A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable and How Life Intersects with Fiction

 An apartment in Paris was discovered after being shut up for 70 years. Within the apartment among the beautiful furnishings was a portrait of the original owner, a famous courtesan, painted by famed 19th-century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.  This much is true.  From there Michelle Gable creates an entertaining fictional story piecing together fact and fiction. --by  Heather,  Head Librarian at Hernando Public Library.

Author, Michelle Gable's Site and Discussion of the Book 

This book is very much something I would read. I had read and fell in love with Hemingway in hopes of understanding my Uncle I grew up with who had been drafted in the Korean War. The war ended and he was sent to a base near Angouleme, France, Camp de la Braconne. He had taken a weekend pass straight to Paris. After he passed away last December at 81, I got to look through his papers where I found this picture and these postcards. 

D. the Uncle and I and our family in rural Tennessee was something similar to how Faulkner's story, "Two Soldiers" was set. We were all terribly close. He'd returned from all the war in Vietnam, James Meredith riots, the Santo Domingo Civil War, broken and an alcoholic and a lot of my days as a girl, I would observe him more than interact, but we became close as I grew adult and especially in his old age. Something not definable remained in his spirit that would endure that would inspire me and create a Francophile. I always enjoy anything Paris in a movie or book.

I imagine him sitting in a corner in the background. Or better yet, I imagine a book of fiction created about his pictures and stories. It would probably be nothing like his real life that had gotten a bit sad and broken in ways. I know it had to have a lot more glamour and excitement before; he'd been to Paris and certainly most places in Europe! 

Perhaps reading fiction is like that for everyone. There is a place in our minds that we like to go that perhaps has some sort of foundation in our lives, but takes its own escape. I enjoy reading about WWII because I've heard a lot about Vietnam and its just enough different along with being familiar. Paris is the setting in many works about WWII. 

There is only one copy of the book in Hernando, but you can get a hold and have it sent to any library. I will wait and let someone else read this, but it is a lovely book.

Place a Hold on A Paris Apartment  

Eiffel Tower by Uncle D.

Postcards designed before WWII but bought in 1954 by Uncle D.

--by Michelle at FRL (with exception to Heather's Review)