Month: May 2024

Our book for May was The Last Restaurant in Paris, by Lily Graham. Apparently I didn’t take a picture of this book, which is unusual for me 🥴, but you can click on the link above if you want to see the cover. I was intrigued because it was set in Paris, and I have been learning French on Duolingo for about four years now. It was set during the time of the occupation by Germany, in a little town where a woman owned a restaurant.

I was unable to make it to the meeting as we were in Bandera Texas in our Airstream at the time. I did take a picture of that. Several in fact. 😂😂

Here are my thoughts about the book, which I emailed to the group.

I finished the book, and I really enjoyed the read. Admittedly, I had difficulty getting into it at the very beginning, and when I read later that the author changed the order so she started with Gilbert instead of Sabine I wondered if I would have liked it better had she stuck with her original plan. But once I got into it I had a hard time putting the book down.

I kept hoping Marianne had somehow escaped, and was not executed. However, after reading the why behind the murders it made sense that she turned herself in. She likely felt like she deserved to die after what happened to Henri. I felt her pain when she was not able to vindicate herself by telling Otto Bush why she was killing him, but that also made sense. Again, after reading the author’s notes it made sense due to the way every day people in her shoes dealt with their actions. She was not trained to kill.

I agree with Pat that the third part seemed like a repeat of part one, although it was from a different perspective. I still felt like there was a lot of repeat, but more was revealed in the third part and there was an understanding that was missing when Gilbert was sharing his story.

I enjoyed reading part 2 the most. I appreciated the story of Elodie and Jacques. Again, there was a lot of sadness in the development of her character, but it set the stage for her purpose behind the murders. It was not a surprise to me that she was a spy. I thought it was odd that no one else in the book thought that, as they all thought she was crazy or something. I wanted to yell at them and say, “There could be another reason!” She was doing this not only to vindicate her husband but also to save her country. Another reminder to be slow to question someone’s actions, as they may have a lot more going on behind the scenes than we give them credit for.

There was a question about this in the notes – would you be willing/able to sacrifice something personal for the sake of the greater good? I honestly don’t know how to answer that. Until I am faced with that decision it would be hard to say yes, but I imagine when one is in that position it gives them pause. I would have difficulty killing anyone, so I’m not sure I could carry out that kind of mission. I would also have difficulty sacrificing someone I love. I don’t think I could do that.

It was a little dark due to the war setting and complicated protagonist, but a great story and well written. I rate it a 9.

The group talked about it in my absence, and here was their summary.

Seven us gathered this afternoon to discuss The Last Restaurant in Paris by Lily Graham.  All of us enjoyed the book and thought it was well written.  Of course it is a heartbreaking story and Sabine and Gilbert investigating the past and finding the truth kept us hooked by the book.  We thought the ending tied everything up neatly in “a little bow”.  As you can read below, Cindy and Pat that there was a lot of repeating of part one but several of us liked this and getting a different perspective we felt important to the novel.  We admired how Elodie/Marianne survived such tragedy, her mother dying in front of her; her terrible father and stepmother; her miscarriages; her Jaques getting killed by Otto Busch and then patiently getting her revenge but at the sacrifice of poor Gilbert’s brother, Henri.  We all loved her grandmother and the sister at the abbey.  Sabine and Gilbert finally getting the truth and realizing that, of course, Marianne is not a murderer or traitor as the townspeople accused her of.  In our discussion, we realized that this novel is based on true events and there really was a Otto Busch, who was a naval officer.  

We rated the book an 8.6.