Nothing in Paris

Longtime San Francisco novelist Laurence Roy has arrived at the end of his writing career. During a period of thirty-five years, he’s published dozens of novels – well received, highly regarded, warmly reviewed – though they have not led to great fame or fortune. He is a disciplined professional, devoted to his authorial routine. Writer’s block is not part of his vocabulary. But at age sixty, he has abruptly realized that he’s had enough of writing. All the same, he has one last novel left, and he has decided – with a sense of uncertainty, ambivalence, puzzlement – to spend six months writing in Paris. Although he cannot guess exactly what this new environment might do for him, he says goodbye to his wife and family, flies to Paris, and moves into a Left Bank apartment that a friend has lent him. As he settles into the neighborhood, he meditates on the long intellectual and creative history of Paris. At the same time he finds himself examining his own existence: his work, his age, his family, his life. What is it about Paris that always seems to lead visiting Americans to think and behave in new ways? He is mystified by this phenomenon, but he comes to treasure the new experience. As his youthful French language skills return to him, he explores the mysterious power of Paris, which somehow draws him forward in ways that he could not have foreseen. Will he finish his novel? Will he come to terms with his family, his professional life, the burdens of advancing age? In the voices of several narrators, Larry’s story moves forward and backward in time, set in several international milieus – but Paris is always at the center. Do unpredictable adventures lie ahead? Only Paris knows.