I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself

In August 2021, as pandemic restrictions began to lift, Glynnis MacNicol—then in her mid-40s—left her home in New York City for a five-week stay in Paris. Part of her plan was to spend time with friends, enjoying the city and whatever cheese and wine might be on offer. But she also downloaded a dating app as a way of meeting men who might satisfy her craving for human touch. This superb book, an account of adventures both sensual and sexual, is largely about granting ourselves permission to experience pleasure. But it’s also a sly primer on the importance of opening yourself to the world beyond your personal borders: MacNicol considers the seductive odalisques of Matisse and Boucher, ponders the beauty of church bells, and wanders past apartments once occupied by the likes of Edith Wharton, Simone de Beauvoir, and Lee Miller (and notes that not all of them are marked by plaques). Tour guide, seductress, adventurer: as a writer, MacNicol is all of those things. She makes you feel you’ve been somewhere, even if you haven’t left your chair.

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