The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on July 12, 2016
Genres: General Fiction, Historical Fiction
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Madeline is stuck in an unhappy marriage. She only agreed to marry her husband because she believe it was what her parents wanted, wary that he may be the only man who would want to marry her. She gave up her passion, painting, and now spends her waking hours walking on eggshells, bracing for the next hurtful comment. On the surface her life is perfect, but on the inside she feels trapped in a life and marriage she didn't want.
Frustrated with her current situation, she flees to her mother's home. The situation there isn't much better, for her mother is just as critical and disapproving as her husband. However, she finds solace in her grandmother Margie's journals she found boxed up and forgotten. Madeline wasn't ware of this side of her grandmother: a young woman who takes a journey to Paris, a headstrong woman who disobeys her family, their pressure to marry, and pursues her own passions.
Madeline quickly realizes that her own life is running parallel to that of her grandmother's. The vitality and passion she reads about in her grandmother's journals give her the fuel to finally focus on herself for once, putting her own heart and desires before those who attempt to control her future.
I’m not exaggerating. I counted down the days for the release of this title. I loved, loved, loved Weird Sisters and could not wait to have a taste of Eleanor Brown’s writing again.
Told in two alternating time period- Madeline in 1999 and her grandmother, Margie, in 1919- readers get a glimpse of two women, separated by decades, who are both struggling to maintain their identities, to seek their passion. Both women were rejected by their controlling mothers, women who were dead set on having control of their daughter’s future. Though her grandmother always seemed stuffy and unemotional, it gave Madeline strength to see that she had it within her power to create and control her own fate.
Both women found a love interest in the midst of their hunt for an identity. Initially, this put me off, wary that these young women couldn’t find a voice or strength without a man by their side, but as I read it was rather apparent that this is not the scene that Brown was creating, rather that they were able to find loves of their choice rather than those forced upon them.
This is a must read for fans of historical fiction, particularly the Jazz Age, and certainly a must for book clubs (my own will be reading it the moment it comes out in paperback!). I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump, but this title managed to drag me out of that slump immediately, quickly absorbed and invested in the lives of Madeline and Margie.
Bottom line: I can’t gush enough about this title. It’s truly remarkable, THE book of the summer.
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