Paris: A Love Story (22 page)
Read Paris: A Love Story Online
Authors: Kati Marton
At Samantha and Cass’s wedding in 2008 in Ireland.
My daughter, Lizzie, and I on the Pont des Arts in Paris in 2006.
Richard and I were guests of the Norwegian Red Cross on a hiking trip in 2003.
I am standing between President Obama and President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, looking out at the audience of mourners during the Kennedy Center memorial for Richard in January 2011. I wear a very forced smile.
Hillary Clinton proved a staunch friend to both Richard and me before, during, and after Richard’s illness and death. Here we are at the Asia Society in New York in February 2011. The Secretary of State has just delivered a major policy speech about Afghanistan and Pakistan which she dedicated to Richard. Jordan’s Queen Noor is standing to the left.
With my son, Chris, in Paris in 2000. I am thrilled that both Chris and Lizzie love the city almost as much as I do.
Chris and Lizzie in my Paris apartment, Christmas 2011.
My sister, Juli, with the latest member of the Marton family, her son Mathieu’s first born, Lucien.
Christmas 2011 in the Luxembourg Gardens—the start of our new family tradition of spending the holidays in Paris.
The start of a new life, alone, in Paris.
READING GROUP GUIDE
PARIS: A LOVE STORY
BY KATI MARTON
INTRODUCTION
Paris has been a significant place for journalist Kati Marton throughout her life. She first landed in the City of Light in the fall of 1967 as a bright-eyed student and soon discovered the art of Utrillo, the films of Godard, and the music of Dvořák. She also learned of political turmoil and unrest during the student uprisings of 1968. Ten years later, Kati returned to Paris as a foreign correspondent for ABC News. This time the city was a place to fulfill her ambition and facilitate her career. She met the dashing and charismatic Peter Jennings and embarked on a passionate and tumultuous love affair and then marriage. When Kati next headed to Paris she was in the midst of a painful divorce from Peter, and she met Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the lasting love of her life. Through the glamour and the heartache and the successes and failures, Paris has been Kati Marton’s touchstone—a place of new beginnings, a place of passions and pleasures, a place to rejuvenate, and a place to connect with her true, best self.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Kati writes of discovering art and music as a young person in Paris. Is there any piece of art or music that moved you when you first encountered it or that has made a lasting impression?
2. During Kati’s passionate early love affair with Peter Jennings, she did reckless things to be with him, like traveling from Amman to Jerusalem to have dinner. Have you ever done anything reckless or extreme in the name of love?
3. Does Kati’s job as a foreign correspondent sound exciting to you? Is it a lifestyle you would enjoy?
4. Is there any city or place that you love or that was as formative for you as Paris has been for Kati?
5. Have you ever had a romance that was fueled or challenged by the commitment to career in the way that Kati and Peter’s was? Have you ever had to choose between ambition and love?
6. While in Budapest writing an article for
The Atlantic,
Kati discovers she is Jewish. Do you know the story of your own ancestry? Does your family or anyone you know have a story of discovering something surprising about their heritage?
7. Once Kati has children with Peter, she finds it tough to balance work with full-time motherhood. Have you had to negotiate that balance? How have you made it work?
8. Richard told Kati that he knew for years that she was just right for him and that he waited for her and anticipated the dissolution of her marriage. Have you known any love like this? Do you or anyone you know have a similar story of knowing when a person was the perfect match?
9. Do you think that the personal qualities that made Richard such a skilled diplomat also made him a good romantic/ life partner?
10. Kati writes of having specific shops and restaurants that were hers and Richard’s favorite places, places they frequented and thought of as
theirs.
Do you have any such place that you think of as especially belonging to you and a partner?
