Review: Memoirs of Montparnasse — John Glassco

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Book List
61. Skyward — Mary Alice Monroe
62. The Journals of Sylvia Plath — Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes
63. Dust Tracks on a Road — Zora Neale Hurston
64. The Silent Woman — Janet Malcolm
65. Memoirs of Montparnasse — John Glassco

Memoirs of Montparnasse doesn’t require much of a summary either: these are John Glassco’s memoirs of the time he lived in Paris, which it’s rumoured he fabricated most of. He then got tuberculosis and went home to Montreal.

Again, I don’t have time for a lengthy review (shocking!) so here’s the short version: I really enjoyed it. Lies or not, John Glassco led an interesting life in Paris. Not to mention that the time period (I believe it’s the 1920s, when all the expatriate writers were inhabiting Paris) is fascinating in and of itself.

However, I must admit, the book could be easily summed up with one question: “If you were so poor, and you never had the commitment to make it as a writer in Paris, why wouldn’t you just get a job?”

Just something to think about!

Next book: something for my English class, no doubt.

Next feature: something recently published. I’ll try to put up a few soonish. (I know, I say that altogether too much.)

– Kelsey