June 17, 2026 · Amanda Norton

“My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein” Brings the World of the Lost Generation to the Near Present

Amidst the thought-provoking aphorisms of writers from Kerouac to Whitman to Woolf that she weaves into the work, Levy also proves herself a skilled composer of short searing insights, as in this passage, for example, when the narrator tells us, “Gazing out the window, I saw a woman struggle with her bike hire and phone. The app would not allow her to park and end the ride. It was raining of course. It is a terrible feeling not to be able to end something when the journey has been concluded. I knew this from my first marriage.”