The Parisian Cafe: A Literary Companion

Rating:
Summary: Celebrating the fullness of being
Review: A Literary Companion, indeed! As a writer, lover of Paris and cafes--I found this book delightful, and the perfect companion for a cold winter day. For like the cafe it celebrates, it has the ability to lift my spirits the moment I "enter" its sumptuous pages. Val Clark has done a masterful job in matching up the evocative photographs of Doisneau and Brassai, the art of Van Gogh, Manet, Bemelmans and much more--with the words of writers and artists that endure because they resonate with that fullness of being that the cafe nurtures. This little book pays loving homage to that sensibility. Thank you Val Clark!

Rating:
Summary: Celebrating the fullness of being
Review: A Literary Companion, indeed! As a writer, lover of Paris and cafes--I found this book delightful, and the perfect companion for a cold winter day. For like the cafe it celebrates, it has the ability to lift my spirits the moment I "enter" its sumptuous pages. Val Clark has done a masterful job in matching up the evocative photographs of Doisneau and Brassai, the art of Van Gogh, Manet, Bemelmans and much more--with the words of writers and artists that endure because they resonate with that fullness of being that the cafe nurtures. This little book pays loving homage to that sensibility. Thank you Val Clark!

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book
Review: This is a great book! Val Clark has assembled a wonderful collection of photos and quotes that transport the reader to the Paris café scene of Hemingway, Anais Nin and Albert Camus. Flipping through the pages of this beautifully laid out book will send any reader into another world entirely. I would say that it is an ideal coffee table book, except that two friends have already asked to borrow it from my coffee table!

Rating:
Summary: The Parisian Cafe: A Literary Companion
Review: Val Clark's selection of images and quotations evoking the literary life of Paris cafes is like sitting down to a cafe creme at Les Deux Magots with your favorite writers. Clark has scoured literary sources both familiar and overlooked to compile an ecclectic assemblage of testimonies on the allure of Paris cafes. She pairs these testimonies with images (photographs, oils, watercolors) so naturally that it seems the writers and artists had collaborated: Langston Hughes and Vincent Van Gogh, Irwin Shaw and Andre Kertesz, Henry Miller and LeRoy Neiman, and many, many more. The Introduction gives an insightful and appreciative overview of the essential role of cafes in Paris literary and artistic life. Like a good cafe, this charming books offers a respite from our hectic work-a-day lives. A delight!

Rating:
Summary: The Parisian Cafe: A Literary Companion
Review: Val Clark's selection of images and quotations evoking the literary life of Paris cafes is like sitting down to a cafe creme at Les Deux Magots with your favorite writers. Clark has scoured literary sources both familiar and overlooked to compile an ecclectic assemblage of testimonies on the allure of Paris cafes. She pairs these testimonies with images (photographs, oils, watercolors) so naturally that it seems the writers and artists had collaborated: Langston Hughes and Vincent Van Gogh, Irwin Shaw and Andre Kertesz, Henry Miller and LeRoy Neiman, and many, many more. The Introduction gives an insightful and appreciative overview of the essential role of cafes in Paris literary and artistic life. Like a good cafe, this charming books offers a respite from our hectic work-a-day lives. A delight!

Rating:
Summary: amust for lovers of literary paris
Review: Val Clark`s new book on the Paris cafe is a must for all lovers of Paris and its expat heritage.While other books offer a guide to where people sat and wrote in what was once the `American literary capital of the world` this is the best introduction for lovers of Paris to enter into the world of writers, photographers and painters with both quotes from their impressions and illustrations of what they witnessed there.

For several years I worked in Paris and a book like this was constantly being demanded by bookstore customers. Nothing filled the gap. But now Val Clark has produced a book which makes an ideal gift and will be an essential item in any Paris lover`s collection.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone has two countries - his own and Paris
Review: Wow! I found this little gem at the bookstore at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. The cover attracted me because it looked like a scene I had seen many times when I lived and wrote in Paris. Any writer who has spent time in Cafe le Dome or Le Select will get multiple nostalgia attacks looking over the pictures and reading the quotes from Shaw, Papa Hemingway, Camus and the other greats. The review title above about everyone having two countries comes from Thomas Jefferson who loved Paris. Too bad he is dead, for he too would have also loved Val Clark's wonderful little book.