French Impressionism and Rendezvous Eighteenth
Though “French Impressionism” highlights the benefits of a perceived racial impartiality in Paris from an African-American man’s perspective, Lamar's first novel set in Paris (and fourth novel) Rendezvous Eighteenth highlights the visibility of African descent people and also portrays the partiality given to African-Americans in Paris. The title Rendezvous Eighteenth captures Lamar’s focus on Paris’s Eighteenth Arrondissement, which is one of the twenty sub-sections of Paris and is located in the northern most part of the city, where a large North and Sub-Saharan African population reside. The Eighteenth has areas frequented by tourist, particularly Montmartre where the Sacré Cœur is located, but some other areas of the Eighteenth are not as well known, especially in 2003 when the novel was first published. Lamar highlights the well-known and less traveled areas of the Eighteenth in this novel. In a 2009 interview, Lamar remarks, “I felt that American writers and American writers that are my friends don’t know the Paris I know, and they write about a Paris that is much more a part of this part of town [Sixth Arrondissement]. And I really wanted to show a different side of Paris. And that was very much on my mind in Rendezvous Eighteenth” (Lamar, “Café”). Lamar shows this “different side of Paris” through his third person narrator’s descriptions of the city, the visibility of people of African descent, and the experiences of his protagonist, Ricky Jenks.
Rendezvous Eighteenth is a third person narrative that maps Ricky Jenks’s motivations and movement, predominately in Paris’s Eighteenth Arrondissement. Ricky Jenks is an African-American expatriate who moves to Paris’s Eighteenth after his fiancée leaves him at the altar to begin a love affair with Ricky’s successful cousin Dr. Cassius “Cash” Washington. In Paris, Ricky lives an unattached life in Paris. His interfaith relationship with his “girlfriend” is not secure because he is not Muslim. His employment status is not official, for he is without a permit to work in France. Ricky’s life becomes more unsettling when he is hired by Cash to find Cash’s wife Serena. Ricky encounters Serena in popular and in less touristy areas of the Eighteenth Arrondissement. In searching for Cash’s wife, Ricky finds the courage to propose to the love of his life.
While there are no critical treatments of Rendezvous Eighteenth, reviewers highlight the novel’s depictions of Paris. A review of the novel from Publisher’s Weekly claims that “Mystery fans may feel shortchanged, but mainstream readers fond of Paris should feel fully satisfied” (par. 1). Bill Ott’s review in Booklist Review has a similar assessment. He writes, “The thriller elements never quite coalesce, but everything else in this atmospheric novel works superbly. Lamar relishes Montmartre geography and incorporates it seamlessly into the story” (par. 1). Also, a review in the Miami Herald attributes the best quality of the novel to Lamar’s descriptions stating, “Best of all is the setting most literary tourists don’t know: the intersection of arty Montmartre, sex-trade Pigalle and multicultural Barbs” (par. 1). Likewise, I see the novel as less of a mystery/thriller and find the third person narrator’s chronicling of Ricky Jenks’s motivation and movement in Paris worthy of attention.