Paris to the Moon

Gopnik, in a very fascinating and often humorous look at what it was like to be an American family man in Paris at the end of the 20th century, skillfully blends the magical and the ordinary with his unique wit and intelligence.

France. Just the name alone evokes visions of gorgeous façades around every corner, sidewalk cafés, and boulevards lined with chestnut trees—in other words, an exquisite romanticism that has captivated the American imagination for as long as there have been Americans.

Adam Gopnik moved to the chic glitter of the City of Light in 1995, leaving behind the comforts and hassles of old New York City with his wife and baby son. Gopnik has been a writer for The New Yorker for many years, and the publication has sent writers to Paris for many years, but this trip was mostly a personal pilgrimage to the city that has long been the unquestioned epicenter of all things beautiful and cultural. Additionally, there was a chance to bring up a kid who would understand what it meant to play in the Luxembourg Gardens and savor a croque monsieur in a café on the Left Bank—a child, and maybe even a father, who would comprehend that Parisian sense of style that we Americans find so elusive.

Thus, following the great tradition of Americans living overseas, Gopnik strolled around the Tuileries, engaged in philosophical conversations at his neighborhood restaurant, and wrote while the arrondissements were bathed in a violet dusk. Of course, there was also the issue of rearing a kid and continuing with day-to-day, less spectacular living, as readers of Gopnik's cherished and critically acclaimed "Paris Journals" in The New Yorker are aware. Dinners with French intellectuals followed midnight feedings of babies; afternoons were spent playing pinball and visiting the Musée d'Orsay; workday leftovers were consumed as three-star chefs discussed a "culinary crisis."

The experiences of adjusting to a new city and having a parent are not entirely unlike, as Gopnik explains in this lighthearted and poignant book. Both involve learning new customs, languages, and guidelines for daily living. Gopnik, in a very fascinating and often humorous look at what it was like to be an American family man in Paris at the end of the 20th century, skillfully blends the magical and the ordinary with his unique wit and intelligence. "We went to Paris for a sentimental reeducation - I did anyway - even though the sentiments we were instructed in were not the ones we were expecting to learn, which I believe is why they call it an education."