Book Review: The Paris Hours

The Paris Hours: A Novel is a literary novel that follows four main characters through twenty-four hours in 1927 Paris; their stories start disjointed, but then begin to weave together and connect through secondary characters and scenes in the City of Lights.

The book is beautifully written–each word is clearly specifically chosen and placed with attention and thought. I did struggle with the way each story is told–jumping from one to the other without any labels–it did make for an intriguing way to get into each story, but it made it a little difficult to follow and catch on.

There’s a sadness to the book as each character is dealing with some kind of tragedy and it permeates throughout and all the way up until the end, though I only had a few moments of true emotional connection to the characters. It is a book that sticks with you, though.

The sadness also fits with the way I picture 1927 Paris–dark, foreboding, rebuilding–not the luxurious alluring city we think of today. The author specifically said he wanted to set “the novel on the streets and in the parks where real Parisians live and work, away from all those famous tourist attractions,” so it does give readers a unique insight into sights and sounds of Paris away from what we usually picture and expect.

The book is well-written and thought-provoking (we thought it would be great for a book club, so check out our book club guide for The Paris Hours), but, for me, there was still something missing that prevented it from being a great book. For all of the beautiful writing and tragic stories, I just didn’t deeply connect to the characters.

Although the book is a novel, real-life celebrities do appear in the book and play secondary characters that impact the story’s outcome–some may find that intriguing, but I found it a little distracting. (Though I admit it was interesting to learn more about just how many famous Americans fled to Paris in the 1920s and, especially how much kinder Paris was to African Americans).

If you enjoy interweaving stories, literary fiction, historical fiction, Paris, and a surprising ending, you’ll enjoy this.

*I was given a version of this book for free in exchange for an honest book review.