Left Bank Right Bank

Left Bank Right Bank is a kaleidoscopic journal of twenty years in Paris, from 1988 to 2008. During that time the Berlin Wall fell, the European Union was created, mass consumerism arrived in France, and 9/11 ushered in a new age of growing fear and xenophobia.

This is not deluxe, romantic Paris, but working, immigrant, Paris. The city is cracked open in unexpected ways as the narrator encounters not only Parisians – a chef, a fashion editor, a cutthroat businesswoman – but also a Chinese artist, a Chilean sculptor, an Algerian plumber, a Martiniquais electrician, a Portuguese teenager, a Vietnamese tailor and children from West Africa and the Maghreb.

From the book:
"Only Paris is associated with Perfection. You do not aspire to be a Londoner, Roman, a Berliner. You do not have a crush on their fashions, manners and habits. Only Paris inspires yearning, dreaming, a constant search for the city's essence. . .'Paris' is live 'love': you say it in italics, you're proud of it, you think it's a ticket to something, but you don't really know what it is."

This is Janet McMahon's third novel, after Departure and Rosie Ipecac: the Paris Years. She lives in Lyon with her husband, poet George Goode.