THE FLANEUR
Edmund White – Bloomsbury - $27.99

Seven years ago in July 2001 I reviewed the hardback edition of this book with Kim Hill on National Radio, (as it was called then).
I have no record now of what I had to say about the book except that I do recall having particularly enjoyed it and as a result being especially enthusiastic about it. It was the first in a new series from Bloomsbury, The Writer & the City series, and what a brilliant start it represented.

Written by noted American gay writer Edmund White who lived in Paris for sixteen years it is a charming and entertaining look at that great city. It was an inspired choice by the publisher to select White for this title.

A flaneur is a stroller, someone who ambles about a city without an apparent purpose and with White we wander the streets and avenues and quays and venture into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors. The book has the perfect subtitle: A stroll through the paradoxes of Paris.
This week The Flaneur is being published in paperback which will bring it before a whole new audience.

FOOTNOTE:
Others I have on my shelf in The Writer & the City series are 30 Days in Sydney by Peter Carey, Florence, A Delicate Case by David Leavitt, and Patrick McGrath’s Ghost Town. They are all little gems but The Flaneur remains my favourite.
I guess eventually the whole series will be released in paperback editions.
Special books which I would have been proud to publish.


FURTHER FOOTNOTE:
Allen & Unwin, agents for Bloomsbury in NZ and Australia advise that others in the The Writer & the City series are John Banville: PRAGUE PICTURES - A portrait of the city, Ruy Castro: RIO DE JANEIRO - Carnival under fire, and just released Justin Cartwright: THIS SECRET GARDEN - Oxford revisited .