The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been a fan of Ruth Reichl for a very long time, and across her career changes. I have read a lot of her previous written work, which includes mostly memoirs and food-related writing, and so to me, this feels like a work of fiction that has a fair amount of autobiographical back structure to it. As a number of other reviewers have noted, the author shines when she is describing food, and there is an awful lot of that (in a very good way). Stella had a very problematic relationship with her mother--she was essentially ignored her entire life, and Stella was left to manage herself. When her mother dies in the early 1980's when Stella is in her early 30's, she receives a small inheritance that comes with strings attached--it will be a plane ticket to Paris and travelers checks. France has no hold on Stella until she falls in love with a dress. Through haute couture, Stella finds her inner beauty, along with a mentor and spirit guide in Jules as well as a guardian angel in a book store owner. Stella doesn't quite know herself, and she certainly doesn't know her creativity and talents, and as her time in France unfolds, she finds all that and more. It is a charming story with some whimsy, a lot of wonderful food, a bit of romance, and quite a lot of history from that time period in the City of Light.