Novel set in Paris (an ode to the belle époque)
- Book: Paris Requiem
- Location: Paris
- Author: Lisa Appignanesi
Paris Requiem by Lisa Appignanesi, a novel set in Paris, is a song for the belle époque. It is lyrical, emotive and wild all at the same time. It tastes of love and loss, smells of passion and betrayal, sounds like ingenuity and remembrance, and looks like roses and cobbled streets. All together, it gives the feeling of desire, adventure and nostalgia. It is set not in 21st century Paris that we tourists have come to know and love, but in a grimy and bohemian Paris of shadows; a Paris that many a writer today would have wished to experience and that many others try hard as they might to evoke.
Lisa Appignanesi has done a superb job in researching the time and the true political and criminal cases that gave birth to her novel, managing thus to create a world in which the reader can recognise the beginning of many movements through Europe and the world, both in an internationally social context and in a more internal mind-exploring perspective. The womens’ sanatorium setting works brilliantly for the characters’ own comprehension of their path and how every little moment of their lives marked them to become who they are now. The family dynamic between James and Raf and Ellie is particularly heart-wrenching, especially when you see what is real and what is not in their relationships with the siblings; it is realistically woven, considering the small moments in true life when we visualise our siblings as doing or thinking or receiving something or other and we never really manage to look inside them to see if it checks out with their reality. This is the reason why every page brings a surprise right up until the end.
I would say that as much as this is a novel about dying and letting go, it is also a story about waking up and discovering another side of what you always thought was true; be it good or bad, that’s another matter, the important thing being actually to be able to recognise what has lain hidden through ages and sometimes even generations.
About the other charters: Olympe is beautifully revived by the use of haunting images and Marguerite seconds the presence of the beautiful woman in the book by walking in her regent shoes. Durand and Chardon clash and intertwine in an atypical dance of bearings and personalities; and every one of the different doctors and interns add a flavour of era to the story, only paralleled by the prostitutes that come and go between the pages of the hospitals and the brothels as the brothers look for answers. And there are many more characters which I will let you all discover by yourselves.
In a few short sentences, if you were looking for Moulin Rouge you might be a bit disappointed; but if you are looking for a high-quality historical crime novel, then Paris Requiem will fulfil all your expectations and more. It will make you travel back in time and through earthy space to find yourself in the middle of the belle époque, to which this book sings its lament, but also its love and longing and awe.
Cheers and enjoy!
Sandra for the TripFiction Team – this review first appeared on our blog
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