A Chair on the Boulevard

"A Chair on the Boulevard" by Leonard Merrick is a set of tales from the beginning of the 1900s. It looks at ideas about love, wanting to get ahead, and how hard it is for creative people living in Paris, which can be exciting but also tough. The first story, "The Tragedy of a Comic Song," is about Gustave Tricotrin, a poet dealing with the good and bad parts of trying to be an artist. The story starts in a restaurant where Tricotrin meets a sad young man who is moved by an old song. This makes Tricotrin tell a story about a young woman, Paulette Fleury, and two artists, Tricotrin himself and his friend Pitou. They try to write a funny song for her, and the story shows how much people can care about their art, how complicated love can be, and how difficult it is to make it in the performance world. The interesting characters and deep feelings in this story suggest that readers who like stories about people and art in 1920s Paris will enjoy the collection.