Diary of a Foreigner in Paris

This endlessly entertaining diary from Italian diplomat, journalist, and novelist Malaparte (1898–1957) of his time in Paris in 1947 and 1948 gives a unique vantage point onto post-WWII France. He records witty dinner conversations with acquaintances, notes verbal attacks he endures for having been an early Mussolini supporter (to which he responds by noting his eventual break with, and imprisonment by, the dictator), and issues his own extended observations on contemporary affairs. He also comments, often witheringly, on the celebrities he encounters, including Jean-Paul Sartre, whom he tags as standard-bearer for a “new, artificial bohemianism, which proposes to replace principles with slovenliness, ideas with a sweater,” and recent Nobel Prize winner André Gide, who exemplifies an “abstract, intellectual conception of man,” which Malaparte holds responsible for the carnage of WWII. His writing soars when waxing lyrical, as captured by Twilley’s beautiful translation, about Paris, where he observes how the “Seine’s reflections gradually invade the sky, [turning] the Paris sky into a gray-blue lake.” Coming across as a My Dinner with Andre in print, the book offers the pleasure of eavesdropping on an extended salon conversation among luminaries in the aftermath of a tumultuous era. (May)