Guided Tours of Hell by Francine Prose

Author:Francine Prose [Prose, Francine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780805048612
Publisher: Henry Holt
Published: 1997-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

USING THE SAME NAVIGATIONAL system as before—lost, hopelessly lost, then found again, Nina somehow resurfaced on the boulevard Saint-Germain.

Cars and pedestrians chased each other down the crowded avenue, darting between pale shadows and patches of cold silver light. Was it morning or afternoon light? Nina couldn’t tell. How much time had she spent at the museum? Where was her watch? Had she left it at the hotel? Well, it wouldn’t have helped her now. She knew that she hadn’t reset it.

She stood on a busy corner, watching people go by, trying to guess the approximate hour from the looks on their faces. Were they going to lunch? Returning? Leaving work and heading home early after a miserable day?

Nina wished she’d brought the list of restaurants that Leo was scribbling as he told her how much she would love the Hotel Danton. She would have had to rescue the scrap of paper from the trash. She hadn’t wanted to get that close, to risk brushing elbows or knees, though in the past they’d clung to each other behind that very desk.

Did his absentmindedness betray what they both knew but couldn’t acknowledge, that his packing her off to Paris wasn’t merely business as usual? Why had he sent her here, anyhow, when he could have simply done what normal men did: told her that it wasn’t working out and he needed to see other women. Looking out at the city lights, Nina had imagined that there were other offices in which lovers were making each other unhappy, but none in which men were buying women off with free trips to Paris. Why had he picked the Hotel Danton? Did he want her to meet Madame Cordier? Was there some lesson he meant her to learn? Or possibly, some secret?

Nina would feel competent, tracking down an enticing bistro, studying the menu, ordering, taking notes on the food and wine. They used to alternate taking notes. Leo was less circumspect. In fact he made a production of requesting souvenir menus, asking pointed questions so that anyone would realize that he had some professional interest. Soon, delectable morsels—compliments of the chef—would appear from the kitchen, plates of buttery amuse-bouche with caviar and crème fraîche, balls of exotic fruit sorbet, expensive bottles of wine.

Several times Nina asked Leo if that was ethical. Weren’t they supposed to re-create the experience of a typical Allo! reader, humble and anonymous and likely to be mistreated? Leo said there was nothing wrong in letting the restaurants do their best, and that the experience they were re-creating was that of a typical Allo! reader on an atypically lucky day.

She should head back to Montparnasse and find those secret bistros and write them up for Allo! The smell of wine and tobacco, the clink of silverware and glass, voices rising and ebbing—it might be cheering, a comfort. Nina imagined several appealing dishes: slices of duck breast cooked rare, anything with venison or wild mushrooms, or stepping down, roast chicken and frites, any place could do that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.