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French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris
French or Faux?
When Scott Carpenter moves from Minnesota to Paris, little does he suspect the dramas that Scheming neighbors, police denunciations, surly demonstrators, cooking disasters, medical mishaps - not to mention all those lectures about cheese! It turns out that nothing in the City of Light can be taken for granted, where even trips to the grocery store lead to adventure.
In French Like Moi, Carpenter guides us through the merry labyrinth of the everyday, one hilarious faux pas after another. Through it all, he keeps his eye on the central mystery of what makes the French French (and Midwesterners Midwestern).
When Scott Carpenter moves from Minnesota to Paris, little does he suspect the dramas that Scheming neighbors, police denunciations, surly demonstrators, cooking disasters, medical mishaps - not to mention all those lectures about cheese! It turns out that nothing in the City of Light can be taken for granted, where even trips to the grocery store lead to adventure.
In French Like Moi, Carpenter guides us through the merry labyrinth of the everyday, one hilarious faux pas after another. Through it all, he keeps his eye on the central mystery of what makes the French French (and Midwesterners Midwestern).
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First published January 1, 2020
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About the author
Scott Dominic Carpenter
7 books59 followersMinnesota-born and Midwest-bred, Scott Dominic Carpenter is the author of Theory of Remainders: A Novel (named to Kirkus Reviews’ “Best Books of 2013”), This Jealous Earth: Stories, French Like Moi (2020) and its sequel Paris Lost and Found, coming out 9/24. Winner of a Mark Twain House Royal Nonesuch Prize (2018) and recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, he has published in a wide variety of venues, including The Rumpus, Silk Road, Catapult, and South Dakota Review. His work has also appeared in various anthologies.
When not tearing his hair out over life in France, Carpenter teaches French literature and creative writing at Carleton College (MN).
His website is at www.sdcarpenter.com.
When not tearing his hair out over life in France, Carpenter teaches French literature and creative writing at Carleton College (MN).
His website is at www.sdcarpenter.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
August 29, 2020
Did not like this book, did not like this person. Ex-pats in France and Italy are my favorite books to read. But this guy was the epitome of the ugly American in Paris. On every page he compared how things were done back home in the US - how health insurance and doctors work, how restaurants and bars work, how homeless are treated, etc. Then there was him acting like he was above the rules - Apply for a visa to live in France - nah, not for him! He didn't even bother - too much trouble. But he told a charming little story of how his mother returned to a store a set of dishes that she had used for five years! So I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
I won't even get into the snarky, sarcastic jokey remarks about everything - even the Bataclan attacks. Yes, it's too soon.
I won't even get into the snarky, sarcastic jokey remarks about everything - even the Bataclan attacks. Yes, it's too soon.
February 11, 2022
I read this book with my book club of fellow Carleton alums (the author is a French professor there), and I really wanted to like it. It did not work for me. There were several parts in which unexamined (or in some cases ‘acknowledged’ but…barely) privilege felt like it oozed from the pages. Going to France for a year, buying a home there, intending to live there? No need to obtain a legally required visa, that would be too much hassle. Don’t want to go through the required steps to legally bring my pet cat into the country? I’ll just drug it and hide it my carry on! I feel like more than once in the book he talks about being out and about and realizing he’d left his wallet and/or phone at home, and I guess the point was supposed to be that he’s sort of a bumbling midwesterner…but it just read like he didn’t worry about those trivial things because he knew everything would basically always be fine for him. I did find a few of the individual essays to be interesting / engaging (the bits about navigating life in multiple languages, the exploration of the undergrounds of Paris), but overall the book just didn’t hit the right tone for me.
August 7, 2020
As I read French Like Moi I kept thinking of Hemingway's famous line, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."
Never mind that American writer Scott Carpenter isn't all that young when he takes us around the City of Lights. What's Hemingwayesque about this satisfying little memoir, much like A Moveable Feast, is how it lives with us long past its last page. Just as with the best of Hemingway's prose, Carpenter tells us as much about life by what he doesn't spell out as by what he does. There's great underlying power in his lean descriptions of Paris's sights and sounds, people and conversations. Much about ourselves lies metaphorically beneath the surface not only of Paris's streets and sidewalks, but of Carpenter's clever, sometimes funny, always taut observations.
