PARIS IN THE FIFTIES

What a memory this guy has! American journalist and historian Karnow remembers (and chattily regurgitates) every mundane detail of his youthful sojourn in the City of Lights. His self-indulgence appropriately echoes that of Montaigne, the Frenchman who invented the personal essay by writing charmingly about himself. Whether Pulitzer Prize winner Karnow's memoir also charms--the listener must judge. It will help if you know a soupçon of French, haute couture, Parisian geography and French history, and the ouevres of the international glitterati who inhabited Paris at mid-century. Narrator Chris Hurt apparently does, for he gives us a light, gossipy, amiable reading in brisk American and excellent French. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 99]