Ford attempts to let ypu live vicariously in Paris during the twenties and thirties by following the lives of four minor expatriate artists and writers who lived in Paris during that period. The book is fairly successful. Two of the lives were Antheil and Stearns - one a promising composer and the other a promising writer. Both came to Paris to escape the strictures of American culture; however, the freedom that Paris offered perhaps doomed them to failure. Antheil worked hard at producing avant garde music that became a brief novelty in Paris, but which ultimately came to naught everywhere else. Stearns, lacking structure and discipline fell into a life of dissipation and was reduced to gambling on the horses and writing a column on betting tips. A third life was that of Kay Boyle. To be fair, she lived all over France and Italy, and only incidentally lived in Paris. She was more successful as a writer; however, unwise romantic decisions prevented her from reaching her full potential. The fourth life - Anderson - involved more of a nonentity. a hanger-on who hobnobbed with more famous people. Paris was a comparatively cheap place to live. Notwithstanding its charms, however, Paris was as tough a town to make it in as any city in the US. ( )