Rating: 
Summary: Excellent writer, interesting observations and topics
Review: An excellent writer with interesting observations and perspectives on the topics of raising a child abroad and how the French are different. I enjoyed the saga of his son's assimilation and his eventual realization that his son saw him as an immigrant Dad speaking imperfect French. In fact, I enjoyed all of it but the chapter on his visit with the Chez Panise restauranteur. The reviewer who said you must like New Yorker articles to like Gopnik is correct.
Rating: 
Summary: An American Snob in Paris
Review: Pretentious, what a bore. There is nothing worse than non-stop name-dropping or obscure literary and cultural references except of course if you are subjected to "cute child" stories which are only cute to the poor child's indulgent parents. I kept hoping this book would redeem itself thus pushing me to finish it. It did not.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time!
Review: We read this book for our book club. No one could finish it! It's like reading a very, very boring diary. I really can't figure out how it won any type of an award. Don't waste your time or money. I think someone sold the Emperor some new clothes!
Rating:
Summary: Fin de sicle finery
Review: Humor! Pathos! Sports! Food! Shopping (or not)! Wine, women (the heavenly Cressida) and song!Not to mention, just plain life a la Parisienne. This book is a modern sentimental sojourn through Paris which is not only a delight for the senses, but truly captures the essence of the French in all their guises. Having recently fallen completely in love with Paris on a short visit, I was longing for more and this book gave me that "You Are There" feeling I sought. Not only does M. Gopnik bring the Paris of today alive, but in the storyline dealing with all things human- his family, his adopted community, and the costume of French nationality which he endeavors to don- we see a glimpse into the Paris that generation after generation has attempted to make its own. This book was so enjoyable that while reading, I was overcome with the desire to return and have already booked another trip. How lucky is this man to have had 5 years in this most sublime city! Tres charmant! Merci beaucoup, M. Gopnik!
Rating:
Summary: Great City, Self-Indulgent Author or Toujours Gopnik
Review: Is this the City of Lights or the city of self-promotion? Only Mr. Gopnik's agent knows for sure. If you love and admire Paris or simply yearn to visit it, you'll find wading through this book sightly less repugnant than a week in Chernobyl. Paris is a wonderful city whose charm Mr. Gopnik does indeed capture more than once. He'd capture it more often if his self-styled chic wasn't constantly getting in the way. OK, OK Adam, you're the best father there ever was and your son is about to matriculate at one of New York's most exclusive nursery schools. Whoop-dee-do! What was that you were saying about dusk on the Boulevard St. Germain?
Rating:
Summary: You're better off sticking to your own memories of France.
Review: I trudged my way through this book, sometimes even rolling my eyes. I hoped things would pick up, get a bit more interesting, or lively, but they did not. There's nothing wrong with being a Francophile, but Gopnick at times comes off as blinded by his apparent belief that all things Parisien are superior. There is a self-consciousness and yet also an odd snobbery (seeing as how he's not French, but puts himself in the elite club) about his stance. His observations about his ex-pat experiences aren't all that unique or original, unfortunately, and somehow come off as slightly annoying. My paperback cover announces that it's a national bestseller, and also "the finest book on France in recent years." I find these misleading, and feel sort of like I did after walking out of "The Blair Witch Project" after all the hype.
Rating: 
Summary: a Massachusetts reader
Review: Adam Gopnik is a typical American-tired of the "mallization" of his town, worried about the impact of mass culture on his child, yearning to have a more elegant living space. The irony: he resides in SoHo (I know they have a Gap there but please), his child is a baby and he lives in a loft. He transports himself and his family to Paris to escape all--he really should have traveled to a suburb of Atlanta or a small town in Iowa if he wanted a viable alternative to SoHo.
Sarcasm aside, some of his essays are quite enjoyable. His observations on nuances of culture--the fact that who you choose to have cut your hair on a regular basis can impact your view of a city greatly--are accurate. To his tremendous credit, he neither recreates nor revisits the tradition of Hemingway or Gertrude Stein in Paris. His expatriate experience in Paris exists very much in the late 1990's. He deserves tremendous credit for escaping the cliches.
When he does not include himself too much in an essay, his writing leaps from the page. When he does, well you want to scream "since when has SoHo been a stand in for the archetypical American town."
Rating:
Summary: There's no "There" There
Review: This disappointed me, a huge fan of Gopnik's from his New Yorker writings. This book is a quick read, largely because of page layout. I actually finished it during a Delta flight. But I should have seen a red light go off in the bookstore's price sticker: the book is categorized as a memoir. Once more: it is NOT a travel book, rather it is a memoir. While there are Paris anecdotes and tidbits scattered throughout, they are mere olives in the martini of parisian travel literature. If you want a book about Paris, this isn't it. If you want a book abut Paris written by, as the author says, "a yuppie family guy writer," this is your book. There's a lot of Gopnik, his wife, his child(ren), his friends here. But there's little in the way of "there" there. Caveat emptor.
Rating: 
Summary: A Hilarious Perspective on Parisians and Americans
Review: I love expat stories and this is one of the best I have ever read. Gopnik views Paris from a skeptical New Yorker's perspective and pulls it off marvelously. He has the ability to identify seemingly insignificant cultural idiosyncracies that one encounters when living in a strange place and capture the essence of the experience so you feel like you are living through the experiences right with him. If you have experience dealing with Parisians and New Yorkers this book is especially enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: After a slow start, I went to amazon to see what other readers had said about the book. Based on many of the reviews here, I decided I not to finish it. But having already bought it, I gave it another try and I'm very glad I did. With my expectations stripped away I was able to enjoy the book simply for what it offers. Although no Pat Conroy, Gopnik crafts good sentences and offers thought provoking and entertaining pictures of his rather charmed life in Paris. Unlike some, I wasn't put off by his constant comparison of things French to things American -- well, his NYC version of American -- since he says at the beginning this is why he was sent to Paris. And his yuppiness is more an occasional distraction than a pitfall to enjoyment. Like others, I found Gopnik's musings on the miracle of his son charming. He nicely side steps the yuppie tendency to act as if he and his mate were the first people ever to have a child, while reminding us that a child really is a thing of unending awe. As of course is Paris.
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