McAuliffe's books primarily explores the Parisian cultural, artistic and social scenes, with forays into politics and economics, during the decade following World War I. The Roaring Twenties or les Années folles, spanned the precarious peace in November 1918 to the crash on Wall Street in late October of 1929. The Crazy Years ushered in changes in art, literature, music, fashion, architecture, transportation and behavior. France suffered terrible loses in the war, one and a half million dead and almost three million wounded, the first order of business was to move on from the atrocities of war. Frenchmen and expats alike drowned their sorrows in alcohol and danced their cares away, in the bars and clubs of Montmartre, but especially in Montparnasse where Kiki reigned as Queen. Pleasure, excess, and hedonism contrasted with others' daily struggles.
The cast of characters in McAuliffe's chronicle is large: Monet, Le Corbusier, Chanel, Hemingway, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, Citroen, Renault, Picasso, Andre Breton, Serge Diaghilev, Maurice Ravel, and many more. Their boundless creativity was matched only by a desire to upset tradition and order, tensions that would escalate over the course of the decade.
Eventually the bubble burst. The crash of 1929 did not have immediate effects in France. But, eventually the American and British tourists ran out of money to spend and settled in less expensive areas or returned home. "Wherever they landed, they brought with them memories of a decade that, in hindsight, appeared gloriously carefeee and joyous, whether viewed as an amusing alcohol-fueled escapade or as a kind of Camelot. In memory, les Années folles sizzled and glowed, to the accompaniment of an isistent jazz beat" (271). However, much of the memory of the Crazy Years was exaggerated or distorted--a darkness always lurked next to the sparkle and sequins.
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