Stella, a 30 something single woman living in 1980's New York, was left an unexpected inheritance from her late mother-a roundtrip ticket to Paris and a small sum of money for the trip. She and her mother had absolutely nothing in common as she was an isolated and solitary daughter who had no desire to take chances, and that's all her mother ever did. Cecilia, her mother, had reinvented herself from her boring past to being a noted gossip columnist who had many lovers, one of whom fathered Stella.
She ends up taking that trip to Paris, acquiring a designer little black dress, an art dealer companion, and an obsession with the model for Manet's Olympia. Her adventures also lead her through some of the best food in Paris (the author IS Ruth Reichl) and a stint at Shakespeare Beethoven Bookstore. This is a quirky novel (and I really like quirky novels.) You never know what to expect with this book, as we follow Stella through her new meandering life. Maybe Mother knew best after all.
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