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Paris Syndrome
In these eleven stories, debut author Lucy Sweeney Byrne invites us to experience travelling the world alone as a young woman, with all its attendant pleasures and dangers.
The staff of a boat moored in Brooklyn rebel against their tyrannical boss. A drifting writer house-sits in the wilds of Donegal in the midst of a health scare. In a Texas dive bar, two former lovers try to salvage a friendship from their intense connection. And in Mexico, a frustrated artist navigates a city both dangerous and alluring.
Whether set in New York, Oaxaca, Havana or back home in Dublin, the result is by turns sharp, fearless and heartbreaking. Laced with biting humour and devastating observations, Paris Syndrome introduces a unique literary talent.
The staff of a boat moored in Brooklyn rebel against their tyrannical boss. A drifting writer house-sits in the wilds of Donegal in the midst of a health scare. In a Texas dive bar, two former lovers try to salvage a friendship from their intense connection. And in Mexico, a frustrated artist navigates a city both dangerous and alluring.
Whether set in New York, Oaxaca, Havana or back home in Dublin, the result is by turns sharp, fearless and heartbreaking. Laced with biting humour and devastating observations, Paris Syndrome introduces a unique literary talent.
256 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 21, 2020
Paris Syndrome is a collection of interconnected short stories that follows its principal character, Lucy, as she finds herself flitting from one place to the next, forced to confront who she is inside and outside different millieux, alternately surprised by what she is capable of doing and disillusioned by a sense of inherent sameness in her self across all these places.
In all the stories in Paris Syndrome there is a through line of psychological and emotional fluctuation. And this is exactly what makes this collection so lend itself to the "millennial" label. Lucy is a character burdened by an overwhelming emotional sensitivity and yet, at the same time, often witness to her own feelings of passivity and emptiness. At times she strains to manufacture emotion to perform in what she believes is the context that requires it. At others she is almost incapacitated by a hyperawareness of everything within and without her: an all-too-sudden sense of the uncontrollability of her experience in an already precarious, uncontrollable world.
This "nothing" emotional state is perhaps most emblematic of Sweeney Byrne's whole collection. There are, in these stories, nothings with different emotional inflections: the "easy nothing" in "Montparnasse" that so disturbs Lucy; the desperate, self-imposed nothing of "Zeno's Paradox," one borne out of an instinct to suppress and protect the self from pain; and the lost nothing in "La Rêve" that is acted upon because...why not? All of this is to say, at different points throughout her travels, Lucy is constantly in the throes of the push and pull of her own self, indulging in her emotions so extremely so as to obscure them, or else refusing to engage in them at all.
When we travel, we expect the places we go to to give us something: an answer, a feeling, an insight. What Lucy wants from the cities she travels to is unclear, and that is exactly what defines her experiences in Paris Syndrome. She wants something from these cities, but she doesn't know what it is. And so she keeps moving, travelling, hoping that, at some point, it will all click for her. There is no feeling more millennial than that. (I would know.)
Thematic discussion aside, the best story in this collection is by far "Zeno's Paradox." Heartbreaking and beautifully written, with a perfect title to boot. My other favourites included "And We Continue to Live" and "Montparnasse."
There were some aspects here that I didn't love, namely the language used to describe fatness (I felt that a lot of it bordered on, or was, fatphobic), and the way that some of these cities and their natives were described, especially Mexico. I'm not from any of the cities mentioned in this book, so I can't exactly tell to what extent these descriptions were appropriate, but some of them definitely didn't feel right to me.
Paris Syndrome is, I think, a collection that is most invested in exploring how a kind of psychological restlessness manifests itself in a geographical restlessness. There aren't exactly answers to be found in these stories, but there is always an effort to question, unsettle, negotiate.
(Thank you so much to Banshee Lit for sending me a review copy of this in exchange for an honest review!)
In all the stories in Paris Syndrome there is a through line of psychological and emotional fluctuation. And this is exactly what makes this collection so lend itself to the "millennial" label. Lucy is a character burdened by an overwhelming emotional sensitivity and yet, at the same time, often witness to her own feelings of passivity and emptiness. At times she strains to manufacture emotion to perform in what she believes is the context that requires it. At others she is almost incapacitated by a hyperawareness of everything within and without her: an all-too-sudden sense of the uncontrollability of her experience in an already precarious, uncontrollable world.
"And this realization of yet again feeling absolutely nothing when there ought to have been something caused a slicing of sharp, reddish-pink heat to rise in my chest. I flexed my fingers and worked hard on remaining calm. Not to shout out, to howl, to start banging my chest or pulling out my hair or scratching my nails deep into the soft, well-moisturized skin of my very kind, very good friend or - even better - to lie down right there on the white dusty path; to curl up and stop altogether.
