The Paris Novel

Content Warning: This section discusses sexual assault of a minor and death of a family member.

Reichl’s depicts Stella’s initial worldview as shaped by her traumatic childhood experiences, which she unpacks and processes over the course of the novel. The novel introduces Stella as timid, cautious, and wary—a self-protective posture toward the world cultivated in an attempt to survive the trauma of her past. Over the course of Reichl’s plot, Stella’s character arc sees her discovering her true passions and talents, finding belonging in a new community that becomes a surrogate family, and embracing her own identity.

Reichl emphasizes Stella’s prolonged sexual abuse by one of her mother’s romantic partners as the primary root of her childhood trauma. When Stella is seven years old, Celia begins dating Mortimer, a rich, elegant art collector. Celia sends Stella to his studio for weekly “art lessons,” during which he repeatedly assaults her. Rather than speaking about it openly, Stella represses her feelings and tells no one about the experience, instead letting resentment and rage toward her mother fester. This experience also instills a great deal of fear and anxiety in her, which manifests in her early interactions with Jules when she gets to Paris. Stella has trained herself to be wary of strange situations and people, particularly men, leading her to lead a simple, high-scheduled, and regimented life in New York. As a result, she reacts to Jules’s kindness with suspicion, wary of his motives and intentions and blaming herself for “practically invit[ing] him to take advantage of her” (59). This moment shows not only the anxiety and fear that the abuse planted in her but also the lingering feelings of shame and guilt that persist into adulthood, as she interprets both situations as somehow her fault—a common response to sexual trauma, particularly in children. Reichl describes the sensory triggers, such as the smell of turpentine, that cause Stella to relive her assault.

Reichl’s narrative indicates that this trauma is exacerbated by Stella’s mother’s judgmental and neglectful parenting. Celia’s constant criticism leaves Stella feeling alone, overlooked, and misunderstood. Even when Stella and her mother are estranged, the lasting impact of the mistreatment prevents Stella from allowing herself to indulge her true interests or enjoy a more expansive life. Stella feels so determined to not be like her mother that she denies herself experiences that could bring her joy or pleasure because she associates them with Celia.

Celia’s parenting also impacts Stella’s initial interactions with her father. Though she seeks him out, Stella has an instinctually adverse reaction to Django during their first meeting, anticipating a repeat of her negative experiences with Celia. Through the lens of her past experiences, Django strikes her as self-centered and arrogant, like Celia. When Django suggests cooking together, she imagines being berated the way Celia used to berate her. Stella’s childhood with Celia has taught her to expect her father to reject or be ashamed of her, so she is unprepared and overwhelmed when he proves to be Celia’s polar opposite: warm, accepting, and involved.

Stella’s experiences over the course of The Paris Novel challenge the negative perceptions, coping mechanisms, and thought patterns that her past traumas trigger, allowing her to begin to change them. Though she still experiences fears and doubts, by the novel’s end, she is better able to manage them and lean on others for support so that they no longer hinder her enjoyment of life.