An Editor’s Burial: Journals and Journalism from the New Yorker and Other Magazines

by Wes Anderson (Creator), David Brendel (Editor)

A glimpse of post-war France through the eyes and words of 14 (mostly) expatriate journalists including Mavis Gallant, James Baldwin, A.J. Liebling, S.N. Behrman, Luc Sante, Joseph Mitchell, and Lillian Ross; plus, portraits of their editors William Shawn and New Yorker founder Harold Ross. Together: they invented modern magazine journalism. Includes an introductory interview by Susan Morrison with Anderson about transforming fact into a fiction and the creation of his homage to these exceptional reporters.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Journalism, Film, Anthologies, History, France

352 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2021

About the author

Wesley Wales Anderson is an American director, writer, and producer of features, short films and commercials. He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adapted (loosely!) into Wes Anderson's Academy-snubbed The French Dispatch Of The Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (which avclub.com & I thought was the bee's knees anyway)

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: I wanted to wait until I saw the Academy's treatment of the film before I opened my yap. I thought the film, which is more an "inspired by" than an "adapted from" this anthology of very good essays, was a solid four-of-five, just like the anthology was; for the same reasons, even.

Collecting essays written by wildly different people at very different inflection points in History leads, if one mistakenly attempts to read the result as an aesthetic whole, to a sense of being lost. I made that mistake. The essays are, as expected, superb. The issue was "what's Mavis Gallant doing in the same place as Luc Sante?!" It's like walking in on your grandma getting head from your high-school cheer captain.

In the main, then, it's expectations that will float or sink your enjoyment-boat. If you approach this as a very, very thick issue of The New Yorker and pace yourself, the reads are separately marvelous. If one looks at the performances, the costumes, the aesthetic of Anderson's film in discrete parts, they are each excellent. But in neither case do they make a whole.

[Roy Lotz · Rating 3 out of 5]

One day, apropos of nothing, a former boss asked me if I read The New Yorker. “Not much,” I admitted, to which he replied—with a wistful glance into the middle distance—“Ah, it is the best writing in the world.”

Wes Anderson apparently agrees, as his most recent film, The French Chronicle, concerns a fictionalized version of that honored journal. Indeed, the inspiration is so direct that you can easily tell which articles in this collection were used in which sections of the film. If you want to understand Wes Anderson’s new movie, therefore, this book could hardly be better if it were written by a major deity.

Even if you have no interest at all in Anderson’s rather peculiar aesthetic, these pages contain some choice delights. There is an alarming piece, for example, by Joseph Mitchell, about the rats in New York City, and a wonderful contribution by James Baldwin about the time he was arrested in Paris for accidentally stealing a blanket. Equal parts mesmerizing and nauseating are two A.J. Liebling stories about eating and drinking himself half to death in France. The star of the collection, however, is undoubtedly Mavis Gallant’s Paris notebook, a firsthand account of the 1968 student uprisings.

Even so, much of this collection is of limited interest to the general reader, particularly the many pieces about Harold Ross, the founding editor of The New Yorker. So if you merely want to read some good, old pieces from this American institution, I have a strong suspicion that there are probably better compilations on the market. But if you are in the mood to do some homework before your next trip to the movie theater, then I welcome you to these pages.

(To see my review of the movie itself, click here: https://lotzintranslation.com/2021/10... )

[Justin Hairston · Rating 2 out of 5]

A curated collection of The New Yorker and The New Yorker-adjacent writings that inspired Wes Anderson to make The French Dispatch, An Editor’s Burial is a sprawling, well-written slog. It does contain a few fascinating stories (most of which are movingly humorous obituaries of New Yorker editors by New Yorker writers), as well as several of the most boring ones ever put to paper. As a companion to the (very good) French Dispatch movie it’s almost wholly inessential, except perhaps to highlight just how inventive Wes really is if he was able to spin that cinematic cotton candy out of this literary porridge. Reader, I came as close as I ever do to closing the book at page 50 and never looking back, and ultimately only stuck it out because it so happens that I write a little superfluously and these writers all had a way with concise wit I could do well to learn from. And I sincerely hope I did, or else this really won’t have been worth the time.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

