The Old World Dies

by Kyle Jarrard

“The Old World Dies” is a comic satire on the final decline of France and the cleverly melodramatic adventures of a dreamy painter of nudes, his colorful models and spinster benefactors, an American swindler, an unlucky taxi driver, a savage teenage gang girl, and a well-lubricated cast of supporting actors, living or not, as they scurry through the great cultural and social collapse. The mad dash for the exits opens to the pleasant tinkling of sheep bells high in the Pyrenees where nature-struck Parisian artists wander through the fog looking for light to the bemusement of the Basque people, plunges into the Sturm und Drang of Paris where the well-heeled cower as suburban riffraff rush the walls and pet poodles take to speaking Portuguese, then swings out to sunny California and drinks with a con artist in a nice bar located on a dangerous coastal road, before arriving at a picture-postcard resort in Mexico where a beach artist dashes off paintings at sunset of those who, deserving or not, survived.

220 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2018

About the author

Kyle Jarrard, a Texas-born writer who moved to Paris in 1981, is the author most recently of "The Old World Dies," a comic satire on the decline of France.

The novel received a starred review from Kirkus, which noted: "An intoxicatingly unique literary voice that demands further attention." Go here for the full review: https://goo.gl/D7Lbx9

IndieReader gave "The Old World Dies" 4 stars and called it "a lush and vividly poetic book, meant to be experienced as a piece of art, a moving portrait of intersecting lives and relationships." Full review here: https://goo.gl/C6jjCw

Jarrard has published two other novels: “Over There” and “Rolling the Bones.” A history book: “Cognac: The Saga of the World’s Most Coveted Spirit,” which also has been published in French. And a volume of poetry: "Garden of Demise."

He is a former senior editor at the International New York Times and lives near Paris with his cat Lily.

Reviews

[Susan Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mélange of desperate last romances, Paris artists of the absurd, marauding girl gangs, the strange murder of taxi driver Roland Aymé, an American art swindler named Jonathan C. Green, the eccentric and much-traveled Millet sisters, definitely dead tax men, vast art collections in private villas, Basque-country fogs and a bear named Antonio. Quite a ride, but the determined reader will be rewarded by sly characterizations and a nuanced style rich in comic hyperbole.

[Lavender]

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I won this book via Goodreads Giveaways.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book held my interest throughout with the unique and interesting storyline