"Paris in the Present Tense" by Mark Helprin

Above: "Paris in the Present Tense." Mark Helprin. 394 pages.

Jules finds a way to get back at the venal mogul, secure the future of his grandson, and submit to cosmic justice for his own crime.

I completed reading this book today.

Paris. Present day.

Jules Lacour is a seventy year old, living in Paris, who is a professor at the Sorbonne, a cellist. He is a child of the holocaust, having spent the first four years of his life, Ann Frank like, in a Reims home attic. His parents were killed by the SS even as the allies recaptured Reims, but, Jules is saved thanks to the caring Christian family that hid his family for four years of war.

In his late teens, Jules joins the French military to fight the insurgents in Algeria. He lives his life with guilt, one example of which being remorse for the moment when, as a soldier, he did not kill, when he had the opportunity, enemy operatives who later wiped out his unit.

After the Algerian war, Jules hones his musical/cellist skills inherited from his father, hangs out with intellectuals at the Sorbonne, and meets the love of his life, Jacqueline.

Jacqueline and Jules are married and have one daughter, Catherine. They are generally happy... but, they keep to themselves, much to the daughter's chagrin, who suffers socially somewhat because of the self isolation of her parents. Jacqueline and Jules are not necessarily anti-social... its just that they gain more life satisfaction out of intellectual pursuits. Antisemitism wafts through modern French culture which influences Jacqueline and Jules' distancing themselves from increasingly main stream French culture.

Jacqueline dies some twenty years before the "present." Jules lives a life a celibacy (though not without a sequence of short-lived, loveless trysts with his various cello students).

Jules works hard at his music... is skilled, and well liked in his craft... but, he never becomes great. He dotes on his grandson, his daughter and son-in-law. He's a fitness buff. He rows in the Seine and he runs through the parks of St. Germain en Laye, a northwest suburb of Paris, where he lives in a room of a billionaire friend's mansion.

Life is generally good, at seventy four, for Jules. But, he grieves for his grandson, who has Leukemia. There is treatment for the boy, but, it is costly... well beyond his means, or that of his son-in-law and daughter.

A perfect storm of life changing events hits Jules in his seventy fourth year (Spoiler alert. Don't read further if you don't want to hear the novel's denouement).

1. Jules falls in love with a cello student, Elodi, one third his age.

2. Jules' public intellectual celebrity friend refers him to an American billionaire mogul whose company is looking for a musical jingle to tag on to his world wide advertising.

3. While walking on the Seine's Isle des Cygnes, under the Bir Hakeim Bridge, Jules encounters a scuffle where three teenagers are beating up on a fourth boy. As he moves closer to the imbroglio, Jules notes that the victim is wearing a yarmulke. The perps are Muslim boys. Jules, enraged (remember he is fit for seventy four) kills two of the three boy perpetrators, while the yarmulke wearing victim and the third boy perp run away.

Jules relationship with Elodi simmers... remains unrequited. Both Jules and Elodi know that something is there, but because of their age difference, they know that fulfillment will be difficult. Jules memory of his long deceased wife, Jacqueline, remains vivid and loving as he explores his relationship with Elodi.

Jules' meeting with the American mogul goes well and Jules is commissioned to write a jingle. The mogul likes the jingle and invites Jules to New York to consummate a one million dollar payment... money more than sufficient to see to the health needs of his grandson.

Life is good! A new love! Money to heal his grandson and to secure his remaining life!

But, oh... that pesky contretemps on the Isle des Cygnes. Jules, a smart man, worked hard to cover his tracks, including a jump into the Seine, as he left the scene of his crime... but, two top flics, one a Muslim and the other a Christian, are also smart and begin to close in on him. The two cops feel a special urge to crack this difficult case as they see that in doing so, in addition to capturing the murderer, they, because of their differing religious and cultural backgrounds, will buttress the underpinnings of a successful multicultural France.

The visit to New York does not go well. The company, an insurance conglomerate, reneges on the jingle acceptance... and, Jules collapses while on a run up a steep hill in Central Park.

The New York City hospital doctors diagnose Jules' problem as a large aneurism at the top of his spine... an otherwise undetectable condition that could end his life, though he be otherwise extremely healthy. Said the doc..."you could die tomorrow, or you could live to be one hundred"... but, to live a long time, he would have to tone down his rigorous rowing and running schedule. Another exertion like the one up the Central Park hill could end his life. Jules avoids giving the hospital data on his French identity and slips out of the hospital without being discharged.

Back in France, things are not looking good. Jules has run out of money, his new love has found a partner closer to her age (which Jules understands and accepts), and the flics continue to close in on him.

Jules finds a way to get back at the venal mogul, secure the future of his grandson, and submit to cosmic justice for his own crime. He buys multi-million dollar life insurance policy from a company owned by the dastardly mogul. He sells all of his assets to meet the cost of the first year's premium. He collaborates with a friendly, odd ball, insurance salesman who intuits his medical secret but, keeps it to himself. Jules passes all of the medical tests to get the policy... the aneurism is not detectable in the insurance company tests. He fights off a tenacious insurance investigator, who suspects his perfidy. And, on the day where the policy becomes irrevocable, he does a real fast jog... like the one in Central Park... and...

The writing is sumptuous, with thoughtful ruminations on life... Tolstoy like in its nuanced and skilled use of language.

Helprin wrote "Winters Tale," a 1983 fantasy novel taking place in a mythic New York City, in a markedly different reality, in an industrial Edwardian era near the turn of the twentieth century. That novel was adapted into a feature film by Akiva Godsman.

"Paris in the Present Day" is a "love letter" to Paris. I spent eighteen months of my life in Paris while serving a thirty month LDS mission in western France. I lived six of those eighteen months in the tony 16th Arrondissement which borders on the Seine and is on the West side of the Bir Hakeim Bridge where the novel's murders took place. I am very familiar with that area.

Throughout the narrative there is an undertone of the rising antisemitism in modern day France. That Jules urges his daughter to seek medical care for her son outside of France, despite top care being available in France, reflects Jules' uncertainty that his grandson, once cured, would thrive in a future, less tolerant France

Truth be told, it was the book's setting being in Paris which originally attracted me to the work, seen recently, randomly, while scanning a shelf at Weller Books, Trolley Square, in Salt Lake City. "Paris in the Present Tense," was a serendipitous encounter for me, and like many other, unresearched, un sought experiences in my life (start with Newfoundland dogs) turned into an extraordinarily positive experience.

Recommend.

Note: 30 months in France between summer 1965 and January 1968. 18 months Paris area [PA]

Paris 14th. Five months. PA

La Rochelle. Five months.

Nogent sur Marne. Five months. PA

Tours. Four months.

Rennes. Three months.

Chatillion sous Bagneux. Four months. PA

Paris 16th. Four months. PA