My friend Chloe gave me this book eons ago. The goddess of friendship. Chloe and I met at an art school and bonded over Virginia Woolf and her exceptional collection of knits. The woman can thrift. We met in an attic full of mannequins and vintage fridges full of mystery ingredients. We would secretly deliver each other coffees by scurrying through the hidden passageways from the pottery cavern to the little beading studio. Only occasionally smashing orphaned pottery mugs we found stowed away in wayward cabinets. I can’t even bring myself to make it a joke about the predictability of it all, it was quite uncomplicatedly just the best time.
And so what better collection of essays to gift me before she parted for Paris than Frankensteins monstrous little Wes Anderson New Yorker baby? It has admittedly taken me two years to read this book, in which my friend has been won over by the city of lights. I assume right now she is feeding the ducks in the Tuileries while giggling uproariously at something or other. If anything, Chloe is a masterful laugher. So I read this with a big solar plexus pang of nostalgia for my little friend’s company, and also just because of James Baldwin, whose essay I have already eloped with. And yes I slagged off Giovanni’s Room, but as an essayist this guy has the power of one thousand suns. Anyway I thus write this as an ode to James Baldwin and as an ode to Chloe, who’s memories I am most happy to join over this admittedly self indulgent collection of very New Yorker essays. But isn’t the kitsch part of the point of it all in the end?!

[Branden Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tasty and varied selection that stands on its own. A couple of pieces run a little long for my taste but there is no doubt something for everyone. Fans of the film will find this a hearty addition and supplement.

My favourite was Thirty-Two Rats From Casablanca

[robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

In process.

1. James Thurber's opening profile of Harold Ross is typical NEW YORKER -- trivial and decidedly less amusing and sophisticated than it wants to be. 1 star.
2. "Here at The New Yorker" by Brendan Gill is breezy and gives you a sense of what it must've been like at the magazine. 3 stars.
3. Luc Sante's THE OTHER PARIS reads like history and may be interesting to historians. 1 star.
4. Joseph Mitchell's THIRTY-TWO RATS FROM CASABLANCA" - is this supposed to be interesting because it makes us uncomfortable by spending all its pages talking about rats and the plague? Seems like maybe it's supposed to shock but it put me to sleep. 2 stars.
5. Lillian Ross's MR. HULOT - not as entertaining as her vivisection of Hemingway done with the author's full approval. But it is a pleasure to encounter Jaques Tati in four quick pages. 4 stars.
6. Ved Mehta's REMEMBERING MR. SHAWN. The opening is moving because it addresses how the author deals with his blindness and makes you appreciate William Shawn. But the second half is even longer than the first. It's an example of that very NEW YORKERish fascination with eccentrics that don't seem all that eccentric and are therefore far less interesting than they think. A quirky personality trait doesn't make someone interesting, but THE NEW YORKER seems to think it does. A total lack of substance as is far too often the case. 2 stars.
7. Another subject THE NEW YORKER finds endlessly interesting is the stinking rich. I think it appeals to the snobbery sold via their famous cover of the elite New Yorker. S N Behrman's THE DAYS OF DUVEEN is stultifyingly stale. The little jokes and twists of the story are the very definition of triviality. 1 star.
8. Calvin Tomkins ART TALKER is four quick pages, which means it is long enough to inform and short enough to avoid redundant tedium. A character sketch. 4 stars.
9. Mavis Gallant THE EVENTS IN MAY: A PARIS NOTEBOOK: Because these are diary entries, the sentences are usually short and the repetitive rhythm becomes tedious. There are worthwhile insights here, but I wished there was some sort of overview since these events are somewhat mysterious to me. Also are all readers expected to speak French? I know it was once considered the most important language and I'm sure not translating it appeals to snobs, but what's acceptable in Montaigne just registers as stupid in 2021. Nonetheless, it contains gems. Such as: "When you aren't able to do anything, you have no problems. You discover nothing was important after all." In regards to the courage of the student protestors: "Their not having known the misery and the war is the source of their nerve. Think of Canadians marked by the Depression, really affected by it. It made them ambitious but not daring, and certainly not strong." She bemoans the wanton destruction of the trees. "Everyone sick about the trees. The wife of the merchant in tears." She theorizes that the protestors with obvious combat training are not intellectuals or students at all but rather infiltrators taking advantage. For me her entry of May 23 was the most powerful. 2.5 stars.
10. Janet Flanner "Dear Edith" boasts the sophisticated style that I'd always assumed was characteristic of The New Yorker but is actually rarely found in their pages. 3 stars.
11. I wouldn't have expected James Baldwin's "Equal in Paris" to be an outlier in a collection of the best of The New Yorker but it supersedes everything else here because it's actually great. 5 stars.
12. A.J. Liebling "Memoirs of a Feeder in Paris" is almost 50 pages. The first half hinges on a joke: by eating fatty food your body becomes accustomed and learns to absorb it. If you stop it's like an athlete who stops training and your body won't be able to absorb tasty food anymore. I wonder why readers find this belabored joke entertaining. The second half is about eating on the cheap and is mildly diverting. 2 and a 1/2 stars.
13. E.B. White "Wolcott Gibbs": an obituary that is too long at even three pages. 1 star.
14. S.M. Behrman "Harold Ross: A Recollection" is interesting for its first two pages but continues on for another six. Just like most of the other pieces in this collection, it could have used a good editor. 1 star.
15. E.B. White "H.W. Ross": this obituary is actually precise and elegant. Finally I've read a decent piece of writing by the man behind the overrated Strunk & White ELEMENTS OF STYLE that I was forced to use in school. 4 stars.
16. Letters from the New Yorker Archives. These were actually specific enough to give you a sense of what it might have been like at the magazine. There is more flavor here than in many of the recollections about the offices and editors shared elsewhere in this collection. (The tremendous irony to me is that these acclaimed editors were so bad at their jobs that they slaved away crafting mediocre ephemera like THE DAYS OF DUVEEN, which was one of editor Ross's prized ideas.) 4 stars.
17. "The Pilot Light" conversation with Wes Anderson. Rather than opening the book, this interview should close it. It's much more interesting after you have read the selections and know what is being discussed. It's fascinating to see how the often mediocre collected essays were transmogrified into a movie that captures my impression of the breezy wit of the New Yorker more effectively than the actual magazine does. As such, it provides insight into an artist's creative process and how it arises out of obsessive love. 4 stars.

