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Bezig met laden... Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel (P.S. (Paperback)) (editie 2014)door Francine Prose (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkLovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel door Francine Prose
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I didn't get far. It was becoming a nasty story that promised to become even nastier. ( ) First, I read this book because I decided a few weeks ago to look into every Francine Prose work that came my way, this because I'd already recently admired Prose's My New American Life, Reading Like a Writer, and The Vixen. Then, this is the second novel in the last two weeks I've enjoyed but not finished. I mean, I read the first sixty pages, then the last few chapters, followed by scattered passages that drew my interest. It spoke to me, but not loudly enough to make me try to understand everything going on in it. Lovers at the Chameleon is a very ambitious book, but one which I am not ambitious enough to follow in depth. It is told from a half-dozen or more points of view, and covers, but not in a linear way, a century of time. It is fiction based on history, where some fictitious characters are mean to represent real people and other are their own imaginary selves. Only by reading reviews and interviews did I get a feel for what was going on or who in the book might have been who in twentieth century France. So this becomes a book, for me at least, emeshed in the web of other books, other documents about life in Paris before, during, and after WWII. It is, partly, about trying to recover a view of the past when there are many versions of the same stories and no real way for me to know for sure how much of each version to believe. I think this is one view Prose wanted me to take away from her ambitious book, and for that I'm glad. I really wanted to love this book, I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't work for me. Too many narrators (reliable or not), too long, too repetitive, and often too boring. I was distracted by the "based on real people but not really" issue. Without a a Forward or an Afterward I found myself spending frustrating amounts of time trying to ascertain what was true, almost true and what was pure fiction. For some it may not matter, for me, when the subject matter is the Holocaust, the Resistance, a well known work of art, etc, it matters. On a different level the relationships between the characters didn't ring true. I never felt the attractions/connections between any of the couples, be they be lovers or friends. I didn't like any of the characters, but that is not necessary for me to like a novel, I just found it odd that I found none of the characters especially sympathetic. At times it felt like the author was just throwing as many "names" at the reader as she could, perhaps to add authenticity to the story... I did like the descriptions of the Chameleon Club and Paris at night, as well as Hitler's Berlin. Looking at Brassai's (on whom, I assume, Gabor is based) photography you can see the genius he had capturing/recreating the grit and beauty of night time/underground Paris. The author did a good job making me see how a photographer may have found his niche and survived financially and creatively. That's about all that I enjoyed about the novel.
The breadth, nerve and intricacy of Francine Prose’s big new novel should surprise even her most regular readers. A bona fide page turner, “Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932” unfolds over 20 years, across an increasingly ominous Europe, among thugs and artists and poseurs who share only the danger that threatens to cramp their partying style. PrijzenOnderscheidingenErelijsten
"A richly imagined and stunningly inventive story of love, art, and betrayal in Paris of the 20's, 30's, and 40's"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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