Category Archives: between books

The Monday Book: PARIS NEVER LEAVES YOU by Ellen Feldman

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I am a sucker for character driven plots, and this one is not. It was still an interesting read, but the whole thing is based on a “what if” premise, then the characters were kind of built around that.

What kind of person would pretend to be Jewish in Paris during World War II? Someone who was going to be in big trouble for having a German boyfriend. What kind of Jewish man would join the Nazis? Someone trying to survive.

The book is based both in the Paris bookshop the protagonist runs, and in the NYC publishing industry she flees to after the war. It’s an interesting premise but the book to me just followed the premise. The characters didn’t grow; they just went on doing what they do. Which might be part of the intention: after a harrowing experience, when you rebuild your life, how much can get you get back to living?

The writing is effective. The exploration of human nature–in this impossible situation, what would you do–is compelling. It was a worthwhile read. As you can tell, it wasn’t my favorite read ever, and one hesitates to call anything about such life or death situations a pleasant diversion, but this is the closest to a beach read I have ever seen a Holocaust novel come. Is that bad? Nah. Will I read other Feldman books. Probably, if just to see whether they are all based on premise or people.

Growing Pains – –

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Jack gets over the line again –

Apprenticeship and learning to interact with customers.

I was talking to a friend who worked for a time as a mural artist and we got into a discussion about how people get their training in such things.

I served a five year apprenticeship as a painter and decorator back in the 1950s and remember it (mostly) with fondness. Back then it was usually working most of the time on jobs alongside time-served qualified tradesmen, But then there was either day-release or block-release at the local community college alongside that (either one day per week or one week per month).

Part of the training on the job with the tradesmen was what would now be called ‘life skills’ – how to conduct yourself in someone’s home. In other words simple things that have remained with me ever since – wipe your feet before entering – put dust sheets down – be polite – thanks for the morning cup of tea. Never, ever, take the last cookie on the plate!!

I had had a meteoric downward trajectory at High School and left with no qualifications at age fifteen. But my dad had a respected and busy painting company and I had helped for a couple of years during school breaks. So he took me on as an apprentice.

Three things happened in fairly quick succession. My mother took me to a local store where I was fitted out with my first set of white overalls, I signed my indenture papers and I suffered the indignity of the traditional induction. The induction consisted of being waylaid by the older apprentices who removed my trousers and painted my nether parts! At that time most trades had a similar tradition – –

We were painting a hospital ward at the time and a very kind nurse cleaned me up!

I hope my dad explained things to my mum when she saw the state of my underwear.