For example, in one of my favorite chapters, "Underground Man," Carpenter, contemplating the city's surface glitz, says, "Everyone knows how the theaters sparkle in Paris, how the domes glint, and the monuments swagger. ... More glamorous than the Louvre that it contains, Paris becomes the museum of itself, putting its curves on display and swooning over its own image, mirrored in the eyes of its admirers. ... There had to be some way to go deeper, to get to the bottom of it."
And so he leads us, literally, into the dark world of subterranean tunnels crisscrossing the city. Metaphorically, though, this tour of catacombs and skulls and ancient ghoulish chambers is really an exploration of ourselves—the bones of our human baseness, the femurs of our vanities. "The part you visited," says his underground tour guide (think of Charon ferrying dead souls across the River Styx), "that's just the beginning."
In an epiphany-like revelation, the author declares, "It wasn't lost on me that the consolidation des sols was taking place outside my own...window. ... I had hit upon something essential. This was it. Or rather, this was id, the opaque center of the city's desire—its drive, its urge, its unconscious." Realizing that ego is our worst enemy, from his symbolic hell Carpenter emerges purged. He had begun his below-ground adventure imagining himself the next Indiana Jones, but rises into sunlight with fresh humility: "Who, I wondered, would play me in the movie? Harrison Ford was too old. Bogart was too dead."
"Who knows?" he says at the end of his subliminal exploration. "Maybe that's the essence of Paris: it keeps you turning, confronts you with yourself, always leaving you a touch off balance."
And so does Carpenter's splendid book keep his readers a touch off balance—in a subtle yet profound, moveable feast way.
Never mind that American writer Scott Carpenter isn't all that young when he takes us around the City of Lights. What's Hemingwayesque about this satisfying little memoir, much like A Moveable Feast, is how it lives with us long past its last page. Just as with the best of Hemingway's prose, Carpenter tells us as much about life by what he doesn't spell out as by what he does. There's great underlying power in his lean descriptions of Paris's sights and sounds, people and conversations. Much about ourselves lies metaphorically beneath the surface not only of Paris's streets and sidewalks, but of Carpenter's clever, sometimes funny, always taut observations.
For example, in one of my favorite chapters, "Underground Man," Carpenter, contemplating the city's surface glitz, says, "Everyone knows how the theaters sparkle in Paris, how the domes glint, and the monuments swagger. ... More glamorous than the Louvre that it contains, Paris becomes the museum of itself, putting its curves on display and swooning over its own image, mirrored in the eyes of its admirers. ... There had to be some way to go deeper, to get to the bottom of it."
And so he leads us, literally, into the dark world of subterranean tunnels crisscrossing the city. Metaphorically, though, this tour of catacombs and skulls and ancient ghoulish chambers is really an exploration of ourselves—the bones of our human baseness, the femurs of our vanities. "The part you visited," says his underground tour guide (think of Charon ferrying dead souls across the River Styx), "that's just the beginning."
In an epiphany-like revelation, the author declares, "It wasn't lost on me that the consolidation des sols was taking place outside my own...window. ... I had hit upon something essential. This was it. Or rather, this was id, the opaque center of the city's desire—its drive, its urge, its unconscious." Realizing that ego is our worst enemy, from his symbolic hell Carpenter emerges purged. He had begun his below-ground adventure imagining himself the next Indiana Jones, but rises into sunlight with fresh humility: "Who, I wondered, would play me in the movie? Harrison Ford was too old. Bogart was too dead."
"Who knows?" he says at the end of his subliminal exploration. "Maybe that's the essence of Paris: it keeps you turning, confronts you with yourself, always leaving you a touch off balance."
And so does Carpenter's splendid book keep his readers a touch off balance—in a subtle yet profound, moveable feast way.
