David McCullough is an exceptional historian and writer. He really brings Paris to life in this book, with much appreciation for art, invention, and even medicine. His storytelling style is wonderful, but I do think this could be a slight disadvantage in this book, because while some historical figures appear in multiple chapters, many of the chapters could almost stand alone, as much as McCullough tries to weave a cohesive narrative between them.

The stories of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt were fascinating to me. But I think the standout narrative belongs to Elihu Washburne, the American ambassador to France during the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of Paris. It felt a little out of place, next to chapters about idealist writers and artists, but I think McCullough just had to include it as a tribute to this man's devotion and steadfastness.

This is a book about Americans in Paris, so as you would expect, this book is going to romanticize Paris, and I enjoyed it because it's glamorous and exciting. But I have to acknowledge that many of the people in the book enjoyed privileged lifestyles, and there isn't much representation for the marginalized and the poor who made up the majority of Parisian citizens. I wish their stories could exist alongside the Americans in Paris to round out the book a bit more.