Paris Was the Place

by Susan Conley

When Willie Pears begins teaching at a center for immigrant girls who are all hoping for French asylum, she has no idea it will change her life. As she learns their stories, the lines between teaching and mothering quickly begin to blur. Willie has fled to Paris to create a new family for herself by reaching out to her beloved brother, Luke, and her straight-talking friend, Sara. She soon falls for Macon, a charming, passionate French lawyer, and her new family circle seems complete. But Gita, a young girl at the detention center, is determined to escape her circumstances, no matter the cost. And just as Willie is faced with a decision that could have potentially dire consequences for both her relationship with Macon and the future of the center, Luke is taken with a serious, as-yet-unnamed illness, forcing Willie to reconcile with her father and examine the lengths we will go to for the people we care the most about.

In Paris Was the Place, Conley has given us a beautiful portrait of on how much it matters to belong: to a family, to a country, to any one place, and how this belonging can mean the difference in our survival. This is a profoundly moving portrait of some of the most complicated and glorious aspects of the human existence: love and sex and parenthood and the extraordinary bonds of brothers and sisters. It is a story that reaffirms the ties that bind us to one another.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, France, Adult, Adult Fiction, Audiobook, Historical

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Susan Conley is the author of Landslide (Knopf, February 2021): “a spectacular tale of hardship and healing. Conley has knocked it out of the park," (Lily King, Writers and Lovers). Susan's previous novel Elsey Come Home (Knopf, 2019), was a Most Anticipated/Best Book at Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, Amazon Books, Pop Sugar, Huffington Post, Southern Living Magazine, Fodors, The Library Journal, Maine Women’s Magazine, and others.
Susan is also the author of Paris Was the Place (Knopf, 2013), an Amazon Fall Big Books Pick for fiction, an Indie Next Pick, an Elle Magazine Readers Prize Pick, and a People magazine Top Pick. Susan’s memoir, The Foremost Good Fortune (Knopf 2011), was excerpted in the New York Times Magazine and the Daily Beast. It was an Oprah Magazine Top Ten Pick of the Month, a Slate Magazine “Book of the Week” and a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award. It won the Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Other work of hers has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, The Huffington Post, Ploughshares, The Harvard Review and elsewhere.

Susan has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Breadloaf Writers Conference, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. A former faculty member at Emerson College, she has also taught at Colby College and Simmons College. She currently teaches at the University of Maine’s Stonecoast MFA Program, and is the co-founder of The Telling Room, a nonprofit creative writing lab in Portland, Maine.

Reviews

[Nancy O'Toole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paris Was the Place is an interesting read. I didn't think it was a bad book. In fact, there were some parts of it that I quite liked. Unfortunately, the book as a whole didn't mesh well with me. Most of my issues stem from the fact that it felt very unfocused. We have the story of Willow teaching poetry to immigrants seeking asylum. Willow's relationship with her brother, and flash backs of her family. A romantic storyline with a lawyer. A trip to India. Etc. Unfortunately, none of these storylines really end up being the main focus on the book, which can make it feel rather muddled. So while their are some really strong scenes (the brother/sister relationship), there are also very weak parts.

I also found myself completely unsatisfied by the romantic lead. Don't get me wrong. I'm not interested in reading about perfect couples who exist without conflict. But from the start, Macon seemed kind of like a jerk. The more revelations we receive about the character, the more jerk-like he appears. I cannot understand why Willow was so drawn to him to begin with, and why she continued to fall in love with him over the course of the book. I kind of wonder if I would have liked the book more had they cut the love story out completely, and focused more on Willow's friends in Paris.

There's no denying Paris was the Place has it's strong moments, but it ultimately did not work for me. Granted, it's also not my type of read. If your taste are more literary than genre focused, perhaps you will find more luck with this title.

[Britany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Firstreads giveaway.

Willow Pears lives in Paris, teaching poetry, and volunteering at a center off the Rue De la Metz for girls that are seeking asylum from immigration laws trying to send them back to their home countries. At the center, Willie, befriends the girls from all over the world and becomes attached to one in particular, Gita from India. She also falls in love with Macon, the lawyer fighting for these girls' asylum in France.

