Ruth Reichl takes readers along on her journey to Paris in 1983. Food, fashion, and art are so essential to this book that it’s a treat for the senses as a reluctant visitor to the city discovers it.

When Stella’s mother died, she was surprised to receive any inheritance. The two had been estranged for years. After Stella’s traumatic childhood, she built a quiet, lonely life for herself as a copy editor in New York City. She was nothing like her mother, Celia St. Vincent, who lived for men, money, and power over others. Stella knew the New York streets, but locked herself away from anything joyous except her time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then, her mother left her an envelope, with a note to the lawyer to buy a ticket to Paris for Stella. For Stella, who never left the safety of the city?

When Stella’s boss orders her to take a vacation, she goes to Paris reluctantly, but does nothing more there than she did at home. She eats her squalid little meals by herself, speaks to no one, and doesn’t understand why anyone loves Paris. Then, one day, she walks into a vintage dress shop, and the owner tells her they’ve been waiting for her. She has Stella’s dress. When she tries it on, the dress fits and calls to her, but a fearful Stella, afraid of life, flees.

Stella has to return for that dress, and turns over all her money to buy it, and follow the orders of the owner. She goes to a restaurant, tries her first oysters, and meets Jules Delatour, an art collector in his eighties who tries to take her under his wing. Once again, Stella flees. But, Jules’ stories of an artist’s model sends her to Shakespeare and Company, where she meets the owner, George Whitman, and becomes one of his Tumbleweeds, sleeping at the bookstore. Now, Stella is on a mission, though, to find the story of Victorine-Louise Meurent, the artist’s model who wanted more. Now that Stella is discovering Paris, she also wants more – more art, more food, and a friend or two.

I’ve read some of Ruth Reichl’s other books, but The Paris Novel is the first that I found so sensual, with food and wine, art, and fashion. It’s trite to say she brings Paris to life, but Stella’s discoveries become the reader’s discoveries. And, Stella is so needy and so desperate to find the love and acceptance that she never had. It’s a rich book, atmospheric and beautiful. It’s hard to put down, and hard to forget.

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl. Random House, 2024. ISBN 9780812996302 (hardcover), 272p.

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