So in conclusion, my recommendations tend to be the shorter pieces in the book. In order, I would probably read: #2, 5, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 9, & 11.
Here at the New Yorker.
Tati/Hulot profile.
Art Talker profile.
Edith Wharton profile.
Ross obituary.
Letters from the New Yorker.
Paris 1968 - the diary entry for May 23
James Baldwin.

[Ewan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty cold and clear example of the articles that inspired The French Dispatch. Key to that and the editing work of David Brendel here is creating the narrative form that pays respect and interest to the feature these articles inspired. Their lifted nature is seen in Wes Anderson's work relatively clearly, and these articles have their obvious places in the narrative of the film. Much of them are dull and longwinded, such is the snappy and snooty way of writing for The New Yorker and all its odd bits and ends, but it is true of The French Dispatch also. Anderson successfully adapted these articles, but their appeal is to that of his expressed enlightenment and his love for Parisian culture, which is a fundamental for An Editor's Burial, but not something it can convince a reader, completely, is worth their while.

[Er Yáñez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, how I loved this! Solidified fact that The French Dispatch is, over all, one of my favorite movies of most of them and that it stands as the most Andersonian of the bunch even through its most literal influences, as noted on this collection. Curated to the point of perfection, as most of Wes' shots, to see how a wonderful script came to be. Beyond that, will always be a pleasure of mine to focus energies on The New Yorker, its history and tone. A homage to the years in the making, to a golden era and a man named Ross. A look into a major achievement in literary journalism, all because of a film. The warmth and heart is here. This is a love letter and a masterclass at equal rates. It holds my hand in hope, joy and perseverance.

[Rebecca Russavage · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a glimpse of a personally curated collection of Wes Anderson’s favourite parts of the New Yorker, this is exactly as promised. As an effective anthology, it leaves something to be desired. For this piece to have its full effect as the first, a more conscientious narrative of Anderson’s thoughts would have been needed. Shamelessly, I was taken in by the promise of a guided journey through someone’s passion and instead got a shtick meant to capitalise on curiosity inspired by the movie. Ah, well.

[Mark Maultby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. If you enjoy The French Dispatch then you should enjoy this, seeing as it’s an assorted collection of articles lifted from The New Yorker, all with relevance to the stories told in the film. Wes himself describes the book as being like footnotes for the film and I think that’s a lovely way of putting it. I especially enjoyed the James Baldwin article - with its terrifying descriptions of a French prison - as well as the descriptions of and tributes to Harold Ross, founder of the magazine.

Only given fewer than 5* because I wasn’t as interested in all the articles. But that’s to be expected.

