Andrew HusseyBesprekingen

I wish I'd read this book whilst I was living in France. It's a most informative book, looking at the inhabitants of France who come from the former French territories of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Much of the book is devoted to France's possession of these nations, and to the troubles leading to their final independence. It's a horrifying and illuminating story, and one that does much to explain the disaffection of the Maghrebin population in France. In fact, if I have a criticism, it is that Hussey has done little but touch upon the history of those North Africans who chose to emigrate to France, though he examines the very recent past, looking at recent riots and at Muslims in the French prison system

Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, this well-written book is easy to read and complex issues are dealt with clearly. Hussey has handled the mass of material well and engagingly. A compelling and disturbing read.

Speaking East is a detailed enough and more than captivating account, albeit biased, of the whereabouts of Isidore Isou, his life in Romania, his arrival in France and the swift rise and fall of his otherwise long-standing Lettrist movement (which outlived its offshoots long after losing its public notoriety). And when I say biased, I mean the author obviously finds Isou a lot more fascinating than the likes of Debord and Jorn, who split from Lettrism partly on account of Isou's unabashed mysticism and egocentrism. However, Hussey does make a compelling case for Isou's conceptions bringing to a new peak the relationship of the avant-garde with Jewish mystical thought - and, of course, for the real origins of Mai 68. And, as a bonus, there are few - only a few though... - illustrations, which prompts the reader to further go exploring online, since offline there are scarce resources - especially in Romania, where some people still don't seem to acknowledge that it was here where Tzara, Isou, Celan and so many other essential figures of the past century were born.

An enlightening look at French involvement in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Although the book touches on colonial times, most of it discusses the post-WWII time period. Of particular interest is its coverage of the Islamist movements in each country and the spillover to France itself. For those who want to believe that the US is the only western power to meddle in the affairs of Arab North Africa, this is the story of France having been there and done that.

Eerily enough, I was half-way through this book on Jan. 7, 2015, when two brothers shot up the Charlie Hebdo offices. Reading this book, I knew why Charlie Hebdo. I had some understanding of the sick history of France's colonialization and the banleiues. Mandatory.

I gave up on this ... it was too trendily rive-gauche leftie (and I'm a leftie myself).

i wish i'd started reading this long before i went to paris. i learned so much about the city... great great book for the traveller. now i want to collect all the great travel books for cities i visit. just added "first stop in the new world" about mexico city. other ideas?

Secret Paris?

Mr. Hussey's book was the second history of Paris I read within a few months’ time. Unfortunately, Mr. Hussey’s book compares unfavourably with Colin Jones’ book about the City of Lights. “Paris, the Secret History” brings mostly the same story, but with less detail and without making it significantly more readable. Consequently, few "secrets" were revealed. And the mentioning of thieves and “whores” in almost every chapter is first and foremost tedious. Still, if this is the only book available about the City of Light, read it. Paris vaut bien une messe!

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. This is an history of Paris from Roman times to the present focusing on the working classes, the revolutionary, the thieves, the homeless, the prostitutes, the students, the literary underground, and other people on the margins. So often history is told from the perspectives of the royalty, the nobles, and the borgeousie, and it's refreshing whenever one gets to read about the lives of everyday people. The sheer scope of the time period covered means that Hussey often doesn't go into a lot of detail, and there are many off-handed comments that left me intrigued and wanting to learn more about certain incidents or people. Still, as an overview, this was very interesting portrait of a city and it's people constantly in flux. It's fairly readable, although sometimes I found Hussey's style to be somewhat lacking, and there are some bizarre grammar constructs that left me shaking my head and rereading paragraphs over and over to figure out what he was trying to say. Recommended for the casual student of history and those interested in Paris. Four stars.

I was disappointed by this one. There are a lot of entertaining historical anecdotes in here, but somehow as a whole it doesn't quite hang together.

Part of the problem is that it wants to be more than just a factual history. Hussey says in the prologue that he is modelling the project on Peter Ackroyd's wonderful London: The Biography, but that sets the bar pretty high. He is decent when he sticks to the facts, but when he starts trying to be metaphysical, he just doesn't have Ackroyd's control, and ends up drawing rather silly and pseudo-profound conclusions like, "The death of [Princess] Diana [...] could only have happened here [...] she is only the latest and most famous example of those who have been fatally seduced here." And so on.

Part of the reason Ackroyd was so good at moving beyond facts into "psychogeography" (or whatever you want to call it) is that he took a catholic, thematic approach to his history. Hussey just starts with the Celts and works his way methodically forwards in time. Of course there's nothing wrong with that as a methodology, but it does mean he has to work hard to keep each chapter coherent, and occasionally it slips away from him.

The book's focus is neither one thing or the other. It claims to be a "secret" history which examines the city's underclasses, its back-alleys and criminals and occultists. Yet there is a strong relience on fairly un-secret narratives about kings and presidents and other "great men" or important dates. The result is that neither strand seems wholly satisfying.

Having one eye on the downtrodden was a good idea, and it provides the book with most of its best stories. It's great to hear details about things like the "bread of Madame Montpensier" (which used flour from ground-up human bones, during food shortages), or about the semi-mythical King of Thieves holding court over the city's beggars. But too often, his remit manifests itself only in a vague fascination with what he calls "whores", and a predilection for details which, while often interesting, can sometimes seem juvenile.

Finally, the quality of the writing itself irritated me. He does not know the difference between "flout" and "flaunt". He uses the seismological term "epicentre" as a lazy synonym for "centre". The net result of all this is a feeling that Hussey has a wealth of information about Paris, but not a very good idea about how to organise it or talk about it.

You'll get some interesting stuff out of this book, but it's more of an effort than it should be.½

entertaining, dense, recommended

Excellent biography of Guy Debord, founder of the Situationist International, which is particularly revealing about the movement's roots in the bohemian art scene of the 1950s. Mostly accurate and non-judgemental, it gives the SI credit for its pivotal role in the Events of Paris May 1968 - credit which has been denied in most orthodox left histories of the period. Some minor inaccuracies concerning the SI's dealings in the UK.½

Recommended by William C. 29.june.2011.

CITY LIBRARY HISTORY 961.04 HUSS

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