ALL THE SUMMER DAYS

This is Alex Gardner's story of the men and women who ""shared my days and nights that golden summer"" of 1927 when they were working on the Paris American and living in their dream city with the feeling that they were never going to die. The mad moments, the famous names and events of the year, the wholesale intimacy that the work on the paper and their continuous community life encouraged, and the fates of some of them make up the summer, with the disintegration of Don Holmes' marriage the pivot of the story. For Don had a bleak, boozing record, an affair with Denise, and when Sarah, his wife came to join him the picture looked dangerous. But Don made an effort to reform, Sarah found friendship and help in Roger Austin -- and Alex found a woman to love in Ware Kendall. Their world begins to crumble when Don cannot keep to his resolve and Alex knows he cannot keep Ware, when drink and personalities clash and friendships dissolve, and the seductions of Paris wear thin. The summer is framed in Alex' return, years later, with his wife and his recall of the time, the people and the places he knew brings them to life again. A book that evokes a generation as well as a city, this will provoke the interest of those who will make a connection with it and join in the remembering.