“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

Yiddish Paris : Staging Nation and Community in interwar France by Nicholas Underwood. - 2022 - Paris in July 2022

 

Sign up page For Paris in July 2022

Yiddish Paris : Staging Nation and Community in interwar France by Nicholas Underwood. - 2022 - Paris in July 2022

This will be 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.

Last year I posted on six short stories by Russian Émigré writers who loved to Paris after the fall of the Tsars among others works.

Paris in July is an excellent way to meet bloggers outside the Book Blog world, to expand your knowledge of Parisian history and culture.  

Paris was the escape destination for Yiddish speaking Russian and Eastern European Jews in the 1920s and 30s seeking refuge from vicious pograms. .  Some academics and social activists arrived fluent in French but the vast majority of arrivals spoke Yiddish as well as Russian 

or Polish but no French,  arriving with few resources beyond a willingness to work very hard, a commitment to Ashkenazi traditions, and their families.  In his very well documented Yiddish Paris : Staging Nation and Community in interwar France Nick Underwood details how Yiddish Émigrés integrated into Parisian society, created organizations to support left  wing political goals, taught new arrivals French, helped each others find jobs.  As France is taken over by the Germans many Yiddish speaking Jews were sent to death camps while the luckier of richer ones escaped to New York City.  

There are chapters on The Yiddish Theater in Paris, Yiddish Newspapers, Parisian Yiddish culture on the world stage, and more.

I highly endorse Yiddish Paris : Staging Nation and Community in interwar France by Nicholas Underwood for anyone interested in Paris between the wars.  Anyone with a serious interest in the Yiddish diaspora from Eastern Europe and Russia should treat this as required reading.

Nick Underwood

Expertise

Modern Jewish history, Modern European history, modern French history, cultural history, Yiddish studies, performance studies, history of fascism and antifascism, urban history.

Professional Experience

Nick has taught courses on modern Jewish, European, and World history at Sonoma State University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Napa Valley College. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at the GHI Pacific Regional Office at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.  He also serves as managing editor for the journals East European Jewish Affairs and American Jewish History and as project manager for the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project 

Education

• Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder
• M.A., American University
• B.A., Florida State University”

From https://www.collegeofidaho.edu/directory/nick-underwood

Mel Ulm