Paris by the Book

I’ve always wanted to visit Paris, but so far I’ve had to rely on books to experience its magic. One such novel that captured my interest was Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan. The setting and the literary premise were certainly up my alley. I was also intrigued by its mysterious plot: A husband goes missing, then leaves behind tickets to Paris, so his wife and teenaged daughters leave their Wisconsin home hoping to find him in France. They rebuild a life in Paris, working at a bookstore and always looking out for their missing loved one. What could have happened to him? Why did he lead them to France?

There’s a lot I liked about Paris by the Book, but also a lot that didn’t work for me. On the one hand, I loved the premise with its air of mystery and intrigue. I enjoyed getting to know Paris through the eyes of people new to the city, seeing the touristic destinations as well as learning to live like a local. (I lived in Spain for a year, so I know what it’s like to be an American making a temporary home in Europe. It’s something I always enjoy reliving in novels.) And of course, as a book lover, I always enjoy reading stories about books. In this novel, Leah and her two daughters take over the running of a bookstore that organizes its books by geographical location.

However, some less enjoyable elements made Paris by the Book a bit tedious. There’s a recurring motif about Leah and Robert’s thoughts on Parisian culture through the lens of the Madeline books and the film The Red Balloon. While I enjoyed reading about Madeline as a kid, I’m not familiar with The Red Balloon. Both works are described in extensive detail and keep coming up throughout the novel. At a certain point it started to feel annoying and just overdone, and it didn’t add much to the story.

The pacing here is also quite slow, and it seemed there was no real progress being made on finding Robert. I don’t want to spoil this too much… but the lack of resolution by the end really bothered me. All that time wanting to know what happened to Robert, and what answers did I get?! It’s so anticlimactic.

This book is very internal, locked in Leah’s mind, but it just never goes anywhere. Paris by the Book could have been heartfelt and impactful. The mystery could have expanded into something so much bigger, with a stunning resolution that makes the whole journey that much greater. Instead, it felt like Robert’s disappearance was just simple setup to get Leah and their daughters to Paris… but was never anything worth fully resolving.

I wanted to like Paris by the Book, but in the end, it didn’t leave me with enough substance or impact. It was fine, but ulitmately disappointing.