"This brilliant, beautifully written essay is the finest book I have ever read about Paris. Ever. Thank you, Lucy Sante." –Paul Auster
"Nowadays, the old crowded, swarming, surly cities are at least half-forgotten. But in this great chronicle Lucy Sante recalls when Paris was rougher, when the poor, the tough, the unregulated, the underworld, thrived there; maybe the city was also less rough, in that there was room for nearly everyone all the way down the social ladder. Hanging over
The Other Paris is the contemporary curse of cities that perhaps hit Paris first, of cities that have become bland transnational stopping places for the privileged. Magisterial as ever, Sante returns us to the flavor, texture, savor, shouts, and clashes of the bygone city." –Rebecca Solnit
"
The Other Paris is a heartbreaking spectacle, immense in intellectual and political scope and emotional reach. Peopled by crooks and movie stars, gamblers and thinkers, the world's premier city of dreams is rendered, through Lucy Sante's fine hand, historian's eye, and poet's heart, into a place we hardly knew–a world of hitherto unknown mysteries and realities. A grand journey in an epic work." –Hilton Als
"Sante's knowledge of the voluminous Paris literature is prodigious . . . Sante's great gift is [her] ability to draw on the 'verbal photography' of previous writers to send the reader back in time." –Arthur Goldhammer,
BookForum "Sante vividly captures this 'other' Paris . . .
The Other Paris is immersive and enjoyable. The abundant pictures are fascinating." –
Booklist "'We have forgotten what a city was, ' Lucy Sante provocatively writes about Paris. By the last chapter of this absorbing book, we are convinced. Washerwomen and ragpickers, bohemians and clochards, anarchists and apaches, all play their part in this alternative urban history. This is not the Gay Paree of Maurice Chevalier, though he too makes an appearance." –Witold Rybczynski
"All who love Paris will love this book." –
Kirkus Reviews