Tag Archives: Elena Mauli Shapiro

In July …

August 3, 2011 By in Thoughts & Ramblings Tags: , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

I spent some time in Paris.

With books.

Monsier Montespan by Jean Teulé –  An interesting book. A very different take on French history. A great book for somebody, but not really the book for me.

13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro: Not the book I expected, but something much more interesting. And utterly intriguing.

The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola: The book for which the expression flawed but fabulous was invented. I’m still pondering which Zola to read next.

With music.

From Charlotte Gainsbourg, from Novelle Vague, and from Françoise Hardy.

But I didn’t spend as much time in Paris as I had intended.

I was distracted by Orange July.

Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch – I picked this one up and put it down a few times before I made it through. A great book, but definitely a book that needs the right moment.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer – I’ve been progressing slowly through this one, and I have to say that it is quite wonderful.

A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – It was love, quite against my expectations.

There were other books too. I can’t read to plan too much, I have to read the books that call.

The  Crime Fiction Alphabet came to an end.

And I’ve had one or two other distractions. Job hunting. A home study course to bring me a little more up to date in one or two areas. A battle with BT to get our phone line fixed. Life …

But now it’s August – my month for getting organised!

I’ve already boxed up all of my outgoing books and put them on ReadItSwapIt and I’ve reorganised my bookcase of Virago Modern Classics and made sure they are all recorded on LibraryThing.

Bibliotherapy can come in many different forms!

13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro

July 24, 2011 By in Book Reports Tags: 8 Comments

A novel spun around an inherited box of mementoes, gathered over the course of a life.

It sounded lovely but I thought it might be just a little predictable. I found though that it was anything but.

“She will give him the office with the tall, useless empty file cabinets in the corner. He will probably not think to open all the drawers and look at them his first day on the premises. But he will, eventually, discover a box tucked all the way into the darkness at the back of the bottom drawer, innocent looking yet unexpected. How could one see such a thing and not take a little peek inside?

She wonders what effect it will have on him.”

Josiane is the leaver of the box, and Trevor is the finder. He is an American in Paris. A visiting professor. A scholar of 19th century French literature.

Words and language intrigue Trevor. Double meanings. Ambiguities of translation. All of that is that is reflected in lovely, readable prose, and in very clever storytelling.

And the contents of the box intriguing too. Relics of one woman’s life, lived in Paris between the wars.

There are photographs, letters, so many small things that hold memories. They appear in between the words. And they don’t just illustrate the story, they are the very heart of the story.

Trevor is intrigued, and the more the looks. the more he thinks, the more his interest grows. He begins to construct the story of Louise Brunet.

The daughter of a jeweller, who was the apple of her widowed father’s eye. A girl whose first love was her cousin, a young man who lost his life in the great war. A young woman who married her father’s apprentice. A bored wife who fell passionately in love with another woman’s husband …

I knew that I wasn’t reading about the real Louise, that the Louise I met was a construct in Trevor’s head. But at the same time I liked her, I believed in her, and I wanted to know what her future held.

It felt strange, but I was impressed that I could believe in a woman created by a man created by a woman author!

And I was intrigued by the mixture of Louise’s real artefacts, Louise’s invented life, and Trevor’s rambling letters to his supervisor.

As the story progressed its focus changed. From a family story to a passionate romance. And I began to wonder if maybe it was reflecting Trevor’s emotions as his relationship with Josiane evolved.

The present day story was sparsely told, and so for a long time I wasn’t sure. But when past and present stories came together in a sudden and unexpected ending I decided that I had been right.

That ending was both clever and intriguing, but I must confess that I was disappointed to leave Louise’s story when there was more drama to come.

Maybe though I should look at her mementoes again, and fill in the gaps myself.

13, rue Thérèse is an intriguing little book.

A literary curio maybe.

Let’s Talk About Paris …

June 22, 2011 By in Thoughts & Ramblings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 26 Comments

That’s Paris in July, hosted for a second year by Karen at Book Bath and Tamara at Thyme for Tea.

A celebration of the French capital, taking in books, cinema, music, food … and I’m also thinking about a little knitting.

I’ve been pondering books for a while now, and I have come up with far more wonderful possibilities than I could ever read in a single month.

There are the older classics


I have never read any Balzac, but I had to order Cousin Bette from the library when I read Lyn’s wonderful review.

That reminded me that I’ve been meaning to read more Zola for a very long time. I can’t remember whose review I read, but I was inspired to take a another look at Thérezè Raquin. I read it years ago, and I’m sure it is a book that I might see differently now that I am a little older, but I do wonder if it is a winter book rather than a summer one. And then at the weekend I read the news that the writer of the television adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford is working on an adaptation of The Ladies’ Paradise. It’s a book I’ve been meaning to read for ages, I definitely must read it before seeing the (anglicised) adaptation, and the cover of the Oxford World’s Classics edition is so lovely …

And then there’s Dumas and The Count of Monte Cristo. I’ve been slowly working my way through this vast and wonderful tale, and I am sure July will see a little more progress.

There are some wonderful classics from the 20th century.


I read Gigi by Colette for Paris in July last year, but I didn’t get to the second novella that came with it in my edition. So The Cat is a definite possibility for this year.

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes is another book I lined up last year but didn’t get to. So I’m lining it up again.

Tracy mentioned Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner, and so I pulled out my copy. It does look interesting, but I’m not sure. I tend to think that STW is not as good at novels as she is at short stories. But I’d be happy to proved wrong.

I have a few historical novels from the lovely Gallic Books to hand too.


There’s The Châtelet Apprentice by Jean François Parot – crime at the carnival in 18th century Paris. it looks wonderful, and the library has the next book in the series, so I should really read that one before the next one disappears from the shelves.

I have already started Monsieur Montespan by Jean Teulé, that story of the cuckolded husband of Louis XIV’s mistress. I had to put it to one side to catch up with library books and the Crime Fiction Alphabet, but I am eager to pick up the threads of the story again.

Murder in the Eiffel Tower by Claude Izner is another historical mystery, and the start of another series. A bookseller is caught up in the investigation of a strange death at the Universal Exposition of 1889 …

I have two books sitting on the dining table, where I keep books that are at the top of my list of priorities.

Conditions of Faith by Alex Miller won awards when it was published ten years ago, and it is being reissued on 1st July. I have only read the first page, but I am already beginning to understand why.

I have read much praise for 13, rue Théresè by Elena Mauli Shapiro, a story inspired by being left in possession of a box of mementoes whose owner had died, and I love the concept.

And I must find time for some non fiction. I have two books waiting on my own shelves, and one that I picked up from the library today.

Liberty by Lucy Moore tells the story of four women caught up in the French Revolution.

When I remembered The Cat I also remembered that I had a copy of Judith Flanders‘ acclaimed biography of Colette.

And I will definitely be reading Coco Chanel by Justine Picardie. I was intrigued by the extracts published in The Telegraph a while back, and I was thrilled to spot this one in the library this morning.

So I have a wonderful pool of books to choose from, and I’m sure I will discover more when Paris in July arrives.

There will be films and music too, but I’ll write about that another day.

Do you have plans for Paris in July? Or recommendations maybe?