Luckily, in a matter of seconds . . . this feeling too passed. And I was left with my familiar, easy nothing."
This "nothing" emotional state is perhaps most emblematic of Sweeney Byrne's whole collection. There are, in these stories, nothings with different emotional inflections: the "easy nothing" in "Montparnasse" that so disturbs Lucy; the desperate, self-imposed nothing of "Zeno's Paradox," one borne out of an instinct to suppress and protect the self from pain; and the lost nothing in "La Rêve" that is acted upon because...why not? All of this is to say, at different points throughout her travels, Lucy is constantly in the throes of the push and pull of her own self, indulging in her emotions so extremely so as to obscure them, or else refusing to engage in them at all.
". . . she was deafened, overwhelmed by the din of all that unspoken silence . . . all the endless stories, forgotten, wordless stories . . All the lives lost and ruined right here, lives like hers, measly and nothing and everything too"
When we travel, we expect the places we go to to give us something: an answer, a feeling, an insight. What Lucy wants from the cities she travels to is unclear, and that is exactly what defines her experiences in Paris Syndrome. She wants something from these cities, but she doesn't know what it is. And so she keeps moving, travelling, hoping that, at some point, it will all click for her. There is no feeling more millennial than that. (I would know.)
Thematic discussion aside, the best story in this collection is by far "Zeno's Paradox." Heartbreaking and beautifully written, with a perfect title to boot. My other favourites included "And We Continue to Live" and "Montparnasse."
There were some aspects here that I didn't love, namely the language used to describe fatness (I felt that a lot of it bordered on, or was, fatphobic), and the way that some of these cities and their natives were described, especially Mexico. I'm not from any of the cities mentioned in this book, so I can't exactly tell to what extent these descriptions were appropriate, but some of them definitely didn't feel right to me.
Paris Syndrome is, I think, a collection that is most invested in exploring how a kind of psychological restlessness manifests itself in a geographical restlessness. There aren't exactly answers to be found in these stories, but there is always an effort to question, unsettle, negotiate.
(Thank you so much to Banshee Lit for sending me a review copy of this in exchange for an honest review!)
December 22, 2021
I wanted to like this book, but I really didn't. I really didn't gel with the stories or the way in which they were told.
"Where Do You Lay Your Head This Night?" is beautiful and I loved it, but it was the only redeemable one, and I suspect that may have more to do with my obsession with Dublin than with the actual story/writing.
"Where Do You Lay Your Head This Night?" is beautiful and I loved it, but it was the only redeemable one, and I suspect that may have more to do with my obsession with Dublin than with the actual story/writing.
February 12, 2025
Fun Irish hot mess literature about being lost, mostly in the figurative sense and at times literally.
Did find that the story on Mexico was giving a bit of Emilia Pérez as it mostly portrayed the country as a place of machismo and violence.
Did find that the story on Mexico was giving a bit of Emilia Pérez as it mostly portrayed the country as a place of machismo and violence.
August 22, 2022
What does it mean to be 21 and not know what your place is in the world? To seek romance and danger in foreign cities and places? To be young, restless, and in seek of adventure, only to find the adventure was not all that you imagined it could be?
Byrne explores these questions through a series of short stories surrounding Lucy - a young woman who is finding her place in the world (perhaps roughly resembling the author herself). Overall a good read (wish I could give in 3.5 stars!), but there was something that felt like it was slightly missing for me, in this series of short stories.
Byrne explores these questions through a series of short stories surrounding Lucy - a young woman who is finding her place in the world (perhaps roughly resembling the author herself). Overall a good read (wish I could give in 3.5 stars!), but there was something that felt like it was slightly missing for me, in this series of short stories.
October 30, 2021
I loved the book’s idea to tell stories of a woman traveling alone, and the back cover of this book spoke to me. I should have loved this book, but for some reason, I didn’t - I did enjoy it, and it was a good read, but I was left with more restlessness and questions than I thought I’d be. Confusing. Maybe it was all too millennial and existential crisis? I don't know.
