Light of Paris (Brown)

The Light of Paris 
Eleanor Brown, 2016
Penguin Publishing
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399158919


Summary
Madeleine is trapped—by her family's expectations, by her controlling husband, and by her own fears—in an unhappy marriage and a life she never wanted. From the outside, it looks like she has everything, but on the inside, she fears she has nothing that matters.

In Madeleine’s memories, her grandmother Margie is the kind of woman she should have been—elegant, reserved, perfect. But when Madeleine finds a diary detailing Margie’s bold, romantic trip to Jazz Age Paris, she meets the grandmother she never knew: a dreamer who defied her strict, staid family and spent an exhilarating summer writing in cafés, living on her own, and falling for a charismatic artist.

Despite her unhappiness, when Madeleine’s marriage is threatened, she panics, escaping to her hometown and staying with her critical, disapproving mother. In that unlikely place, shaken by the revelation of a long-hidden family secret and inspired by her grandmother’s bravery, Madeleine creates her own Parisian summer—reconnecting to her love of painting, cultivating a vibrant circle of creative friends, and finding a kindred spirit in a down-to-earth chef who reminds her to feed both her body and her heart.

Margie and Madeleine’s stories intertwine to explore the joys and risks of living life on our own terms, of defying the rules that hold us back from our dreams, and of becoming the people we are meant to be. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Born—ca. 1973
• Where—outside Washington, D.C., USA
• Education—M.A., in literature
• Currently—lives outside Denver, Colorado


Eleanor Brown is the author of two novels: The Light of Paris (2016) and The Weird Sisters (2011), which became a New York Times bestseller, receiving both popular and critical praise. Her writing has also appeared in anthologies, magazines, and journals.

She was born in the Washington D.C. area, one of three sisters. She taught middle school for seven years, earned an M.A. in literature, and now teaches writing workshops in the Denver, Colorado, area. She lives with thriller writer J.C. Hutchins.

Book Reviews
Fresh, endearing…finely written and absorbing, and explores the always compelling questions of how to balance reality and romance, duty and dreams, family and freedom.
Minneapolis Star Tribune


A story about love, marriage, divorce, self-discovery and how things often turn out far from what you had planned.
Fort Worth Telegram


Stylistically less daring than Brown's previous title (The Weird Sisters), this book still manages to plumb the difference between the things in life that give us joy and the things that we do to stifle that joy. Verdict: For all fans of intelligent women's literature. —Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., I
Library Journal


Brown’s novel tackles an age-old question about what life would be like if we took more chances….Makes readers sit up and take notice.
Romance Times


Brown conveys the miseries and satisfactions of women's journeys toward happiness.... While some characters—or their motivations—might have benefited from more fleshing out..., the whimsy and romance of post-World War I Paris and Madeleine's growing [confidence]...provide forward momentum.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. The city of Paris becomes a character in its own right throughout the novel. What is the significance of Paris to the story itself? What does it mean to Margie when she lives there and to Madeleine as she reads about it?

2. What are the family patterns that are carried through the three generations of women—Margie, Simone, and Madeleine? How are they similar and how are they different?

3. Madeleine has a difficult relationship with her mother, Simone. Did you feel sympathy for Simone at any point? Have you experienced a mother-daughter dynamic like this in your own life?
4. How are Margie and Madeleine’s relationships with their mothers similar? How are they different? Do you think the habit of parents placing expectations on their children is a breakable pattern?

5. Madeleine and Margie want independent lives, but both have been very sheltered. In what ways are they prepared or unprepared for the realities that face them?

6. The story takes place during two different time periods: 1924 and 1999. What do those years have in common, and how do they affect the story?

7. Madeleine escapes to her home town of Magnolia in the same way that Margie escapes to Paris. Do these two cities have anything in common? How are they different? Do they impact Madeleine and Margie in similar or different ways?

8. Margie wants to write, Madeleine to paint. How does their art affect both their lives and what happens in the story?

9. Did Margie make the right choice? What were the consequences of her decision?

10. At the end of the novel, Madeleine gets a studio to paint in—a room of her own. What is the significance of this space for Madeleine? How does it affect her character?

11. How have circumstances for women changed between the different time periods of Margie and Madeleine’s stories? In what way are they the same?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

top of page (summary)