The Light of Paris

by Eleanor Brown

This story is about a woman who is in an unhappy marriage, bullied and controlled by her husband.  He tells her what to wear, criticizes what she eats, selects their homes and furnishings.  He thinks that if he keeps her nicely dressed she will be happy an accompany him as required to social events.

She gets angry at her and he threatens to divorce her.  She is shocked by this announcement and thinks about trying to reconcile with him but she has a trip booked to visit her mother and she decides to do that so tha her husband can calm down.  When she gets to her mother's, with whom she does not have a good relationship, she is shocked to find that her mother is planning to sell the family home and move to a condo.
She starts prowling around the house and discovers her painting supplies in the basement.  She remembers how much she loved to paint as a young woman.  She also finds a diary of her grandmother's in the attic.  In the diary the grandmother describes how she was being encouraged to get married by her parents.  To avoid this fate she agrees to act as escort for a disagreeable cousin on a trip to Europe.  It become clear on the boat over to Europe that her cousin won't listen to her and doesn't want her around.  She hopes her cousin will settle down when they reach Europe but instead the girl leaves her for friends she met on the boat.

The girl's grandmother is forced to tell her parents what has happened.  They are furious as are the cousin's parents and want her to return home immediately.  She has arrived in Paris and doesn't want to leave so she gets a temporary job at an American library in Paris.  She meets a French artist and they fall in love and have an affair.  After a few months she finds out that he has had five years of freedom funded by his family and he must now return to take over the family business and marry as decided by his family.

She is distraught and gets pneumonia.  She is "rescued" by a family friend who happens to be in Europe.  He had escorted her at her coming out party and they had had sex on that occasion.  Once she recovers the man asks her to marry him.

The main character is engrossed in her grandmother's story and finds it hard to reconcile the girl in the diary from the straightlaced Grandmother she remembers.  While she is staying at her mother's she meets a kind man who has opened a restaurant next to her mother's house.  She is also intrigued to see the life in the neighbourhood, the shops, the friendships.  It seems like a much nicer place that what she remembered as a young woman.

Her husband arrives and takes her home.  She decides she cannot live an lie and leaves her husband to go back to her home town.  She finds a small apartment and plans her new life.

The book was a bit of chicklit but it was an okay story.