[Juniperus · Rating 3 out of 5]

It takes a lot to get me to read the New Yorker; I find it masturbatory. Wes Anderson’s movie The French Dispatch convinced me to pick this up the same day I saw it in theaters! I wanted a good selection of essays to inspire me to write my grad school application, which worked I guess. I see where the movie’s inspiration came from but I couldn’t help myself from comparing them at every turn. I read Harold Ross’s lines in Bill Murray’s voice in my head. Tilda Swinton as Rosamond Bernier, the “fiery redhead” modern art lecturer. The upward haggling of a painting. Some of this selection made it into his other movies, too—I saw a bit of Gustav H from The Grand Budapest Hotel in the profile of art curator Joseph Duveen.

Being the New Yorker, the writing is of course top tier, but it’s just not very interesting to me. For example, Vic Mehta’s started good, about not wanting his blindness to define his writing. But it eventually devolved into yet another obituary for an editor I know nothing about. In fact, most of this book is just obituaries for people I’d never heard of, mostly New Yorker staff members. The fact that so much of An Editor’s Burial is devoted to writing about the New Yorker confirms that it’s an insular world.

The highlight of this book is “The Events in May: A Paris Notebook Part 1” by Mavis Gallant, an almost-60 page long journal about the student revolts of 1968. It’s written in a stream of consciousness style notes to self, seemingy unedited, rambling, with sentence fragments and initials left in. Gallant gives the student revolutionaries an almost Didion-like dignity, similar to Joan Didion’s profile of the same event at the same time in a different place in The White Album. She takes ‘journalistic neutrality’ to a new extent (which the movie, which has a segment based on this piece, jokes about), conferring admiration for the students while still highlighting the futility or hypocrisy of their movement. This quote sums it up: “When workers are asked, in interviews, what they think of the students, they invariably refer to them as ‘our future bosses,’ and say they hope this experience will make better chefs of them than their fathers have been. French Revolution all for nothing?”

Other highlights include James Baldwin as always and AJ Liebling’s two food essays. The most interesting part was honestly Wes Anderson’s interview in the introduction, because it’s clear that the only uniting theme of these pieces is that they inspired the movie. If you haven’t seen it, there’s no thematic throughline, and it won’t make sense as a curated collection. They don’t even all have to do with France!

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

An Editor's Burial bravely asks "Is beautiful writing still good when the subject matter is really boring?"

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Editor's Burial: Journals and Journalism from the New Yorker and Other Magazines, edited by David Brendel with input from Wes Anderson, is a collection that is really meant to accompany Anderson's upcoming film The French Dispatch.

Simply as a collection of journalism from expats in Paris during the 20th century it is an interesting read, some entries more appealing than others but all together a wonderful portrait of the time. Looking at it this way, I was pleased with the selections and enjoyed imagining the city during that time.

As a collection related to the film I was even more intrigued. Without having seen the film a lot of what I took away is simply how I imagined these, and other pieces, being used in the making of the film and being used by viewers to gain a better historical perspective on the fictional characters that are largely blends of these real writers. As source material, I found myself trying to extract personality traits that might be used in creating a character loosely based on these people. What might such a character look like? What serves as an introduction, an interview with Anderson, some of what made it from real person to fictional character is discussed. As a (soon to be) viewer I think this will make me want to watch the film more than once to look more closely at what habits belong to what person.

I recommend this to readers who enjoy the old new Yorker style of journalism and commentary, or those who want to learn about what made the magazine so popular. A few of these stand alone as primary documents of historical events that would be of interest to history buffs. And anyone looking forward to seeing the film may enjoy the book now but will, I think, really enjoy it once the film is available.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The back story of this collection of nonfiction articles from the 1940s to the 1960s is interesting.

Wes Anderson's new movie, "The French Dispatch", seems to be an anthology of stories that are meant to be from a single issue of a fictional French magazine run by an American editor. Anderson, in an interview at the beginning of this book, says that the fictional magazine was inspired by The New Yorker. He is a devoted fan of the classic years of the magazine.

This is a collection of the kind of non-fiction stories he loved. The great New Yorker writers are represented, Joseph Liebling, E. B. White, Joseph Mitchell and James Thurber.

There are classic American in Paris pieces. Janet Flanner has one of her famous "Letter From Paris". James Baldwin's "Equal in Paris" is one of his greatest essays. It has all of the wisdom, anger and story telling of his greatest work without the preachiness of his worst. It is a wise piece.

