Express News Service
To cut the 336-page-long story short, Koël Purie Rinchet’s debut novel, Clearly Invisible in Paris, is
a celebration of unlikely friendships—the ones that happen by chance, the ones we don’t seek, and the ones we never think we need. It is also the friendship that develops between her four protagonists—Neera (an ambitious Indian married to a French filmmaker), Rosel (a Filipino nanny), Dasha (an aspiring Russian model) and Violette (a Senegalese trans woman)—all of whom come to Paris to reinvent themselves. The City of Love and Light is their City of Dreams.
It is not a brand new plot, but Rinchet’s treatment of the tale gives it a renewed freshness. She writes the tale as a woman and an Indian who took her time to make Paris her own, and also to belong to it. Given the storyline, one would assume the narrative to have the pace of a chick lit, but it begins rather languidly, which is not necessarily bad. The first four chapters are dedicated to each of her protagonists—a little bit of their past, present and future—almost like a quick biography. She ends each of these chapters on mysterious notes, all of which she ties up neatly later in the novel. You can tell that the author is passionate about the story; almost as passionate as Neera when she recalls the beginnings of her torrid romance with her husband, Jean-Paul. This might be Rinchet’s first fiction-writing rodeo, but she knows how to tell a story, even if it is as old as time.
What is refreshingly new though is her treatment of Paris. She romances the city, but does not romanticise it. With the best of art, fashion and food, the French capital is the world’s go-to destination for all things chic, but it is also what gives the city a sense of superiority complex. Rinchet establishes it in her sly but unmissable incorporation of brand names (many fictional), which she then uses as a tool of subversion. In the first chapter, for instance, we see Rosel, tormented by her Kuwaiti ‘owner’, destroying a pair of ‘Schuberry’ stilettos worth 2,700 euros using tzatziki dip, in an act of vengeance.
The author’s background as an actor comes through in the numerous pop-culture references—both Indian and French—including a rather long detour to sneak in an encounter with Shah Rukh Khan, but no one’s complaining about that. It won’t be a surprise to see SRK do a cameo when the book gets adapted for the screens, which it will be perfect for.
‘What is light without darkness?’
Koël Purie Rinchet on how her relationship with Paris inspired her debut novel
How did the book come about?
A friend of mine—Priti Paul of the Oxford Bookstores—asked me to write a few chapters to be promoted at the Paris Book Fair in 2020 as an upcoming book. The initial chapters flowed quickly because I had the characters in mind, but then I got stuck. It was only a year later that I got back to the book and within seven months, my first draft was ready.
Paris is the City of Lights, yet your characters are defined by their darkness. Tell us about the paradox.
The book is born out of my experience as an outsider in Paris and constantly wanting to fit it. Paris is
a city of contradictions. On one end, it is breathtakingly stunning, but when you live here, you realise, it’s so dirty. So, once the rose-tinted glasses disappear, you realise that the City of Love is actually the city of the aloof; the city of liberty and equality is actually divided. They talk about themselves being the upholders of the liberal arts, but they are an insular and inward-looking society that pushes the outsider really out. So, Paris is the City of Lights, but what is light without darkness?
According to you, when does a person actually feel seen or visible?
It comes from real connections with people. Which is why this book is about friendship. Our chosen family are the ones that make us visible. And I feel more and more visible in Paris today because of them. They eventually feed into my life also when I am alone. That is what makes me feel seen.
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