The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s

Wiser, author of The Crazy Years: Paris in the Twenties, provides readers with Paris's next historical chapter in a wonderfully detailed, unflinching period description. Focusing primarily on the art scene, Wiser re-creates the slow slide from the lingering euphoria of the '20s to the doubts of the '30s. The suicide of painter Jules Pascin, recounted in Wiser's first chapter, serves as an emblem for the era, a period in which fascism and economic crisis loomed and Bohemia began to sour. Of course, much of the '20s art scene survived, but there are both subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the post-Crash '30s. Sylvia Beach, owner of the celebrated bookshop Shakespeare and Company, fell on hard times. Once the proud publisher of the banned Ulysses, Beach became alienated from Joyce as the famed writer (himself suffering from ""deteriorating health and eyesight"" and the mental illness of his daughter) refuses to acknowledge his contract with her. Salvador Dal became a Franco-sympathizer. Other mini-narratives here include the convoluted sexual triangle of Henry Miller, June Miller and Ana s Nin; the rise of the Place Vend me as the ""fashion center of France""; and the scandal involving the con-artist Stavisky. Wiser weaves recurring characters in and out of the narratives with grace and accuracy. A common pitfall of writing period history is the tendency to oversimplify, but Wiser allows the complex, vivid details to speak for themselves in this impressively researched work, while providing readers--whether students of the arts in the 20th century or lovers of Paris in any era with an absorbing study. (Nov.)