Leonora in the Morning Light - Carter
4.5 stars

“Art is something one does, she decides, not something one needs to talk about. It exists without explanation. Everyone will have their own interpretation anyway.”

Lacking any artistic ability myself, I am fascinated with artists, the visual arts, and the artistic process. I love historical fiction of any time period, but WW2 is an endless source for human drama. This book checks all the boxes. It did not disappoint.

The book begins in 1937 as the 20-year-old Leonora Carrington begins an affair with the much older, married, Max Ernst. She follows him to Paris, committed to the love affair and her own artistic ambitions. There was a bit of confusing name dropping as Leonora is exposed to every famous surrealist on Hilter’s degenerate art list. I alternated reading with google image searches. The descriptions were immersive. I felt that along with the young Leonora, I had also been dropped into the overwhelming frenetic, creative energy of the cafes and studios. It would have been exciting and a bit scary even without the threat of a German invasion.

The book is written from three perspectives; Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, and later Peggy Guggenheim. For Leonora it's a difficult coming of age saga as she struggles to assert herself as an artist in the presence of Ernst’s domestic and artistic dominance. From the beginning, the author tied Carrington’s creative genius to her fragile mental health. The interpretation of dreams was fundamental to surrealism. The narrative is dreamlike and bizarre during those times Carrington lost contact with the terrifying reality of the German threat.

Ernst’s story is often related as flashbacks during the two occasions that he is in prison camps before managing to leave France. There are horrible descriptions of the prison camp conditions. He was a German citizen. He was arrested first as an enemy alien. After the invasion, his political and artistic reputation marked him as an enemy to the Reich. I felt much sympathy for his suffering. Despite knowing that he was able to leave Europe, I felt all the tension and fear of the narrow escape. However, unlike the author, I have a bit more trouble believing in the depth of his love for Leonora Carrington. Maybe, it’s just that I cannot believe that theirs was ever a healthy relationship.

“This is not the story of the Great Man’s Woman. This is the story of the Great Woman.”
This is a quote from the author’s notes. They were easily the most interesting and thorough concluding notes that I’ve ever read at the end of an historical novel. Throughout the book, Carter has followed a feminist theme. Most of the book looks intensely at the Carrington/ Ernst affair. But, there are continuing friendships with other artists, many of them female. The conflict between female muse and female artist causes constant tension. Toward the end of the book Carter writes a chapter devoted to Peggy Guggenheim’s 1943 gallery show, Exhibition by 31 Women. Of the 31 there were few names that I recognized. This quote was attributed to Guggenheim at the exhibition’s opening, “We don’t expect women to make art, much less remarkable art. The truth is, for women to accomplish anything of worth in the world, they have more hurtles in their path than men do. More walls they must scale. But this effort, this triumph, all too often goes unappreciated.”

I’m not an expert, but has it really changed very much? ( )

This is a hard book for me to categorize. This is sexual, artsy, and emotional. I love that it is historical fiction. I enjoyed learning about Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington. The author takes the facts that were known about these two artists and gave them life within these pages. It felt like we knew the characters and how they must have really felt. It was very emotional reading about what seems to have been a mental breakdown for Leonora after things happen to Max. I enjoyed the characters and the emotions that showed up. I loved the descriptions of the art enough that I had to look up what many of the portraits described actually looked like. I received a copy of this book from Avid Reader Press for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will. ( )