In the same interview, Anderson says that he loves the Mavis Gallant piece about the 1967 student revolution in Paris. I was not impressed. It seems like notebooks written up without much more.

Like Anderson, I am a fan of the New Yorker writers from the 30s to the 60s. I am very happy that his new movie gave him an excuse to publish this excellent anthology.

( I think we have a hot new trend of stylish movie producers publishing good books inspired by, but very different from, their last movie. Quentin Tarantino, in a very different way, just did the same thing with his novelization of "Once Upon A Time In The West")

[Conor Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always adored Wes Anderson’s films, to be able to pull that back and see his inspirations and excitement speak out through this collection is very interesting. Lots of these stories and reports captured by attention and I read this book fairly slowly over the year.

“The 32 rats from Casablanca” story was captivating along with later choices like “equal in Paris” by James Baldwin which kept me surprisingly invested in a story that started from a hotel bedsheet. The days of Duveen was very interesting too and both A.J. Liebling stories kept me reading. Focused on his broad pallet and perspective of French cuisine and especially Wines he certainly held strong convictions on the matter. Some of the stories while interesting I struggled to follow or enjoy in the same way specificity “Mavis Gallant’s the events in May” covering the student protests while it was very interesting to read I found it confusing at times and wasn’t certain I was understanding what Gallant was saying in her writing.

Overall a really interesting look in to some of the 20th century’s great writers and a look in to how Anderson took the written skill and turned it in an equally captivating almost homage like film.

[James King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Companion book for the new Wes Anderson film, 'The French Dispatch'. The movie is a loving tribute to the New Yorker magazine and its founding editor, Herbert Ross; this is a collection of articles from the mag, and a couple of book extracts, that helped inspire Anderson and his team.

Unfortunately though, a very uneven selection.

The anthology starts with a great interview with Anderson, and the first two selections are outstanding: James Thurber's description of working with Ross is hilarious and heartfelt, and the first article proper, '32 Rats from Casablanca', is the kind of esoteric reporting that only the New Yorker can do. Also really enjoyed 'Days of Duveen', a profile of the world's foremost art dealer.

Sadly, the rest is not as engaging. The book really lost me during an interminable mid section, 50 plus pages, recapping the Paris student uprising in '68 via shorthand notes that become very repetitive. And some of the other pieces are just a little undistinguished.

I am a huge Anderson fan, so still enjoyed overall. Was hoping for more though, after a great start.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of 14 essays from acclaimed writers such as James Baldwin and Mavis Gallant, all originally published in the New Yorker, give an intriguing glimpse into life in post-war France, particularly in Paris, where most of the authors were based. Inevitably I found some of the essays more interesting or appealing than others, but coming from the pens of such excellent writers, all had something to offer. The volume has been issued to accompany Wes Anderson’s 2021 film The French Dispatch, which is based on these essays, as the introduction makes clear. The film brings to life a collection of stories from the final issues of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th century French city. I look forward to revisiting the essays once I have seen the film. But I don’t think it’s necessary to know anything at all about the film to enjoy this book, as New Yorker essays are always worth reading, and this collection is no exception.

[Chloe Kelly Wee Chua · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I feel like most people get wrong about Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch is that somewhere along the line it was advertised as a love letter to journalism and after the first watch, most moviegoers probably feel that the film didn't live up to it. Because it's not. It's a specific love letter to The New Yorker under Harold Ross's leadership.

I have always wanted to read The New Yorker but always oftentimes found myself stuck behind a paywall. This collection was a nice introduction to Anderson's inspirations and to the magazine itself. "Thirty-two rats from Casablanca" by Mitchell and Liebling's pieces about getting stuffed and drunk in Paris were brilliant, but I find that, and similarly in Anderson's film, that the centerpiece is Gallant's piece about the student revolts.

However I wanted Anderson's specific annotations on these specific pieces. But this is really only an anthology of curated works. Perhaps another time.

[Susanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Since I love essays, I was looking forward to reading this selection of essays from the New Yorker (and other magazines). I didn't realize that this book is a collection meant to accompany Wes Anderson's upcoming film "The French Dispatch". I might not have requested this had this been clear to me.

As a collection of journalism from expats in Paris during the 20th century, this book is an interesting read. As to be expected, I found some pieces more/less appealing than others, but several give a fascinating portrait of the time. Overall though, the book felt a bit dusty and out of date, both in style and in content. Quite a few of the articles were paeans to Harold Ross, the founder of the New Yorker, which didn't really interest me.