September 15, 2020
I picked up this book because I love all things French (and British, btw!) and thought this would be a fun read. Well . . . not so much. The author is a teacher who lives in Paris as an expatriate, along with his wife and daughter. The book is really a collection of essays, slices of his life in Paris, much of which was published in periodicals prior to the book publication. The author's view of the French and their culture was neither affectionate nor illuminating. There are a few comedic elements to his essays, but some were horrifying -- such as the chapter that includes descriptions of the clochards (beggars) on his street -- his condescension and poor attempts at humor were pitiful. The author's observations are surface-level only, and his lack of self-awareness about his reactions makes reading painful.
July 7, 2020
Reading French Like Moi is like strolling through Paris with your own personal flâneur—one who can find the perfect meal, dissect French motives, conquer bureaucracy, and keep you laughing all the way. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
July 17, 2020
This is a delightful book! The author strings together a series of fascinating anecdotes to present a humorous take on the familiar trope of the American expat in Paris. These aperçus provide an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. Highly recommended.
August 12, 2021
Scott Carpenter--a professor of French and creative writing at my alma mater, Carleton College--weaves in many day-to-day anecdotes in his tale of buying and living in a Paris, France, apartment. A native of Wisconsin whose parents encouraged his French education from an early age, Carpenter readily reveals how and why he often felt out of place in Paris, despite his decades-long affinity for and familiarity with all things Francophone. Carpenter offers up heaping tidbits of daily French quirks that mystify Americans; differences in the medical system, apartment/condo associations, education and cuisine are all part of the fun. As a parent of a current college student, however, I was a bit taken aback at a couple of his tales, knowing he has taken numerous groups of students to France as their protector and guide. For instance, he skirted the pursuit of a proper visa (during the year he was purchasing his apartment while on a lengthy sabbatical) and was thus taken in for questioning by the French police, and his last anecdote/short story revealed (quite dryly) how, even after all his French experiences, he was suckered by an allegedly blind beggar on the Metro and lost his wallet as a result. This is an entertaining read filled with self-deprecating humor and yet a cautionary tale for those casually dreaming of a trip to Paris without the benefit of extensive French language skills and/or knowledge of French culture and customs.
April 9, 2020
Charmant!
Scott Carpenter is a professor of French literature and has spent a lot of time in Paris studying his field, but French Like Moi is not about Sartre or Victor Hugo. French Like Moi is a collection of eighteen essays about la vie Parisienne, and all I can say is “bien joué́̕̕̕̕̕ ” ! This is a book about Paris life, but it is not a travel book. We will not read here about the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower. As Carpenter says, “Americans like to get the feel of things”, and French Like Moi is a montage of portraits of Paris life that adds up to the “feel” of Paris, with many smiles along the way.
Paris is, indeed, a foreign country, especially for a Midwesterner, as the author discovers when he and his wife buy a condo and he introduces himself to his elderly neighbor and offers to help him with his load of groceries. ” When the poor fellow clutched his heart in surprise, I realized my mistake: I’d mistaken this man for a neighbor when he was, instead, a voisin. “ He soons learns to affect “Paris nonchalance”, however, and takes the reader along as he dives into real French culture, like buying light bulbs or visiting the doctor or dealing with French police over the issue of his missing visa. He even joins the board of his condo association---now that takes GUTS! You can’t talk about French life without discussing food, and the reader is treated to the full gamut, from enjoying a ten-course meal to making coq au vin for friends and embarking on the adventure of shopping for the right ingredients. The author’s “research” is impressive; he even takes a clandestine trip with a “cataphile” seven stories beneath the pavement of Paris to explore the catacombs, where the bones of six million Parisians lie.
So what is Carpenter’s conclusion about the essence of Paris? As he says, “Maybe that’s the essence of Paris: it keeps you turning, confronts you with yourself, always leaving you a touch off balance.” Maybe a touch off balance but highly entertained all the way!
Scott Carpenter is a professor of French literature and has spent a lot of time in Paris studying his field, but French Like Moi is not about Sartre or Victor Hugo. French Like Moi is a collection of eighteen essays about la vie Parisienne, and all I can say is “bien joué́̕̕̕̕̕ ” ! This is a book about Paris life, but it is not a travel book. We will not read here about the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower. As Carpenter says, “Americans like to get the feel of things”, and French Like Moi is a montage of portraits of Paris life that adds up to the “feel” of Paris, with many smiles along the way.
Paris is, indeed, a foreign country, especially for a Midwesterner, as the author discovers when he and his wife buy a condo and he introduces himself to his elderly neighbor and offers to help him with his load of groceries. ” When the poor fellow clutched his heart in surprise, I realized my mistake: I’d mistaken this man for a neighbor when he was, instead, a voisin. “ He soons learns to affect “Paris nonchalance”, however, and takes the reader along as he dives into real French culture, like buying light bulbs or visiting the doctor or dealing with French police over the issue of his missing visa. He even joins the board of his condo association---now that takes GUTS! You can’t talk about French life without discussing food, and the reader is treated to the full gamut, from enjoying a ten-course meal to making coq au vin for friends and embarking on the adventure of shopping for the right ingredients. The author’s “research” is impressive; he even takes a clandestine trip with a “cataphile” seven stories beneath the pavement of Paris to explore the catacombs, where the bones of six million Parisians lie.
So what is Carpenter’s conclusion about the essence of Paris? As he says, “Maybe that’s the essence of Paris: it keeps you turning, confronts you with yourself, always leaving you a touch off balance.” Maybe a touch off balance but highly entertained all the way!
July 6, 2020
French Like Moi reads like a conversation with a good friend, one who happens to have an apartment in Paris, knows the language and culture, and can talk into the wee hours of the morning about the triumphs and missteps of being a Midwesterner in the City of Lights. Each of the stories is based on the author’s actual experiences navigating the linguistic and cultural landscape of the city, whether it’s circumventing the day’s protest to pick up his daughter from school or finding the right light bulb at the hardware store. The collection affords a humorous and insightful sketch of Parisian and American quirks and behaviors. We learn a lot about Mr. Carpenter, his intrepid curiosity, and his flair for turning the most unassuming event into a humorous and telling story. French Like Moi is creative nonfiction, a personal history, both cultural analysis and short story collection. It rejects the glossy travelogue catalogue of Paris to get at the daily experience of being and not being a part of it all. In fact, the delight of these stories is the humility of the author as he allows us to learn about the practical act of living and being in Paris through his own blunders and his adjustments. A wonderful collection for travelers, students, Francophiles, Midwesterners or anyone who likes a humorous tale.
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February 28, 2023French Like Moi is not so much a travel narrative as it is a settled-in narrative. Author Scott Dominic Carpenter is a midwestern academic who decides to move to Paris along with his wife and young daughter. His adventures focus mostly on his apartment building, its surrounding neighborhood, and what they reveal about the Parisian character. Carpenter has a wry sense of humor, so his interactions with his neighbors are funny episodes that sometimes poke fun at his fellow residents but just as often at himself.
July 7, 2020
At last! An American in Paris who doesn't sound like one! As any "Parisien", Scott Carpenter wasn't born and raised in the City. But he knows it quite well and offers with "French Like Moi" a delightful "promenade" in its neighborhoods, along with vivid and hilarious portraits of its inhabitants; mocking them, mocking the average American tourist here and there... and mocking himself as well. Sharp, subtle, witty. A must read that reminded me of "Paris Insolite" by Jean-Paul Clébert.
May 4, 2021
As a French major and Midwesterner who has been to France many times, I truly dislike the condescending tone toward both “sides” of this author’s comparisons. Making fun of people doesn’t mean it’s funny.
November 27, 2020
Really not very interesting. Not sure why he wrote this book
January 24, 2021
Like a cross between A Year in Provence and David Sedaris' essays. Made me laugh out loud at times. In the beginning, his writing about the homeless and the residents of his neighborhood could be surprisingly disrespectful and out of touch, falling short of humor and landing at condescension. But beyond this, each essay is well-crafted and gives astute insight into how it feels to be an American in France. He has a talent for making the most mundane of experiences into full-fledged stories and commentaries. Really entertaining read -- would definitely recommend!
