The Light of Paris

May 1, 2016
The lights of Paris act as a beacon for two generations of women in search of self-determination and fulfillment in Brown's (The Weird Sisters, 2011, etc.) story of loves lost and found. Unhappily married Madeleine resents, quietly and inwardly, the strictures placed upon her by her controlling and ambitious husband, Phillip, and chafes against her perfectionist mother's expectations. Torn between a stultifying existence as a trophy wife and her lifelong but abandoned passion for painting, Madeleine embarks on a voyage of self-discovery, sparked by the unearthing of her grandmother's diaries in the attic of her mother's house. Inspired by the long-buried story of her grandmother Margie's experiences in the Paris of the Lost Generation, Madeleine moves toward an understanding of what will help her navigate through the world on her own terms. With a voice that alternates every other chapter between Madeleine's narration and excerpts from Margie's recovered journals, Brown conveys the miseries and satisfactions of women's journeys toward happiness in a tale balanced upon a family secret. While some characters--or their motivations--might have benefited from more fleshing out (Phillip is a stock controlling husband), the whimsy and romance of post-World War I Paris and Madeleine's growing comfort with her newly reconstructed life (in a hometown that had previously brought only unhappiness) provide forward momentum. As Madeleine unravels the truths behind her grandmother's story, she gathers insight into her own, equally complicated, story. With growing self-confidence and the aid of rediscovered friends and relatives, Madeleine approaches life in a different light and with the ability to make hard choices. Brown conveys the importance of the arts in creating a life as well as the need to heed all voices, even those from the past, in looking to the future.

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June 15, 2016

Taking a break from an emotionally cold marriage, artist Madeleine visits her mother in Magnolia, a town that Madeleine had always thought to be too image-conscious, filled with ladies who lunch and fundraisers for the Junior League. Her old hometown has opened up in surprising ways, and not every woman in the Ladies Association is as shallow as Madeleine expected them to be. She also discovers that her mother is selling her longtime residence and moving into a condo. While packing up the attic, Madeleine uncovers the boxes of journals that her grandmother Margie kept as a young woman in 1924. Margie also had worried that she was going to leave herself behind once she got married and spent an extended period of time in Paris, falling in love with the city and a young artist, Sebastien. Stylistically less daring than Brown's previous title (The Weird Sisters), this book still manages to plumb the difference between the things in life that give us joy and the things that we do to stifle that joy. VERDICT For all fans of intelligent women's literature.[See Prepub Alert, 2/21/16.]--Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2016

Proper and ridiculously accommodating Madeleine has always felt out of step, and now her marriage to rigid Phillip is quaky. Then she discovers a journal revealing that her formidable grandmother spent a wild, love-strewn summer in Jazz Age Paris, and Madeleine decides that she can break the rules, too. From the author of the New York Times best-selling The Weird Sisters; Brown will appear at the LJ Author Party at PLA (see p. 59).

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.