INFORMATIVE, HIGHLY ENTERTAINING FOCUS ON `PARIS' VIA KARNOW.Byline: Joyce Irving Special to the Daily News ``Paris in the Fifties'' by Stanley Karnow Stanley Karnow (born 1925 in New York City) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who covered Asia from 1959 as chief correspondent for Time and Life magazines. (337 pages, Times Books; $25) Our rating: Three Stars For anyone with an affinity for French culture or romantic notions about Paris, here is a book that covers the subject in depth. No mere American Francophile, Stanley Karnow lived and worked in Paris for 10 years and was married to a Frenchwoman. He spent most of the '50s in the city, which gave him the opportunity to get to know Paris intimately and to study all the vagaries of the French character. As an impressionable im·pres·sion·a·ble adj. 1. Readily or easily influenced; suggestible: impressionable young people. 2. young man fresh out of college, Karnow went to Paris in the summer of 1947 and threw himself into its lifestyle. Many Americans were flocking to Paris at that time, attracted by its ambience and freedom. After meeting a French girl, Karnow is reluctant to return home. Besides, he is enchanted en·chant tr.v. en·chant·ed, en·chant·ing, en·chants 1. To cast a spell over; bewitch. 2. To attract and delight; entrance. See Synonyms at charm. by the city and wants to know more. He enrolls in classes funded by the GI Bill, struggles to master the language, and he and his girlfriend shack up together. They return briefly to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , where they get married but soon flee Karnow's depressingly narrow-minded family and his futile search for employment and head back to Paris. After some poorly paid jobs with fringe newspapers, Karnow lands a lowly position with Time magazine, where he eventually develops into a full-fledged foreign correspondent foreign correspondent n. A correspondent who sends news reports or commentary from a foreign country for broadcast or publication. Noun 1. . This book is drawn from some of his dispatches during those memorable post-war years. Although these are personal recollections, this is in no sense a biography. Karnow touches on incidents and landmarks in his life, but he concentrates on a much broader spectrum of events. In many ways, the book is a social commentary of life in France at the time, with a fascinating glimpse of its history. At heart, though, Karnow is in his element. He is writing and living in Paris. His marriage eventually fails, but his love affair with the city continues to blossom. His portrait of Paris includes all strata of society; artists, intellectuals, the demi-monde, the famous, cafe life, haute cuisine haute cuisine n. 1. Elaborate or skillfully prepared food, especially that of France. 2. The characteristic manner or style of preparing such food. , the fashion world. Karnow takes a critical look at the judicial system and the wonderfully complicated morass of French politics, backing it up with fascinating forays into the history of France The History of France has been divided into a series of separate historical articles navigable through the list to the right. The chronological era articles (highlighted in blue) address broad French historical, cultural and sociological developments. , making the book a complex cocktail of personal anecdote and erudite er·u·dite adj. Characterized by erudition; learned. See Synonyms at learned. [Middle English erudit, from Latin scholarship. |
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