“The Paris Tattoo” - An Essay by Ann Patchett - from her essay collection These Precious Days- 2022 - A Paris in July Post

Paris In July 2022

 

“The Paris Tattoo” - An Essay by Ann Patchett - from her essay collection These Precious Days- 2022 - A Paris in July Post

This is my eighth year participating in a wonderful event, Paris in July.  The event hosts are Reader Buzz and Thyme for Tea.  Posts on any and all things Paris are welcome.  You can share your memories of a trip to Paris, your favorite French recipes or restaurants, art in the  Louvre, your favorite set in Paris Movies (mine are Ninotchka and Midnight in Paris).  Of course the French literary masters as well as contemporary writers are great subjects.

My Official Paris in July Video. The Summer I Read Colette

My Prior Paris in July 2022 Posts

1. Yiddish Paris by Nicholas Underwood - 2022
2. After the Romanovs- Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque to Revolution and War by Helen Rappaport - 2022
3. Late Hour” -A Set in Paris Short Story by Ivan Bunin - 1938- translated by David Humphries -included in The Gentleman from San Francisco and other Stories-- 

“The Paris Tattoo” fits in very well with my other three posts.  It is about people from outside France, speaking little French, experiencing Paris. In this case it is Ann Patchett, at 19, spending a few weeks in Paris on a small students budget along with her best friend. It is 1983. They stay in a small fourth floor apartment.  They have decided to eat in a different restaurant for each meal.  They know French food is a world class marvel.  Instead they end up frequently eating in the same cafe. They become fascinated by two waitresses who seem to them very sophisticated and ever so French. Ann notices one has a small tattoo upon one of the waitresses. Of course the girls begin to ponder the idea of getting one.  Ann ponders a small tattoo of a cow, on her hip.

This essay captured for me perfectly the feel in my official Paris in July Video, The Summer I read Colette.

I look forward to reading all the essays in These Precious Days.

ANN PATCHETT is the author of eight novels, four works of nonfiction, and two children’s books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women’s Prize in the U.K., and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her most recent novel, The Dutch House, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. TIME magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the co-owner of Parnassus Books.

Mel Ulm

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - 2019 - 352 pages - Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Fiction - 2021

 The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - 2019 - 352 pages - Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Fiction - 2021

This is my first venture into the work of Ann Patchett.  The Dutch House, built in 1922 just outside Philadelphia, by a couple that got rich selling cigarettes. In 1946 a real estate mogul bought the House and the full contents at a bank sale.  It was meant to be a surprise for his wife. She hates the House and everything it stands for so much she deserts the Family, supposedly to go to India to help the poor..  Their children Maeve ten and Danny three beoome very close.The children begin to 

“Suffer as if they had all become characters in the worst part of a fairy tale”.

Andrea, 18 years younger than the father, falls in love with the house but not her stepchildren.   She is a widow with two children. As expected in a few years when their father dies, he left almost everything to her, she kicks them out of The House. Danny narrates the story.

There are lots of twists and turns. Danny goes to medical School but never practices.  Following his father he begins to buy properties at foreclosure sales,Marries, has kids, becomes rich, divorced and more.Maeve does the books for his business and a big fruit and vegtable company. She never Marries or has any relationships.

Lots of quite surprising things happened.

I enjoyed this novel a lot.

“ANN PATCHETT is the author of seven novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, and Commonwealth. She was the editor of Best American Short Stories, 2006, and has written three books of nonfiction–Truth & Beauty, about her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy, What Now? an expansion of her graduation address at Sarah Lawrence College, and This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, a collection of essays examining the theme of commitment. In 2019, she published her first children’s book, Lambslide, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser.

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Patchett has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including England’s Orange Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Book Sense Book of the Year, a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize, The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the American Bookseller’s Association’s Most Engaging Author Award, and the Women’s National Book Association’s Award. Her books have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

In November, 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, with her business partner Karen Hayes.  She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores on NPR, 

Ann Patchett lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender, and their dog, Sparky.”  From http://www.annpatchett.com/

I look for war to reading more of her work.