This month’s book, Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks, was generally disliked by our reading group, although a few of us did enjoy it for various reasons.
Admittedly, we could all appreciate Faulks’ passion for his subject and his love of Paris, but some of us found ourselves wondering whether we were quite clever enough to understand everything the author was trying to communicate.
There were many different ‘threads’ to follow in the book and it took a lot of concentration to keep up with the changes in narrator and the past crossing over into the present, and vice versa. It was not always clear what was real and what was not, or whether it even mattered.
The title of the book gives an indication that the key theme is how echoes of the past reverberate in the present. France’s past history being so present in a physical sense, with buildings, streets and stations named after historical, military and political figures. “In Paris, where almost every street name was a nod to history…” And the author doesn’t shy away from reminding the reader that France’s role in World War II encompassed collaboration as well as resistance.
We thought that Faulks did bring Paris to life, especially the Metro and parts of the city that we don't tend to see when visiting the city as tourists (the sometimes more squalid and dirty areas). We realised that, like Tariq in the book, we don't know the stories behind the Metro station names. We also enjoyed learning more about the history of the occupation and hearing stories from the women who lived through that time.
Ultimately though we felt that the book was confusing and frustrating, especially as you don’t know what happens to so many of the characters and that Tariq never discovers anything about his mother.
Although we would happily recommend some of Faulks’ other novels, Paris Echo was disappointing.
The next book to be read will be "The Husbands" by Holly Gramazio.
This will be discussed on Friday 10th October 2025.