Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down by Rosencrans Baldwin: A Review

This book review is way overdue. Just finishing this book was way overdue. My reading took a big hit the last few months so I apologize for the lack of book reviews lately. My last one was way delayed almost by two months. If you missed it, I reviewed The Wife, The Maid and The Mistress by Ariel Lawhon. It was by far one of the best books I read this year so I definitely recommend it.

What Goodreads Says A self-described Francophile from when he was little, Rosencrans Baldwin always dreamed of living in Paris - drinking le café, eating les croissants, walking in les jardins - so when an opportunity presented itself to work for an advertising agency in Paris, he couldn't turn it down. Despite the fact that he had no experience in advertising. And despite the fact that he barely spoke French. After an unimaginable amount of red tape and bureucracy, Rosencrans and his wife packed up their Brooklyn apartment and left the Big Apple for the City of Light. When they arrived, things were not exactly what Rosencrans remembered from a family vacation when he was nine years old.

Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down is a nimble comic account of observing the French capital from the inside out. It is an exploration of the Paris of Sarkozy, text-message romances, smoking bans, and a McDonald's beneath the Louvre-the story of an American who arrives loving Paris all out of proportion, but finds life there to be completely like what he expected. Over eighteen months, Rosencrans must rely on his dogged American optimism to get him through some very unromantic situations - at work (writing booklets on how to breast-feed, raise, and nurture children), at home (trying to finish writing his first novel in an apartment surrounded on all sides by construction workers), and at every confusing French dinner party in between. An offbeat update to the expat canon, Paris, I Love You is a book about a young man finding his preconceptions replaced by the oddities of vigorous, nervy city-which is just what he needs to fall in love with Paris for the second time.

What I Say There is one main reason why I loved this book so much. Rosencrans wrote Paris for people who have experienced the city and love the city. One of those people are me. It's been about two and a half years since I got back from this magical city and I miss it just as much as the day I arrived back home, maybe even more. There's a promise that the city holds. Happiness, love, luxury...a great life. It has a strong history and a long one filled with glamour and pain, art and wonder. You can't help but to be nostalgic in Paris and being able to accept and live in the past so much also allows you to embrace the present.

I could go on and on about what Rosencrans wrote and what he did while he was in Paris but the Goodreads description does that well enough. Instead, I want to talk about the feeling you get while reading his book...memoir. Can we call this a memoir? I would say so. Briefly recapping, Rosencrans got an opportunity to work at an advertising agency in Paris so him and his wife moved their lives from the US to France. They became citizens, they made friends. They established a life in the city and really came to love it. Rosencrans worked on his book and the story ended with him getting a publishing deal which led them to move back to the states. While they were in Paris, they also experienced the bad stuff too. Just like anywhere else, Paris has it's bad side and living there opens your eyes to it. It also makes you appreciate it that much more.

I'm a sucker for anything that has to do with Paris. I loved Paris, I Love You but I wouldn't recommend it if you could care less for the city or traveling in general. Rosencrans goes into heavy details of living in Paris and the travels he did during his time there. It's wonderful to experience as a reader. Sit back, relax and escape through his words. If you've been to Paris or if you dream to, I would definitely recommend this book. For those of you who have been to Paris, it will take you back and remind you of everything you loved about it. For those of you who have yet to visit Paris, it will give you an idea of what's to come. You may not have visited the city yet but reading his novel will give you an idea of what it's like to be in Paris, to be with Parisians. It's an unforgettable experience and even though I probably won't go back for a while, I know I'll always have this book to remind me of why I love the city so much...not that I could ever forget.