Willie is still having a tough time dealing with the loss of her mom, estranged from her father, and all she has left is her dear brother Luke, who lives in Paris with his partner Gaird.

The emotional arc of this book is unlike anything I expected to read. The writing started off choppy and immature, flowing into the end, which had me so invested in the characters I felt every tear, shudder, and laugh. You can almost feel the journey that this author took while writing this book, she grew immensely, just as our protagonist does.

This book was set in the late 80s, and it almost could've been separated into multiple books, there were many hot topics going on all at once. The one that touched me the most was Luke's story. It may have affected me so much because I recently lost a co-worker too young to colon cancer, and haven't really grieved yet. I was bawling at the end of this book, and felt that while it may not have ended the same, the pain of it was identical. Hit me a little too close to home, and I became emtionally invested.

Overall, a little scattered, a little too many directions in Paris, but touched me personally with the storyline of a love between a brother and sister. 3.5 Stars

[Randee Baty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the type of book that reminds me why I love to read. I'm completely caught up in a different world than my own.

The setting is Paris, which I love, and I can see the city as the characters describe it. The main character is a young American poetry teacher who teaches in a French academy. Her brother and his boyfriend also live in Paris. Her best friend and her husband live there as well.

Willie, short for Willow, is asked to teach a poetry class in a detainment center where teenage girls from many countries are waiting to see if France will grant them asylum. Getting to know these girls changes her life completely. She falls in love with one of the lawyers representing the girls, her brother falls ill, her best friend has a baby, she travels to India. There is nothing unexpected in this novel, no big surprises. Just a really beautifully told story about how she interacts with those she loves and what it costs her to do so.

I felt I was living in Willie's world and it was odd to come back to mine when I had to. That is the mark of a good read to me.

I received this book through the GoodReads First Reads program.

[Cyndi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite my cup of tea. I don’t feel like the characters were developed enough. The heroine’s personality wavered quite a lot as did the ‘hero.’
The descriptions of Paris did not make me want to visit nor did the descriptions of India. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Sparkleypenguin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The characters in this novel were so flat, I think if I pushed them too hard they would tip over. I cared about none of these characters; they didn't really give me a reason to connect with them. And the whole relationship between Macon and Wille just seemed fake. There didnt seem to be anything tieing them together except the center and Pablo. Macon as a character was just very flat and he said things that I was like "I don't really think you have a real basis to be saying this and also, I don't think other guys would say this so...". Another part that really took me out of this novel and made it really a monotonous read was all of the descriptions of the roads of Paris and just the repetitiveness of Willie's route. I get that she travels the same way every day. You dont have to tell me 10 different times that she goes down Avenue Victor Hugo to get to Luke's house. Even when Luke died, I was relieved because something interesting happened and I was kind of invested in it. Also, the whole bit about Gita escaping was also like "really? this doesn't happen in real life. Adults have more sense than this." And I also cant believe the center took her back... I feel like, as a government organization, they would be more strict.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVE Paris but I struggled to connect with this story.
At the beginning, I was sucked into the section about the main character's work with the immigrants at the detention centre. It was so promising!! I expected so much more with regards to the girls seeking asylum in France and the main character's relationship with these girls. That’s what I was really looking forward to.
Then the story line about the main character's brother takes over.
You get the impression that this is a case of two short stories that have been linked and that the author intended the immigrant story to be the main one but maybe changed her mind along the way, so that the story about her brother takes precedence. I was disappointed.
But it's not a bad story.
3.5 stars for this one.

[Cindy Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing, I was interested in the plight of young refugee girls, about to be deported from Paris, but I found the leading character torn in too many directions to fully engage in any one of the themes in the book - the loss of her mother, the isolation from her father, her first real love affair, her brother's illness, her friend's new baby, the poems of an Indian woman, a quick trip to India, and the plight of the refugees. Scattered!

