Paris France - A Review

Paris France - Gertrude Stein

It's a decent read; nothing special.

She talks about growing up in San Francisco, and about fashion, war, civilization, food, logic, art, family, money, and how those topics pertain to France pre-World War II. I say 'talks', and there is a chatty vibe to her writing. I mean that in a good way. There are also a lot of generalizations, trivialities, and silliness. For a book that's titled, Paris France, a lot of the focus is on country life.

Foreigners should be foreigners and it is nice that foreigners are foreigners and that they inevitably are in Paris and in France.

In light of recent events, her words are tragically naïve. Immigration without assimilation gets innocent people killed. (See how I generalized?)

From Bismarck to Hitler, any one can see that since 1870 and to 1939 Germany has had no art.

So we're just supposed to ignore Kirchner and Die Brucke? (rolling my eyes)

Anyway, in spite of my criticisms, she does have some interesting observations. It's barely over a hundred pages, so it's not a chore to read. Just not the classic I was expecting it to be. 

(originally posted in January 2015, on Goodreads)