A review by paytonmckenna
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London by Lauren Elkin

3.5

not sure this book has anything profound to say about women's roles in cities and as flâneurs, but it was interesting nonetheless as elkin weaves together history, art criticism, and memoir. like many other people who left reviews, i also found the tokyo chapter tough to get through. elkin spends the entire chapter emphasizing how much she dislikes the city and everything she thinks is wrong with it in comparison to america or europe, and the lack of self-awareness makes elkin's attitude feel antithetical to the approach she takes to rest of the book. beyond that major disappointment, i appreciated elkin's analyses of short stories, novels, and films littered throughout the book, and i'm taking away plenty of new additions to my to-read and to-watch lists. at the end of the day, if this book did anything, it just made me want to book a flight to paris.