My favorite type of novel is one that is about mood and has very little narration or story. "Paris Trance (A Romance)" fits that category perfectly. Two couples who are best friends and then eventually they separate, especially one of the male characters - who ends up drifting off to London to ...do nothing. The one consistent aspect of this book is characters who do nothing except exist. Paris is the perfect background to this type of world where one travels from sex to love to eating to eventually nothing.
In many ways "Paris Trance" is very much like a French new wave film. Charming, but a sadness takes over the (non)narrative. Also it deals with the nature of change, and when and if changes happen. This is my second Geoff Dyer book. The first one I read was his essays on jazz figures "But Beautiful." Both books reflect on a time that is perfect, but there is a mood shifter around the corner...
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