October 26, 2023
nekaj med 3,5 in 4
prvi short story je bil mi ful vsec in res se mi je zdel iskren in dobro napisan. zelo se lahko poistivetis, ker je avtobiografsko o punci v 20ih, ki potuje, ker ne ve kaj tocno bi s sabo in kamorkoli potuje se pocuti isto izgubljeno+trudi se ves cas pisat in ji ne gre in jo to boli, ker bi rada se prezivljala s tem.
ostale zgodbe so mi malo izpadle, kot da se prevec trudi napisat to kar misli, da bo ljudem vsec, ne o tem kako dozivlja stvari v resnici in se zelo pozna.
prvi short story je bil mi ful vsec in res se mi je zdel iskren in dobro napisan. zelo se lahko poistivetis, ker je avtobiografsko o punci v 20ih, ki potuje, ker ne ve kaj tocno bi s sabo in kamorkoli potuje se pocuti isto izgubljeno+trudi se ves cas pisat in ji ne gre in jo to boli, ker bi rada se prezivljala s tem.
ostale zgodbe so mi malo izpadle, kot da se prevec trudi napisat to kar misli, da bo ljudem vsec, ne o tem kako dozivlja stvari v resnici in se zelo pozna.
December 1, 2024
Quite literally my favorite book I’ve ever read. I don’t even write reviews on Goodreads but, for this one, I have to. I have never read a book that is so relatable yet so lyrical, so modern yet so timeless. I’m simply obsessed.
October 5, 2019
Adored this book. Lucy writes with grit and honesty, so much so that I now feel I know the girl better than my best mate! Brilliant.
April 22, 2021
Full of millennial wandering and unfulfilled love life, this is a very rounded and varied group of short stories that are united in themes; travel while looking homewards, typical Irish feelings of being OK but unfulfilled both in love and life and artists stifled by feelings of having nothing extraordinary to write. Yet extraordinary this collection is, full of nuance, evocative descriptions and somewhat grey area (at times) characters that are deserving of happiness and written with empathy. The style is sometimes experimental and sometimes shifts to slightly shocking places but overall is realism at its finest.
September 20, 2019
Full of vitality and precision, and so rawly funny' - Kevin Barry
'Gripping and beautiful' - Gavin Corbett
'An addictive, keeps-you-up-till-the-birds-are-singing read' - Rob Doyle
'Fresh and restless' - Colin Barrett
'She writes brilliantly: every few pages you'll come across a turn of phrase or moment of insight so inventive, fresh and true, you'll wonder (enviously, I admit it) how someone so young can produce something this good.' - Daragh McManus, The Irish Independent.
'Gripping and beautiful' - Gavin Corbett
'An addictive, keeps-you-up-till-the-birds-are-singing read' - Rob Doyle
'Fresh and restless' - Colin Barrett
'She writes brilliantly: every few pages you'll come across a turn of phrase or moment of insight so inventive, fresh and true, you'll wonder (enviously, I admit it) how someone so young can produce something this good.' - Daragh McManus, The Irish Independent.
August 29, 2022
I'm torn by this book - generally, I enjoyed the whole collection of stories, only one truly bored me: feeling like an unnecessary and jarring intrusion. I'll leave you to make your own mind which one!
I loved the truthful style of writing, the imagery, character description and sense of adventure.
I think for me, where it falls down is the typical millennial character that feels the need to use sex for shock value.
I loved the truthful style of writing, the imagery, character description and sense of adventure.
I think for me, where it falls down is the typical millennial character that feels the need to use sex for shock value.
April 8, 2021
beautiful depictions of dublin, not so much a fan of the other settings. the author naming every single main character after herself was unenjoyable. some beautiful lines and paragraphs though, eg ‘you probably know all that stuff already, in some form or another; love’s like that’s the same for everybody’.
August 10, 2024
I never really write reviews but I had to for this one as there’s a lack of representation in the current reviews from the target audience. I really empathised with many of the short stories as I’m currently travelling the world. Lucy writes of the emotions and situations you find yourself in while you’re exploring new territories and how it’s not so straight forward and ideal as you’d imagine it all to be. Loved it!
April 29, 2025
Really loved the first short story and that was it. Did not like anything else— couldn’t even bring myself to read the last 2-3 short stories. I loathe the main character and the storylines are just so boring and flat. And yet another European author caricaturing the South! Boring!
November 16, 2019
Phenomenally beautiful and completely captivating, if purposeful disconcerting at times. This is a stunning debut and I’m distraught I can’t immediately go buy more of her books.
June 15, 2020
Quirky stories exploring the existential void at the heart of Millenial life.
Read
October 25, 2024Very enjoyable selection of stories: funny and varied and vivid
February 21, 2025
Left 40 pages in this book because I simply couldn’t force myself to finish it
Read
November 4, 2019This book might be the one.
February 12, 2022
Obsessed with being “smart” and “cool” rather than saying anything real.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews