Paris 75016: Hell's Diary (French Millennium Library) - Softcover

Pille, Lolita

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552072037 ISBN 13: 9781552072035

Publisher: Studio 9 Books, 2004

Synopsis

Money, sex, drugs and love: there is just too much of the first three and little of the last in this spellbinding novel about privileged young adult Parisians. Hell is a lucid, supremely intelligent woman – almost twenty – with enough sense to be disdainful of the moneyed and loveless world she grew up in, but not enough luck to escape it.

And then she meets the man of her life, a cynic who, like Hell, enjoys baiting the superficial fools that populate their social scene. Thereby hangs a love story that suddenly twists like the sides of a Rubik’s Cube and rockets into uncharted emotional territory, leaving you humbled, crushed, and longing for more.

About this title

About the Author:

Lolita Pille was born near Paris and raised in the wealthy 16th arrondissement where this – her first novel – is set. Widely acclaimed for her literary talent and equally widely despised for her frank descriptions of the crass materialist milieu of the children of the French upper classes, Lolita Pille has just published a second work of fiction in France, entitled Bubble Gum.

From Booklist:

Teenager Pille (who grew up in Paris' wealthy sixteenth arrondissement, referenced in the title) chronicles the lives of trust-fund kids who go clubbing all night, sleep all day, and wake up in time to do it all over again. Hell (nee Ella) narrates this bleak little tale, which begins with her declaration "I'm a bitch" and continues with her exploits snorting endless lines of cocaine. Hell gets a reprieve when she falls in love with the mysterious Andrea, with whom she spends a blissful six months--until it ends for reasons hard to fathom. There's a lot of blather about how meaningless life is and how all these kids want is true connection and love from their parents, and on and on. The novel was well received in France and may create something of a stir here, too, based on shock value alone. Pille is not without talent as a writer, but she never convincingly answers the question that hovers over her precocious debut: Why should we care about the suffering of such insufferable people? Beth Leistensnider
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About this edition

• Publisher: Studio 9 Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1552072037
• ISBN 13: 9781552072035
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 289