Paris Still Life by Rosalind Brackenbury

The story of a forty year old married woman who troubled deeply by the death of her father, leaves her husband in America behind much to his bewilderment and arrives in Paris - is it to find herself as they would say, to meditate on life and its meaning and what does she eventually hope to do. Right now she is lucky as she has an apartment (owned by her father) and enough money to live without having to work.

Almost immediately she is beset by memories of her father when she sees not once but three times someone who is the image of her father. On all three occasions she is unable to reach him, being either in a bus or somewhere where she cannot access him. On top of that she meets up with her father's mistress whom everyone apparently knew about other than her. This comes to her as a betrayal though the lady is someone whom Gaby begins to appreciate, but slowly. Many characters from her father's hidden double life keep appearing and each one shows another facet of her father's life which he kept well hidden from his wife and family.

Gaby taking on a lover adds to her questions. Where is her life going to take her? Back to her American roots and her husband or to a new life in Paris.

Despite the varying nuances of the story, the story reads as a formal novel. The characters were multi faceted and added to the enjoyment of the story. At the same time it seemed slightly unreal and removed from day to day life as it happens. How many can move from the expected or unexpected death of a parent, move continents, leave a husband, start even temporarily a new life without any clear understanding of where this is taking one.

I enjoyed the story very much. It was the unreal, removed from real life bit that I enjoyed the most.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Lake Union Publishing.