[Macpudel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure - I received a free copy of this book as part of the Amazon Vine program.

Historical novels that take place during one’s adult life are a different reading experience than books set in the distant past. When I read a book set in the Napoleonic era, I’m not mentally arguing with the author about the realities of the time.

Paris Was The Place is the story of Willie, which is short for Willow. Anachronism #1 – hippie babies were being born in the 80s, not 30 years old. Willow? Not so much. Willie is a talented poetry teacher and scholar without much of a grip on her life. She lives in Paris, not because it was a happening place, as the title suggests, but because her beloved older brother and college friend live there. Through some offstage magic, she’s secured a poetry teaching job that covers her rent in a one bedroom apartment in Paris in a safe neighborhood (because I’m sure they were handing *those*jobs out to Americans on street corners in the ‘80s). Paris is pretty charmless in this book, although since Willie didn’t come to Paris for the mystique of the City of Lights, kudos to Conley for not succumbing to cliché.

Willie volunteers to teach English at an internment center, a sort of locked group home, for immigrant teen girls. Her relationship with the girls and her poor grip on boundaries was the strongest part of the book. But there are more plot elements! There’s a sexy French immigration lawyer boyfriend, with whom she develops a predictable boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-regains-girl relationship (however, Paris Was The Place is definitely not a romance where the American girl in Paris learns the ropes from a sexy French guy). The weakest plot element is her gay brother’s getting AIDS. Weak because she’s shocked by the diagnosis, though this is 1989 and anyone who knows any gay men at all is hypersensitive to the slightest cough in their acquaintances. And weak because gayness in the 1980s (and 1990s) was a lot more complicated than it’s portrayed in this book.

A middling literary novel is going to be less satisfying than a middling genre novel because a romance or mystery has conventions which provide the reader the outcome he or she was seeking. If Conley had focused on Willie and the immigrant girls, this would have been a more cohesive book and one I’d be more comfortable recommending.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I spent the first quarter really annoyed with the book and annoyed with the main character but I also couldn't put it down - I feel like I finished it more out of a sense of frustration than anything. I was really interested in the story of the asylum seekers more than anything. However, they are just a plot device to give this otherwise stock-character-filled novel something interesting. None of the other story lines or characters were special or unique or particularly new - BUT there is a reason why stock characters and frequently used plot lines exist, they are somewhat intriguing. By the time Willie's brother is finally diagnosed, I wanted to see how things were going to end (knowing how they were going to end), but I also just wanted to be done with the story. I wish there was more about the girls. I also felt like it didn't make sense that Willie was so attached to one girl but not the rest of them. I was hoping she'd get more involved in all of their lives rather than just really supporting one girl and leaving the rest to their fate.

Spoiler (not really because it is super obvious)

I was fairly frustrated with the sickness plot-line. She even admits that many of his friends had died of AIDS already so there is no reason for everyone to be so shocked when he is finally diagnosed. They all knew what was coming when he first got sick and to pretend that it was a surprise misses the opportunity to grapple with the prevalent fears faced by the gay community during the late 80s. She could have spent more time considering and dismissing and dealing with the possibility that his sickness was a result of HIV before the official diagnosis. Instead, the novel pretends that it is unclear why Luke is sick and that no one really knows why he isn't getting better. But this also might be part of the way Conley writes and part of Willie's self-centered view - the writing is choppy and meant to imply much more than it says in a way that seems like it's trying too hard to be literary...

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sentimental, heartfelt, eloquently visual, this book draws you into Paris in a realistic and captivating way. The narrator is distinctly human, flawed but trying, good-intentioned and young. Her job to help her students unfolds in an emotional story about generosity, family, loneliness, and so much more. As a romance and coming-of-age story the plot is a definite success for me. It contains many touching and tender moments, and while it is tragic it is also hopeful.
This book captures what it's like to live abroad and teach English to an audience of varying levels of interest and ability. In that it's not always as glamorous as it sounds, but it's always an experience. I would recommend this book to travelers of the world and lovers of literature. It's a pleasure to teach, learn, grow, and fall in love along aside Willie Pears

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy from Elle magazine for review.

