Paris Without Her

January 25, 2021
In this tender if uneven memoir, Texas Monthly editor Curtis (The Cave Painters) sifts through the memories of a 35-year marriage cut short by the death of his wife and his struggles to forge ahead alone. After his wife, Tracy, died of cancer, Curtis, 66, spent most nights at home alone replaying memories of his marriage, many of which, he realized, happened in Paris. Curtis then recounts how the trips the pair took to the city kept the magic in their marriage; they experienced new firsts, pretended to be native Parisians, visited “a spectacle” (a sex show), and bought glamorous clothes they wore every day in Paris, but were left unworn in their hometown of Austin. However, after Curtis’s account of his last trip to Paris with Tracy, the narrative loses steam as it pivots from a dramatic love story to Curtis’s life as a self-described “flaneur,” wandering the streets of Paris on subsequent visits without Tracy and thus, to him, without aim. His observations of Paris, though painstakingly detailed (readers get a turn by turn tour of countless Parisian boulevards and corners), frequently fall flat and tend to revolve around lackadaisical descriptions of attractive women he sees on the street. Nonetheless, Francophiles may enjoy this detailed tour of the City of Light.

February 15, 2021
An aching memoir of life as a widower. She was a striking vision of beauty and intelligence, writes former Texas Monthly editor Curtis about his first glimpse of Tracy, who would become his wife, at the magazine's office in 1974. "I still know precisely what I was thinking at that moment--nothing. I couldn't think," he recalls. Eventually, he came up with the words to woo her--but that comes later, for the author's next memory is of Tracy as she passed away nearly 40 years later, felled by cancer caused by her history as "a defiant smoker." The first injury after his tragic loss came in the form of an officious minister who contradicted Curtis' eulogy by citing Tracy's fear. "She didn't want to die," he writes, "but that's not the same thing as being afraid." Clearly, she loved life, especially time spent in her beloved Paris. A second injury involved the ministrations of "well-meaning acquaintances" struggling to say something useful: "They want to show their concern, so they trap you and ask a series of questions--always the same ones--which you have had to answer time and again with other casual acquaintances in similar situations." Curtis returned to Paris to visit the places the couple loved, but he also branched out to make discoveries of his own and, bravely, enrolled in language classes with students a third his age. His genially learned evocations of Paris are somewhat more lightly worn than those of Adam Gopnik's Paris to the Moon, but they're just as informative. Though readers will feel Curtis' pain, they will also share his joy--and perhaps relief--at being in a place both beautiful and anonymous. "Paris was not at all hostile, but Paris didn't care whether I was there or not," he writes, finding comfort as a stranger in places both familiar and unknown. For those suffering from bereavement, a candid, moving book of commiseration and encouragement.

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March 1, 2021

In this latest work, Curtis (The Cave Painters) takes readers along on his various journeys to Paris and its unique charm. Yet it is a story of grief, remembering his wife, after her death from cancer. Under the effects of time and love, memories of humdrum daily life are taken over by the glittering moments, of which this couple had many. They took any chance to steal away from their everyday life and travel to Paris, and the author continues to do so, often with the memory of his wife traveling alongside him. Written with sometimes spontaneous prose as memories resurface from time to time, as well as with clear-eyed recollections, this captivating book will delight readers by sweeping them from locale to locale within the City of Light. Curtis's personal anecdotes and historic tidbits are written with a genuine tenderness and journalistic eye throughout. VERDICT Although slated as a memoir, this touching work is just as much a love story and travel diary. It processes the pain of loss through the lens of beautiful scenery and will appeal to many readers, but especially fellow Francophiles eager to follow the road less traveled.--Kelly Karst, California Inst. of Integral Studies

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