[Sara Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel indifferent about this book, thus the 3 star rating. It wasn't bad at all, I really enjoyed reading, but I think I will enjoy it more once I see The French Dispatch! The intro was one of my favorite parts!!

Reading this made me extremely excited to see the movie, but for me personally I think that I would prefer seeing the movie and then reading the 'inspiration' rather than trying to imagine the movie based on the works included in An Editor's Burial. I think that this book is a brilliant idea--to compile essays/articles/texts that inspired The French Dispatch as a 'companion' to the movie.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Steve Portigal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been reading the New Yorker for quite a long time, but what the modern magazine is like and what the historical magazine is like are two completely different beasts. I absolutely did not have the patience for most of the pieces here. Fortunately, another unimpressed reader here posted a detailed review breaking down and rating each of the pieces so I didn't have to try and fail repeatedly. The James Baldwin story is gorgeous and heartbreaking (and I've never actually read him before, just seen films with and about him).

The interview with Wes Anderson about the very specific sources for The French Dispatch was great, and would have made a great bonus track for the film.

[Adam Gerber · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent companion piece to a confusingly disliked Wes Anderson movie, An Editor’s Burial is an excellent curation of the essays that inspired The French Dispatch. They weren’t all hits and I personally was very bored by the essay that inspired the Francis McDormand Timothee Chalamet part of the movie, but on the whole this is a delightful book that really gets to the heart of why the New Yorker is so great. Well worth a read if you’ve ever subscribed then realized you simply can’t keep up with the magazine’s substantial high quality output. This takes some of its best and binds them together in a book you can really take your time with, without the stress of maximizing a monthly value.

[Alec Piergiorgi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this decently enough but I’m guessing it hits a lot more if you have an affection for The New Yorker or any of these writers. Certainly nothing here is bad and most of the pieces are fairly unique, but a few of the writing styles don’t mesh together all that well.

Of course most of my enjoyment comes from the obvious parallels between these stories and the stories within The French Dispatch. It was fun to pick out the exact pieces that carried over to the movie and the flow of the book generally matches the movie.

Three out of five is not meant to be a disparaging score here, I liked it well enough and I think it fits what I was looking for.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful and interesting companion to the Wes Anderson film, The French Dispatch. Even more rich as I looked up each of the journalists who wrote the essays included. A bit too much of the name-dropping and self-absorption, but also a homage to journalism and publications like the New Yorker. The expatriate lives of so many of the journalists introduced me to the amazing Mavis Gallant who I think may even be better than Chekhov in crafting short stories that draw the reader into a different world and amazing cast of characters over the decades of the 1940s to the early 21st century.

[Cordelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of journalism from expats in Paris during the 20th century - which is always interesting. A collection that is meant to accompany Anderson's upcoming film "The French Dispatch". Not having seen this film, I cant comment on this.

I'm always a big fan of New Yorker. I like its style and attitudes. A very enjoyable and stimulating read.

Thank you to Edelweiss, the author and the publisher for sending me this ARC.

[Jakub · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book accidentally. I grabbed it because I really like The French Dispatch, and one night I flipped to a random article, and started reading. Slowly but surely, without realizing it, I read the whole thing. Every article is at least wonderfully written, and in many cases serves as a little time capsule for a particular time and place. I'm not sure if I'd casually recommend it to anyone else, but if you liked The French Dispatch, you'll probably get a lot out of this book.

[Beth Younge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked about two thirds of the essays in this with the really long diary entry style one and the one before the end being the only exceptions. I liked the introduction and reading this made me even more excited for the french dispatch when it comes out.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[George Dimarelos · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like a good New Yorker article what's not to like about a curated selection of them loosely selected around the theme of Paris?

I must admit I read these articles while having a delightful extended stay in Paris. That's not to say I don't stand by my rating, I just also believe in disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

[Kyle Stansfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love The New Yorker! This is my favourite film of all time and being able to read into the specific aspects of the magazine which inspired the stories was amazing and only makes me more passionate about the end product. Not enough Thurber for my liking and I wasn't a huge fan of the Liebling excerpts. So happy to have finally read a bit Mavis Gallant's Paris Notebooks!

[Joaquín · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t really like it. Although I did love Mitchell’s and Baldwin’s pieces. Luc Sante’s excerpt from his The Other Paris is also pretty interesting but you can tell where they had to make the cuts to fit it in