February 11, 2021
My star level errs perhaps on the side of generosity. I have known Scott for many years, but more significantly, I lived in France off and on for 5 years, and ran two Jr Year programs. This is to suggest that we all have tales of French-ness. If I have any problems with this otherwise enjoyable text, it has to do with having used Nadeau & Barlow's book, 60 Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, over 20 times in a Contemporary France class, and therefore have had access to many more pertinent anecdotes about things French besides my own. So what? After all, this is a memoir, not a textbook, right? Well, if so, I guess I just was not all that convinced by our memorialist. What I mean is, the Scott I know -- a well respected educator and French scholar, a personable guy -- just does not correspond to this rather hapless, bumbling narrator in Paree. So, he created a narrative persona for himself? Probably, but somehow I could not connect with THIS guy at all. But since his French experiences are just as valid as mine, kudos to him for recording some of them for our edification. I just wish I could find out the aftereffects of his daughter's year in French education, and also how his wife spent her time as he wandered about gathering impressions.
July 25, 2020
What a hoot! I absolutely loved this book. As one who has lived in the Midwest for two decades and visited Paris multiple times, I really enjoyed Scott's observations. So many laugh out loud moments as I recognized similarities between his experiences and mine. So grateful to good reads giveaways for choosing me to receive a free ARC of this delightful book. I look forward to reading more about Scott's adventures in Paris!!
September 3, 2020
A fun read that took me back to Paris.
April 7, 2021
It was like listening to my Dad the whole time. And I read to escape that so, 2 stars.
May 13, 2022
An American man recounts his months living in a condo in Paris. Unlike the usual tourist experience, author Scott Dominic Carpenter gives us the point of view of an American living in Paris as a resident. He works there, his daughter goes to school there. He purchases a condo. The charm of the book is that he recounts everyday ordinary occurrences - going to the pharmacy or the grocery store or the doctor's office and many other experiences of regular daily life - but he shares with us what it's like to do these routine things in Paris rather than in the US. His story is entertaining and humor-filled. I had at least one laugh-out-loud moment. (One was when he described a disappointingly small remodeled bedroom in his condo as a bit "Anne Frankish" in dimensions.)
The book gives one a very good idea of what it would be like to live in Paris. It should be required reading for any American businessperson or academic or government representative about to be stationed there for several months or longer.
The title is a tiny-bit misleading in that Carpenter rarely explains how his being a Midwesterner versus a New Yorker, Texan, Southern boy, or Californian, informed his experience - other than that he is unusually self-effacing and does seem to be "Minnesota nice" (in fact he is from Minnesota).
I should probably give it more than three stars but this seems more like a long New Yorker article than a normal book - it is light and airy as a soufflé. And just as tasty.
The book gives one a very good idea of what it would be like to live in Paris. It should be required reading for any American businessperson or academic or government representative about to be stationed there for several months or longer.
The title is a tiny-bit misleading in that Carpenter rarely explains how his being a Midwesterner versus a New Yorker, Texan, Southern boy, or Californian, informed his experience - other than that he is unusually self-effacing and does seem to be "Minnesota nice" (in fact he is from Minnesota).
I should probably give it more than three stars but this seems more like a long New Yorker article than a normal book - it is light and airy as a soufflé. And just as tasty.
September 22, 2024
Clever and so funny.
May 5, 2021
I really enjoyed this book! I liked the short snippets of the author's life in Paris. They were told well in the sense that one could easily imagine themselves there experiencing it with him.
July 1, 2025
On audiobook
August 16, 2021
Oh my word, no!
September 17, 2021
French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris
Scott Dominic Carpenter
Reviewed by Barbara Artson
I confess: I am a francophile. I have loved the sound and the feel of the French language as it tickled my tongue from the moment, some forty years ago, when I signed up for Madame Moncheur’s beginning French class at the Marina Junior High School in San Francisco. So, when I was asked to review a galley proof of Scott Dominic Carpenter's French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris, I knew I would enjoy it. And I wasn’t wrong.
In a series of amusing and witty essays, Carpenter, a teacher of French literature at Carleton College, recounts the frivolous, and at times not so frivolous, blunders and frustrations he experienced, after moving his Minnesota family to a working-class arrondissement in Paris. Rather than the friendly “over-the-fence” chat, or the welcoming smile he had come to expect from his midwestern neighbors, he is greeted with the French “shrug.” Or by a rude neighbor with her equally undisciplined dog. There’s his scary escapade with the French bureaucracy when he failed to file the forms required for the renewal of his visa. Each chapter, enhanced with charming sketches by artist Liam Golden, delivers yet another incident, another occasion to giggle or to shrug your shoulders and say, “Oui, c’est les Francais!”
Whether francophone, francophile, or not, this is a memoir to bring some light and laughter to your day during these dark times.
Scott Dominic Carpenter
Reviewed by Barbara Artson
I confess: I am a francophile. I have loved the sound and the feel of the French language as it tickled my tongue from the moment, some forty years ago, when I signed up for Madame Moncheur’s beginning French class at the Marina Junior High School in San Francisco. So, when I was asked to review a galley proof of Scott Dominic Carpenter's French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris, I knew I would enjoy it. And I wasn’t wrong.
In a series of amusing and witty essays, Carpenter, a teacher of French literature at Carleton College, recounts the frivolous, and at times not so frivolous, blunders and frustrations he experienced, after moving his Minnesota family to a working-class arrondissement in Paris. Rather than the friendly “over-the-fence” chat, or the welcoming smile he had come to expect from his midwestern neighbors, he is greeted with the French “shrug.” Or by a rude neighbor with her equally undisciplined dog. There’s his scary escapade with the French bureaucracy when he failed to file the forms required for the renewal of his visa. Each chapter, enhanced with charming sketches by artist Liam Golden, delivers yet another incident, another occasion to giggle or to shrug your shoulders and say, “Oui, c’est les Francais!”
Whether francophone, francophile, or not, this is a memoir to bring some light and laughter to your day during these dark times.
July 19, 2020
Admittedly I may have come into this a little biased, since Prof. Carpenter led my study-abroad trip to Paris some fifteen years back, but I loved it! Having a similar Midwestern background I found myself relating very strongly to his perspective and means of storytelling. It's not a perfect book, and I'd be more inclined to a 4.5 if it were possible, but still - it was great, and I'd recommend it to anyone with even a minor case of Francophilia. Très charmant.
March 7, 2021
I hoped it would be more interesting than it was. I think the author is perhaps his own best audience. It seemed that many of his mishaps and misadventures, rather than being characteristic of the lack of alignment of expectations and understandings between himself (a Midwesterner) and his environment as a resident of Paris, instead seemed to be the result of his own naivete sometimes and poor judgement other times. I've lived in the area, have visited Paris many times, and have never come close to having problems or completely avoidable issues that seemed to befall him regularly.
I hope things are going better for him or that he's returned to the US. In the world of soccer, too many of his mishaps would be described as own goals. He seemed to often cause his own problems.
I hope things are going better for him or that he's returned to the US. In the world of soccer, too many of his mishaps would be described as own goals. He seemed to often cause his own problems.
May 30, 2020
I won an Uncorrected Galley Proof of French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris by Scott Dominic Carpenter from Goodreads.
Like a domestic fish out of its tank swimming in the wild, Scott Dominic Carpenter experiences life as a new homeowner in Paris, France, in his book French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris. Readers should anticipate unexpected encounters and excursions along with the humorous twists of everyday life while living abroad. Armchair Travelers have never seen Paris quite like this! French Like Moi is entertaining, enlightening, and engrossing.
Like a domestic fish out of its tank swimming in the wild, Scott Dominic Carpenter experiences life as a new homeowner in Paris, France, in his book French Like Moi: A Midwesterner in Paris. Readers should anticipate unexpected encounters and excursions along with the humorous twists of everyday life while living abroad. Armchair Travelers have never seen Paris quite like this! French Like Moi is entertaining, enlightening, and engrossing.
October 31, 2020
Mr. Carpenter got it right; no sugar coating Paris or Parisians.
December 6, 2020
This is a thoroughly enjoyable series of essays and it ended perfectly.
February 2, 2021
I enjoyed this relatively short book about living as an American in Paris. The writing was really good, witty and so readable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews