finishing them.
Finaished. I didn't hate , not did I love it. Like Theresa, the writing for me was too simplistic for such a heavy topic-I doubt I would read this author again-A story set in occupied Paris that IMO could have captivated me, if only the writing had been better. The simplicity of the writing, at times, put me off. If only an editor would have stepped in and told Belfoure to step it up.
Lucien is an architect, who feels no sympathy for the Jews, yet hates the Nazis' in equal measure. He is approached by a Parisian factory owner who is trying to save as many Jews as he can. The twist is that this same man is involved with the helping the Nazi's build their war machine. Lucian wants no part in either, yet is pulled in my lure of money and status.
The Paris Architect asks us to consider what we owe other, and just how far we'll go to make things right
Not a book I reached for when I sat to read, but good enough to finish and not end up in the DNF.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Paris Architect (other topics)The Nightingale (other topics)
Paris Under the Occupation (other topics)
The Fabergé Secret (other topics)
The Fabergé Secret (other topics)
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Read at your own pace and discuss! Will be a couple weeks for me.