PRAISE FOR ADAM GOPNIK’S

Paris to the Moon

A New York Times Notable Book of 2000

A New York Public Library Selection as one of the Twenty-Five Memorable Books of 2000

“The distinctive brilliance of Gopnik’s essays lies in his ability to pick up a subject one would never have imagined it possible to think deeply about and then cover it in thoughts. . . . He is truly able to see the whole world in a grain of sand.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“A memoir that will surely rank with the great books about Paris.”

—Montreal Gazette

“Funny and shrewd and provocative enough to make one think hard about just why Paris remains so lovely. . . . His many essays about food are among the best I’ve ever read . . . simply wonderful.”

—The Boston Globe

“Adam Gopnik’s avid intelligence and nimble pen found subjects to love in Paris and in the growth of his small American family there. A conscientious, scrupulously savvy American husband and father meets contemporary France, and fireworks result, lighting up not just the Eiffel Tower.”

—John Updike

“Francophiles will find this collection of essays—written during the author’s stay in the City of Light at the tail end of the 20th Century—très délicieux.”

—People

“Adam Gopnik has undertaken to do the French justice, much as Thomas Jefferson, Henry James and Edith Wharton did in the past. Distinguished company, to be sure, but Gopnik earns a place beside them. If anything, his take on France is more complete and various than theirs, and his wit, with its fine Manhattan edge, nicely complements the worldliness of his French hosts. The man has street smarts in spades, no matter whose streets they are.”

—Raleigh-Durham News & Record

“Gopnik gives us an insight into French culture using the metaphors offered by everyday life.”

—Los Angeles Times

“The chronicle of an American writer’s lifelong infatuation with Paris is also an extended meditation—in turns hilarious and deeply moving—on the threat of globalization, the art of parenting, and the civilizing intimacy of family life. Whether he’s writing about the singularity of the Papon trial, the glory of bistro cuisine, the wacky idiosyncrasies of French kindergartens, or the vexing bureaucracy of Parisian health clubs, Gopnik’s insights are infused with a formidable cultural intelligence, and his prose is as pellucid as that of any essayist. A brilliant, exhilarating book.”

—Francine du Plessix Gray

“This is a delightful book, and you don’t have to know anything about France to think so.”

—The Arizona Republic

“Little things that make Paris so lovable are lovingly described with verve and sparkle. Gopnik’s writerly persona is smart and charming, the kind of traveling companion who can join you for dinner several nights in a row without becoming a bore. . . . This book is pretty terrific.”

—Newsday

“Adam Gopnik’s Paris to the Moon abounds in the sensuous delights of the city—the magical carousel in the Luxembourg Gardens, the tomato dessert at Arpège, even the exquisite awfulness of the new state library. But the even greater joys of this exquisite memoir are timeless and even placeless—the excitement of the journey, the confusion of an outsider, and, most of all, the love of a family.”

—Jeffrey Toobin

“Gopnik is an artful reporter, dapper in his prose, sharp in his sense of absurdity. . . . The essays are just so well put together, so airy and trenchant and alert to their chosen topics . . . the best parts of Paris to the Moon can’t be beat.”

—The Seattle Times

“Adam Gopnik is a dazzling talent—hilarious, winning, and deft—but the surprise of Paris to the Moon is its quiet moral intelligence. This book begins as journalism and ends up as literature.”

—Malcolm Gladwell

“Fluent and witty, delightful fodder for anyone who loves Paris or has ever dreamed of living abroad. . . . Gopnik’s essays do what the best writing should do: they inform as they entertain.”

—Library Journal

“An elegant stylist and master of metaphor and description.”

—Book