The Baby of Belleville

I like this book, I was expecting chick lit and whilst I do read it to pass a moment or two, I love a book with meat, one that makes me laugh and has a wry and clever outlook on situation.

Having been to Paris and being proposed there warmed me to the setting of the book, while we were there we asked a tourist info guide where he went to eat and shop. We were directed to some lovely little back streets a way from the tourist spots and had a coffe in a lovely cafe hidden away, where men were playing cards and smoking. We walked through a park that was not in the guidebook and ate at a lovely steakhouse for very cheap. So the area though possibly somewhere else in Paris, seemed most familiar to me.

 I liked this look at Parisian life from an ex pats view and I loved the view of motherhood at times, so laugh out loud funny and at others poetic in the wonderment of  having a child. Her shopping

I adore the musings that Jane panders to, her story of her grandfather saving strumpets for his pottery studio, her shock and then humorous thoughts on a pregnant nun. Jane and the plumber who makes her a work of art is a fabulous account.

I won't give any spoilers but if you want a clever, funny and really good literary read that leaves you feeling warm inside, you will love The Baby of Bellville

Irreverent, imaginative and irresistibly witty, this is a deliciously refreshing

twist on the literature of motherhood – and Paris

Every new mother has a story to tell – and this is Jane de la Rochefoucault’s. It’s a story that contains all the familiar yet magical landmarks of feeding, teething, toddling, and measuring stuff in and out of Tupperware. But, as an expat living in Paris, Jane also faces some challenges they never mention in the handbooks. Such as, how to juggle a new baby with the demands of an

aristocratic husband, a competitive nursing circle, an artisan plumber, and a formidably French (and possibly law-breaking) mother-in-law…

Swiftly plotted, linguistically playful and sparkling

with wit, The Baby of Belleville will draw you into its unique imaginative universe and make you reluctant to leave.

Originally from California’s San Joaquin Valley, ANNE MARSELLA now lives in Paris with her husband, a jazz musician, and their son. Her previous books are an acclaimed collection of stories, The Lost and Found and Other Stories (NYU Press),

Patsy Boone (Editions de la Différence) and Remedy

(Portobello, 2007).