Book review: Five nights in Paris

If Paris is your passion then don’t miss this latest offering from John Baxter, the city’s long-term Australian author-in-residence, who has already published four memoirs on his life in France – Five nights in Paris.

In his fifth outing, Baxter loosely takes his literary tours of Paris as a subject, structuring the book around his new endeavour to create an ‘after dark’ itinerary based around each of the five senses. In doing so, the reader is taken on a beguiling jaunt through Paris’s night-time haunts: the jazz clubs of the Left Bank, Montmartre’s cabaret scene and the infamous former opium dens of the Bois de Boulogne.

Written with heart and humour, the book intersperses familial anecdotes with myths and legends regarding the eccentric characters who have populated the City of Light over the years. Via quirky digressions and detours down Parisian backstreets, the city’s most sensuous and animated locations are brought to sparkling life. A feast for the senses, just as the author promised. ★★★

Read more…

Book and film reviews 

Literary Paris

[mrb]