coming home to paris

Stella St. Vincent has a small life. As a copy editor in New York, she has scheduled her time very carefully. She works long days at a job she loves and spends her weekends reading. She doesn’t own a television and never goes to movies. She eats to survive. It’s a schedule she has adhered to since she was a child. Her mother, Celia, wasn’t cut out for motherhood, so it was up to Stella to set her own structure, and she never learned any differently. Until Celia died.

Celia didn’t want a funeral. She had a little but of money set aside, and all she wanted was for Stella to take that money and go to Paris.

Stella hadn’t wanted to go to Paris, but her boss at the publishing house caught Stella working late one too many times. She ordered Stella to go away, to take a vacation for at least 6 weeks. So Stella decided that it was time to go to Paris.

But she stayed in a small hotel and ate cheaply, wanting to life as quietly and frugally as she did in New York. And then she was introduced to the dress. She had been called into a small vintage shop by something she saw in the window, and once she was in there, the owner of the shop made her try on a gorgeous vintage designer dress. The dress was not Stella’s style at all, but the dress fit like it had been made for her.

The shop owner told her the story of the dress. It had been designed by a young Saint Laurent shortly after he started working at Dior. But the dress would cost Stella almost all of the money she had left to live in Paris. So the shop owner made a deal with her—buy the dress, wear it for the day, go to the places she told Stella to go, and if she wasn’t happy with what happens, then Stella could return it for a full refund. Stella is reluctant, but she can’t deny that the dress has awoken a part of her soul that she’d never experienced.

Stella wears the dress out to a café for a lunch of oysters and Chablis, and she is immediately struck by flavors she has never known. She makes the acquaintance of an older gentleman who then takes her to a museum. At the museum, Stella is overcome by a painting by Manet of a woman. She is naked but is not ashamed, and seems to offer a challenge to anyone who would shame her for her life choices. Stella can’t stop thinking about her and decides to try to find out more about the woman.

The next day, Stella returns the dress to the shop. The owner is surprised to see her back, thinking that experiencing Paris in a designed dress would change Stella’s attitude about it. Instead, Stella has decided to stay in Paris and needs her money back in order to finance her journey. As she tries to find the identity of the woman in the painting, Stella discovers the flavors and textures of Paris, she makes friends, she finds new interests, and she finds people who had known her mother. She finds a family. And maybe, if the serendipity of Paris works in her favor, she will find a whole new life.

Ruth Reichl is a master of flavors and of words. As a bestselling writer, she has crafted recipes and stories that blend food, love, place, and a touch of magic to create craveable results. She brings Paris to life as Stella meets the city for the first time, trying the food, drinking the wine, walking the streets. There is even a cast of real characters from culinary, literary, and artistic realms, along with some genuine French history.

I will admit that I had some misgivings about this book early on. It starts in Stella’s childhood, and as her mother was not much of a mother, there are some difficult things in her early life. But when we skip ahead and get to know Stella as an adult, she is a strong, independent woman. And when she goes to Paris, it seems like her life truly begins. There are a lot of strong women in this story, even at times when strong women were not favored in history, and it’s lovely to see them being celebrated.

But I think it’s the details of this story that make it so accessible. It’s like you can taste the flavors, you can see the colors, you can smell the fresh-baked bread and the dusty bookshelves and the cheeses. This book is a beautiful journey, and I recommend it to anyone who is feeling the itch to get away for a weekend.

Egalleys for The Paris Novel were provided by Random House through NetGalley, with many thanks.