I have been following Obvious State on Instagram for some time now, and only this morning did I decide to finally sign up for their newsletter; and whoaa!! The auto downloader started up and kind of scared the crap out of me. I know it sounds exaggerated, but you see, I signed up over my phone, and usually these things don’t start by themselves, you know. Usually I am asked to download something or the other and what not… But anyhow, something was downloading and I couldn’t think for the life of me what it could have been. Turned out it was a pdf of the first three chapters of The Paris Journal, a book I have seen many a times on Instagram and all over the internet, but never really knew what it was (other than that it was a book, of course… I’m not dumb you know.) So, I thought may be it was some kind of city guide or something… “The Best Parisian Coffee Shops to Chill at if You are in Paris” or something similar.
Man, could I be any more wrong? I don’t think so. IT'S A FICTION, PEOPLE!!! I only read the first three chapters, and I am now DYING to read the rest. Would any of you amazing folks loan me 20 bucks? I’m not kidding! I’m practically penniless right at this very moment (or, may be if I looked hard enough I’d find about 34 cents, but that’s about it.)
But, boy oh boy. What a surprise. The pdf had me from word#1. It’s such a quirky little thing! The narrator is a funky, hippie at heart, solo traveler with whom I assimilated quite perfectly in the short few passages that I had access to. Every single sentence had me seeing what she was seeing, feeling what she was feeling. I have never been to Paris, and yet I was right there with her. The Paris Journal is about this American traveler who is quite obviously in love with Paris. She loves observing people, and quite spunky at heart with all her vivid imaginations.
I suppose after bouts of Murakami (both of them), Oyeyemi, Han Kang and other imma-mess-with-your-head-yo reads, I kind of needed something completely different to cheer me up! Either that, or the authors (Evan Robertson and Nichole Robertson) are complete geniuses, because man… I loved the three chapters I read from The Paris Journal. Every step of the way it was as if I was the one walking down the streets of Paris, I was the one observing the chemistry between the waiter and the waitress, I was the one who looked up to see the man on the balcony smoking his cigarette, I was the one taking my seat at the cafe in the morning hours in Paris.
People… I need this book!
Have you heard of this book?
Any plans of getting a copy for yourselves if you ain’t got one already? Or may be you have something else from Obvious State. But seriously though… I dig pretty much everything they have at their store. Only if I weren’t so broke right now… uhh, you know…
Photo by Hannes Wolf