Family Fortunes: Paris

Paris: Lita del Cielo comes to Paris to study, with the ambition of being a diplomat, and takes a room at The House of Stars. Run by a countess S raphine whose family fortunes and house have both seen better days and who discovered an easy income in housing allegedly well-bred debutante borders and plenty of parents eager to pay a onetime noblewoman to supervise their daughters. So far, so familiar a story of an American girl in Paris, according to The Star. That multicultural bent parallels modern France with its influx of immigrants and rising tide of racial conflict. The clich blueblood is on its way out Seraphine represents the old way, Lita and her friends represent the new and American writer Patricia Engel caused a splash with her first book, Vida, a collection of short stories that won Engel rave reviews and a string of awards and nominations. Its Not Love Its Just Paris is her first novel. Set in Paris in 1998, it begins with the timeworn story of a young girl leaving her parents for the first time. It becomes less so when we find out that she is the daughter of immigrant parents Colombian orphans who marry and find their way to America. Without family ties, they were able to choose each other they even chose their own surname because the only father they had now was God. Once in the U.S., her father builds a company and becomes rich. The new-world success story. It makes Lita a greenblood another twist on the clich Paris. No longer are only the daughters of bluebloods taking a gap year in the city of light. Its the nouveau riche, the international elite, which includes people of colour and the children of the self-made. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.