Flowers have been placed on the steps of the Bataclan Theatre, as well as in front of dozens of cafes that line the streets of Paris where over a hundred people died from the shootings and suicide bombings on Nov. 13.
Among the flickering candles, photographs, letters, and flowers that serve as tributes to the victims, are also copies of “Paris est une fête” — the French language edition of Ernest Hemingway's “A Moveable Feast.”
In English, the title of the book is translated as “Paris is a party.” Ever since the night of the attacks, the book has been flying off the bookshelves of shops in Paris, as well as on Amazon France's online store.
Parisians have began reading its pages as a source of comfort in the wake of the most devastating attacks in the French capital city since World War II.
The novel was written in the latter years of Hemingway's live and was published posthumously. It is widely regarded as his love letter to the city of light where he spent much of his time as a young man honing his writing skills in the company of other writers such as James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and F. Scott and his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald.
“There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were nor how it was changed nor with what difficulties now what ease, it could be reached. It was always worth it and we received a return for whatever we brought to it,” wrote Hemingway in the Paris memoir set in the city in the 1920's.
His words are a sentiment many Parisians want to share as they still mourn for the hundred who died less than two weeks ago. While many bars and cafes remain empty, some patrons are defying the terror that took over the nation by celebrating life and joy just like Paris in known for.
According to reports, in a small cafe just across from the Bataclan concert hall, a familiar tune of “Don't Worry Be Happy” was played on a piano on Saturday evening and soon, the Parisian patrons were belting out “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen in tribute to the moveable feast that is Paris despite the heavy weight of tragedy it has witnessed and survived.
"We have to live. We have to continue to go out. We have to go to the stores, do our Christmas shopping and stick our tongues out at the terrorists,” said Jean-Francois Douine, a customer who just purchased his own French copy of “A Moveable Feast.”
“It’s very important to bring flowers to our dead. It’s very important to see, many times, Hemingway’s book, A Moveable Feast, because we are a very ancient civilisation, and we will hold high the banner of our values, and we will show brotherhood to the five million Muslims who exercise their religion freely and kindly, and we will fight against the 10,000 barbarians who kill, they say, in the name of Allah,” said another Parisian woman who was identified only as Danielle.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
