Louisa begins to research her fathers life using a batch of letters from 1949. She learns her father was in the Secret Service during the war, knew many famous people, particularly artists, and basically had an earlier life his family never knew about.

This should have been a great book, but the author is so interested in herself and her issues with the distant father that the book is a lot less interesting than I expected. ( )

A Letter from Paris is a memoir about a daughter searching for the truth of her father's life after she receives the titular letter from Paris. In that missive she learns that a cache of letters written by her father and his lover had been found - does she want them? As she had a somewhat complicated relationship with him and didn't know his full history she most certainly does! What follows is her quest to learn more about him.

The book was not a page turner but was, at times quite interesting. It lacked a certain organization. The most interesting part - her trip to Paris was not fleshed out nearly enough. The photos were a nice addition. ( )

Louisa Deasey has written a memoir of her quest to unravel the mysterious life of her father, Denison Deasey. He died when Louisa was six, and he was in his sixties, her parents having divorced a couple of years earlier. Louisa began her quest upon receiving a message from a Frenchwoman describing a cache of letters she found in an attic that described a passionate affair between Denison Deasey and her grandmother, Michelle. Louisa's family had lead her to believe that her father had failed in his aspirations to write, but something compelled her to begin ferreting out the details of his life. In the following years she spent much time in national libraries sifting through archives that contained her father's papers. Her research eventually compelled her to go to France and visit the important sites from her father's life. My only complaint about the book would be the amount of space given to the research aspect followed by the comparatively scanty sections on her time in France, which was really fascinating. The author included photos, which definitely enliven the memoir. Overall, it's a fascinating glimpse into the life of a minor character written by a daughter who truly loved him. ( )

I found this story very interesting. Louisa Deasey's father dies when she is young and she feels as if she never really knew him. A chance message from a woman in Paris causes Louisa to dig further into her father's past and find out who he really was.

The more she uncovers, the more she understands some things that didn't quite add up about his life. Most surprising was that his first wife Giselle, continued to have a close relationship with Louisa's father and the rest of her family. I think their love story may deserve a book of its own.

My problems with the book were that it seemed a bit unorganized and it didn't resonate much with me probably due to the fact I'm not Australian. Many of the names mentioned in the book were unfamiliar. Also having never heard of Denison Deasey, I wondered why I needed to know who he was and why the library bought his papers. It was interesting to follow along to find out, but not the great reveal I was hoping for. ( )

I gave up long before Louisa left for France. I found the first part of the book very confusing. I never straightened out the Giselle/Michelle relationship and thought he was very troubled and suffered from wanderlust that kept him 'away'. The author's voice was confusing as well but probably because of the Australian dialect that showed through but made me stop dead in my reading to understand. This might be an important book in Australia but, as others noted, the famous personages mentioned are unknown to most of the American audience. I would not recommend this book. ( )