This is a perfect summer read. From Paris to India, from love to friendship, this novel covers Paris is a character itself in this novel. The description of the streets, the sights, and the people were so well written, I felt as if I was walking through Paris myself. And then the novel takes a detour to India, and again I felt I had been to this country that I have never been to before. The novel transports you to these places, and also transports you to feel a strong understanding for the characters in this novel. The protagonist, Willie Pears, find loves, deals with the heartbreak of a sick brother and estranged father, and also finds love for a group of immigrant girls who are being held in asylum. It's beautifully written, and is a lush story.

[Gaele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a bit of an up and down reaction to this book. Told in the first person, this perhaps was my largest difficulty. I will admit to being harsh about first person narrative, there is a fine line between moving a story forward with a character’s voice and bringing the forward motion to a complete halt with inclusions of all the ephemera that we normally wouldn’t share with our friends during the day. Here often was a problem as descriptions of numerous Metro journeys, that weren’t used to explain much more than the Parisian underground. Unfortunately, Paris didn’t come alive as I would have expected, in fact place descriptions were far better in a sub-plot of Willie’s travels in India.

Then we have three story lines, with none truly taking precedence or becoming the major focus of the story: whether this was an attempt to use a metaphorical device comparing the rootlessness that Willie finds at her core, the women in the Asylum center and her brother’s remove from the family, I am not certain, but it could be one explanation for the unrelated and unconnected stories that Willie tells that never seem to find common threads.

What emerges is three distinct phases in this book: the asylum seekers who all have stories that could have comprised a book in themselves, their experiences, their lives left behind and the difficulties they are encountering in changing their lives. This is intermingled with the immigrant communities and the struggle that Paris, and the government are facing to integrate them into society in a meaningful way, yet neither presents a conclusion or a complete development.

We have Willie’s search for a poet’s daughter in India, and her hopes to obtain manuscripts and for one short moment she is living the experience of the women she has come to know at the Asylum center. Yes, again she experiences that moment of not quite belonging and utter rootlessness, but this isn’t developed to give us any sense of the real importance of the trip to the overall story. This is the section, however, that contained the best place descriptions and developed a feel for the country and people that made visualization easy and pleasurable.

Lastly we have Willie’s shock and concern when her brother becomes ill, and she learns that he is ill with some new and unknown illness. The setting is 1989, so readers are well aware that he is HIV positive, and even mention is made of friends who died from the same illness. Here we get some, but not a full, explanations of the remove from their parents that both Willie and Luke have chosen, when Luke passes, she truly will be alone in a strange land. Yes, she has a boyfriend and a best friend; both are seemingly perfect, without quirks or foibles to give them depth. In fact, none of the characters are less than saintly and always good. There isn’t a great deal of depth and breadth to the characters, as much as I hoped to see it. In fact, most of the true emotion that Willie displays comes from her choices of poetry and her explanations of the meaning to her students.

I would have preferred a book that went with any of the three sub-plots and developed it fully, giving me a solid sense of Willie and whatever challenge she faced. As it concludes, there are several threads left hanging, and many questions unanswered.

I received a hardcover from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. But, I didn't like how it began. Not the story part; it just didn't grab me like a good book "out of the gates" grabs you. So I went several days without "wanting" to read it. It did gather speed about midway through and then I wanted to see what was going to happen. I believe that the reason for this was that I really didn't know where this story was going. Who was the story about. Was it about the girls that Willow was trying to help at the shelter? Was it about Willow's brother? It took awhile to gather speed and get going. I probably should have read a synopsis of the story and that might have helped.

This story is about Willow Pears who is an American in Paris teaching poetry at a college (this was vague at first; wasn't sure what she was doing) and working with young girls illegally in France. There is heartache, love, friendship (Willow has an amazing group of friends), growth, and hurt. So if you dare to take the plunge, give it a go. It is good, but just took me a bit of time to find that "tug" that drew me in.

For those who have been fortunate enough to explore Paris, this book will bring back found memories of places you might or might not have been to. I pulled out my maps and had a grand ole time going down memory lane for some of the places Willow went.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from GoodReads First Reads

Willie Pears begins teaching immigrant girls at a center for those seeking French asylum. As she learns their stories and the legal procedures involved, Willie desperately hopes for the best, often glossing over continuous doses of shrewd advice from the French lawyer, Macon. Grappling with her feelings toward Macon, her brother's failing health, and her determination to protect Gita, a young girl from the center, Willie is forced to examine the lengths she would go through to protect the people she holds most dear.

Paris was the Place had all the ingredients needed for a moving novel: 1) an undeniable attraction towards a charming man; 2) a complex situation with no absolute right choice; and 3) a loved one whose health is slowly deteriorating. However, these plot lines were not enough to carry this novel. Over 300 pages and there's still no connection with any of the characters. Their circumstances evoke feelings of empathy, but they themselves do not. The only saving grace is the bond between the siblings. Besides that, the entire novel merely grazes the surface of its potential. Naming street after street after street doesn't add to the novel either.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not care for this book at all. The word "disjointed" came to mind several times as I was reading. This book could not decide what it wanted to be about, and as a result it never became a cohesive, clear story. I liked the premise, about a teacher in Paris who is hired to teach poetry to foreign girls in a home who are petitioning for asylum. These girls have no family and have suffered serious hardships in their lives, so I thought the book would mostly focus on them and their journeys. However, it quickly veered off into a love story that I neither believed nor did I care for the characters. Then it became a book about AIDS. Then it went back to the asylum girls. But it just never really flowed and I didn't care about any of it.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susan Conley is a very talented writer. I love reading about Paris. Books that take place in Paris are right up my alley. This was not the usual. Not only did Conley manage to bring Paris to life like never before, she also gave me a view of India that I might never have experienced without having read this novel. Although some of the content is sad and deals with dire illness, I have ended up with a very good impression. Not for the faint of heart, but do take this one in.

[Kara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. I found the writing style to be very disjointed. The writer would be in the middle of a thought then add in some random idea...it was hard to follow and the character development was very poor.

[Debbie Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book gave a good explanation of what we lose of our histories when we lose somebody we love. Some people thought it was unconnected but that’s how life is and how all these different stories influence our lives.

[Megan Tedeschi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so bad I could only (barely and with a lot of eye rolling and wondering what the heck she is even talking about) read 20 pages and then had to immediately return it to the library.

[Mary Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book follows the protagonist, Willie (short for Willow), as she becomes involved with a group of young girls seeking asylum in France through teaching them poetry. Along the way, her beloved only brother is diagnosed with AIDS, she falls in love, and she examines her tumultuous relationship to both her students and her eccentric father. By the end, Willie has experienced agonizing loss, forgiveness, and great love, and is the better for all three.

[Brenda Marean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great story; the 2nd book I've read by Susan Conley. I look forward to reading her 3 othe novels.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Paris, this novel tries to do so much with major themes: parental-child and family relationships, illness and loss, sexual abuse, separation from family and home, identity and loss of it, etc. The two main storylines and their themes are both equally important and relevant today, especially the part relating to immigration and the detention center for women seeking asylum. Unfortunately the narrative lost equilibrium as the detention center topic, the plight of young women seeking asylum became secondary and almost forgotten, too sloppily or unsatisfactorily wrapped up as the author Conley focused heavily on Willow’s brother Luke, her father, and devastating illness in the latter half of the novel. (Deliberately avoiding spoiler alert.).

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have many contradictions with this novel, because I really enjoyed the story while I also was annoyed with Willow and her point of view on life. This book really isn't for everyone, because it can get boring if you don't find enjoyment in waiting for things to happen.

[AmblingBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I've spent the last week listening to Paris Was The Place while I walked these lovely fall afternoons along the ocean, and I wept, again and again. I was captivated by the story while I chopped and stirred ratatouille. I kept listening when I climbed under the covers these early chilly evenings. I couldn't let go of the story. The characters continue to live in me after the last lines. I was in awe of your creating these characters that moved me to tears. I was so touched by their depth, their interior conversations, their intimacy, their struggles. As a poet I loved the poetry and writing classes within the novel, I loved the food, the streets, the sounds of France and India. I kept thinking of the three words Baron Wormser repeats to his students, Dwell, Linger, Stay. Again and again, I was amazed at how you kept lingering, slowing down the moment to second by second to see inside what is really happening in a scene. Just breathtaking. Thank you so so much for this blessing of a book."
- Elizabeth Garber, listener.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willow Pears is an American teaching in Paris; she spends her spare time helping girls in a refugee center prepare for their immigration hearings. In the process, she finds herself falling in love with human rights attorney Macon Ventri ... but nothing about their story is romantic.

From the painful stories of young women fleeing rape, sex trafficking and more in their countries of origin (not much has changed since the late 1980s, when this book is set), to the challenges of the earliest days of the AIDS crisis, non-fiction author Susan Conley brings us right into a complicated world where there are no easy answers.

I particularly enjoyed Conley's use of Parisian geography; I know the neighborhoods of which she wrote, and I often felt like I was walking next to Macon and Willow, or Willow's brother Luke and his partner.

This is *not* an easy, fast romantic read. The issues contained in "Paris Was the Place" are complicated and poignant. I found myself drawn into the story in ways I did not anticipate, and recommend it highly.

[Karen Michele Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed Paris was the Place, but I did feel that after being engaged in the story of Willow's work with immigrant girls, their different stories, her attachment to one of the girls and her love for Macon, the lawyer trying to help the girls stay in Paris for half of the book, I was suddenly drawn in to a different story. Willow's gay brother, Luke, is an important part of her life in Paris and her relationship with him and his partner help fill in the backstory of her life before Paris. Then, this suddenly becomes the main focus of the novel in the second half. I really enjoyed both parts of the book, but was beginning to wonder if it would be tied together in the end. Both parts were well written and I loved the descriptions of Paris, so I still closed the book with a positive impression of Conley's writing. I also loved the last line of the book!

[Beth Hartnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start out by saying that I am a huge Susan Conley fan and I look forward to reading her second novel. Her first book, a memoir, is on my Favorites shelf and I had the foremost good fortune of meeting her in Portsmouth. Her first novel has a lot going for it. First of all, it is set in Paris, a magical city I know fairly well and love. The characters are interesting and she succeds in pulling you into their lives and making you care about them. There are snatches of fabulous writing that leave you not wanting to put the book down. When struggling to share my opinion of this novel, I decided that the best description of the experience was akin to a pinball game. I felt like that shiny metal ball careening madly around the enclosure as I was flung into different story lines and phases of Willie Pear's life.

[Clare Morin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply satisfying read that takes you to Paris, to the romantic beaches of France and the grubby backstreets, into hospitals and a refugee detention center. It takes you deeply into a woman's heart - and on a journey as that heart gets tested and pulled through pain and bliss. I loved reading this book. The characters followed me as I walked about my life. It made me question the stories hiding behind the faces that passed me on the street. It made me want to look more closely. It made me feel more connected. It also made me want to pick up a pen and start writing my own story.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still thinking so much about Willie and Macon, and Luke, long after I finished this book. Usually books set in Paris make the city a huge presence, impressing us with its beauty and romance-- but here Susan Conley has made Paris a very realistic place. Refugees live there, people become ill, hearts are broken-- all taking place along the amazing picturesqueness of the city. Looking forward to reading the author's previous book now!

[Shanon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good story and well written. I did figure out what was wrong with the brother very early on but that predictability didn't hurt the story, in fact it just helped remind me what things were like with disease in the 80's. I do wish Goodreads allowed 1/2 stars I had a hard time deciding between 3 and 4 but in the end I choose 3 because I felt like the nice pretty bow that it was wrapped up in the end was too predictable.