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Rue de la Pompe: A Satiric Urban Fantasy

James Earle McCracken
iUniverse, Inc. (2008)
ISBN 9780595485055
Reviewed by Tina Avon for RebeccasReads (8/08)

Rue de la Pompe, written by James McCracken, is like no other book I have ever read.  It starts off normally enough, but soon detours into a world where fantasy rules, and we, as the reader, get to go along for the ride.  Let me begin by saying that I loved that the author decided to set this in Paris; it somehow feels appropriate that this "urban fantasy" should be set in a setting such as this.

Our story starts when the main character, Michael, an American who happens to be working in Paris, realizes that he is celebrating his 30th birthday, in a bar on Rue de la Pompe, alone and feeling extremely sorry for himself.  However, this night will be like no other, and as Michael walks home from the bar, he mysteriously finds a piece of paper in his pocket; it’s a dry cleaning ticket for a tuxedo and a shirt (which, for some reason, he feels compelled to claim).  While he is chastising himself (he tends to do this a lot) for having picked up the formal wear, he notices that he has also received a party invitation from his neighbors, which, surprisingly, he decides to attend.  

What Michael does not know is that fate has set him up and that he is about to embark on a crazy romp through the fantasyland that was Paris (or still is?).  Michael finds out that the mysterious tux and shirt have a special meaning.  Indeed, one of the buttons on the shirt represents an exact replica of the first French franc, and this will send Michael off on a wild ride through Paris.  He ends up meeting a cast of characters that would not exist in his 'normal, everyday' life, but he somehow feels more connected to these events and to these people than to his own life.

The author intertwines humor, history and a quirkiness, all of which he deftly mixes with an even richer fantasy world populated by odd little places and even odder little people. Throughout it all, Michael keeps talking to himself (or to his other selves), and this, to me, was the most interesting aspect of the book.  I believe this was the author's way of connecting Michael's various personalities into the one that really defines who Michael is.  In a way, this is a bit of a coming of age story, with a huge twist.

This book has something going on at all times; it was a fun read that kept me smiling.   I recommend this to all people who like to look at life as a series of crazy little adventures, with the next one just around the bend.  Un plaisir à lire!

  

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