A Town Like Paris

January 28, 2008
Australian journalist Corbett offers a humorous and vivid account of his love affair with Paris. In an attempt to save his nine-year relationship with his high school sweetheart, Corbett follows her from Sydney to London. His efforts prove ineffectual and the two break up within weeks of his arrival. On a whim, 28-year-old Corbett applies for the position as head of public relations for a government organization based in Paris. Although he has little PR experience—or interest in the job itself—he is offered and accepts the position, living the French belief that people should work to live and not live to work. Corbett balances his boring formal office life with various exploits involving nightly debauchery. As an expatriate, his experiences with the French government, the French Plumber's Union and the various crazies who make up his Le Marais neighborhood are entertaining. As Corbett adjusts to the city—language barrier and cultural differences included—he makes friends, enjoys the food and eventually falls in love with a woman named Shay. Corbett's comically insightful observations of the French, along with his Aussie interpretations of joie de vivre, make for an amusing memoir.

June 15, 2008
Almost on a whim, Corbett, an Australian working in London for Sky News, answers a job posting for a director of communications at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. To his surprise, he gets the job. So he moves to Paris, where he spends the next few years working a little, partying a lot, playing in a locally successful rock band, traveling, hanging out with showgirls and other ex-pats, and coping with French bureaucracy. Although this is not a guide, anyone attracted to working in Paris will be interested in Corbett's sketches of finding an apartment, French work life (short days, long employer-paid lunches, numerous holidays), scooter riding in heavy traffic, odd medical care, and the revelation that all French women are thin and stylish and all French men are short, smelly, and unattractive. That last observation notwithstanding, Corbett opines that French women are really all thin because of the nervous energy they expend worrying that their husbands are cheating on them. After six years, Corbett finds himself caught between Paris and Australia, not really belonging to either yet needing both. This memoir by a carousing Aussie ex-pat is entertaining, but less partying may have led to more insight. Recommended for larger public libraries.Melissa Stearns, Franklin Pierce Univ. Lib., Rindge, NH

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