Books Set in Europe; Paris, France

The Perfect Nanny, by Leila Sliming (2016)

Read: October 26, 2024

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe, Paris, France

The Perfumist of Paris, by Alka Joshi (2023)

Read:  September 26, 2024

4 Stars

This is the third book in the Jaipur Series.

The Henna Artist: Read February 6, 2021 and August 27, 2024

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur: Read September 8, 2024

The Perfumist of Paris: Read September 26, 2024

Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

The Room on Rue Amélie, by Kristin Harmel (2018)

The Room on Rue Amélie reads like a young adult sanitized version of Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II.

The novel focuses on Ruby Henderson Benoit, a young American woman who meets the French Marcel Benoit in a coffee shop in New York and marries him 6 months later.  They move to Paris in the late 1930s against her parent’s objections.  She is determined to become a true Parisian.  (She had learned French in school and can apparently speak a passable version of the language, albeit with an accent.)

Her marriage soon sours.  Marcel spends long hours away from their apartment and never explains his absences.  Since his character was not developed, we don’t know why Ruby fell for him in the first place, other than he was very handsome.  We do learn, however, that he is involved in the French resistance and has been hiding downed Allied pilots in a secret room in the hallway of their apartment building.  Marcel doesn’t want his wife to be involved in the Resistance, she wants to feel useful in the War effort.  She learns of the secret room and becomes involved in the escape line for downed pilots.

When the RAF pilot, Thomas, appears at her door, she falls head-over-heels in love.  The author doesn’t explain the attraction.  Why this pilot?  She harbors numerous downed soldiers.  We learn as much of some of the other soldiers as we do Thomas.

A Jewish family lives in the apartment next door.  Young Charlotte befriends Ruby.  When the French police round up Jewish families, Ruby promises Charlotte’s parents she will take care of her should anything happen.  Soon young Charlotte, who is forced to grow up very quickly, becomes involved in the resistance as well.

This was a very quick read, and something that I could see myself enjoying when I was about 12 years old.  The characters were not fully developed and the book did not depict the actual horrors and fears of living in Paris during the Nazi occupation.

Read:  July 6, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe and North America: France, England and the United States

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, by Deborah Davis (2003)

Strapless is about a painting and the story behind the painting.  The portrait of Madame X is probably recognizable by almost anyone with any interest in the arts.  It is the portrait of a woman from the late 1800s, wearing a black, low-cut dress with thin and jeweled straps.  The woman is looking towards her left and her face is in profile.  When this painting hit the Paris Salon in 1884 it caused quite a scandal for both the artist, John Singer Sargent, and the subject, Virginia Amélie Gautreau.

Both Sargent and Gautreau were American ex-patriots living in Paris at the time.  Virginie Gautreau, known by her friends as Amélie, came from a wealthly Louisiana family that had made its fortune in the sugar cane industry.  After the American Civil War, she and her mother moved to Paris, where the family had ties.  There she married a wealthy and much older man and made it her business to become a socialite.

John Singer Sargent was an American due to his American parents, but was born and lived much of his life in Europe.  He was able to study with the great artists of his time and decided to focus his career on portraits.  When he began showing his work at the famous Paris Salon, he began to make a name for himself.

He met the lovely Amélie and wanted to paint her portrait for his entry into the 1884 Salon.  She was flighty and didn’t like to pose for long periods of time, however, he eventually convinced her to pose in a revealing black dress.  As originally painted, one of the straps was depicted to drop off her shoulder.  It was this feature that created the scandal.  For months afterwards, the newspapers articles and gossipers talked about the painting.  The scandal caused Sargent to flee France and rebuild his painting career.  

Amélie, who for years had worked hard on her image to remain in the public spotlight, suddenly was ostracized.  Although Amélie and her mother approved of the painting before its public showing, afterwards, they, too, were scandalized.  The painting had ruined Amélie’s image, both to herself and in the public’s eye.

Intertwined with Amélie’s story, was the story of Sargent’s painting career.  He worked hard to restore his position in the art world.  He found patrons in England, where his painted his famous Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose ~ a picture of young girls in a summer garden with Chinese lanterns.  I have seen this painting and it is truly amazing!  The light from the lanterns seems to truly come from within the painting.

He later began traveling between the United States and Europe.  He encounter the formidable Isabella Stewart Gardner and painted her portrait.  This portrait scandalized Gardner’s husband, but apparently no one else.

Sargent retained the portrait of Amélie.  Because he had not painted it on commission, the Gautreau’s were under no obligation to purchase it.  He held on to the painting for over 30 years, before finally selling it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Under the terms of the sale, the painting was to be known as Madame X, hence, Amélie’s name became almost lost to history.

I loved this book.  John Singer Sargent is a favorite artist of mine and when his work was on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston several years ago, I made a special trip to view the work.

Read:  February 22, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: England and France

I'll See You in Paris, by Michelle Gable (2016)

I’ll See You in Paris is loosely based on the life of Gladys Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (née Gladys Deacon; Feb. 7, 1881 ~ Oct. 13, 1977).  A bit of background: Gladys was born in France into a wealthy, but eccentric American family.  When she was a child, her father killed her mother’s lover.  Her father spent a few years in prison, but when he got out, he was given custody of his children.

As an adult, Gladys travelled in an artistic social circle and encountered many major authors and artist of the time.  She became close friends with Consuelo Vanderbilt, who was married to the 9^th Duke of Marlborough.  Theirs was an unhappy marriage.   Gladys became the Duke’s mistress.  It was a happy arrangement for decades.  When Consuelo and the Duke divorced, Gladys and the Duke married, making Gladys the Duchess of Marlborough.

In her later life, the Duchess became a recluse.  She lived in a small village in England with a host of cats and dogs. She was known to threaten visitors with firearms.

This is where the novel begins.  The novel goes back and forth in time and we slowly learn about Gladys’s life.  The novel begins in 2001 with Annie Haley, a young woman newly engage to a marine who has been shipped to Afghanistan.  Annie was raised by her single mother, Laurel.  Annie never knew her father ~ her birth certificate lists her father as being “unknown.”

Laurel has business in England and invites Annie to accompany her.  While her mother is tending to business, Annie wanders through the little village and encounters Gus, an aging aristocrat.  They strike up a friendship over a book entitled The Missing Duchess.  Gus knew the woman who was the subject of the book, although she adamantly denied she was the Duchess.  His recounting of the Duchess brings us to the 1970s, where a young American woman named Pru was hired to be a companion to the aging Gladys.

This was a fun and quick read.  The style of moving back in forth in time, while not entirely seamless, was smooth enough to keep me turning the pages.  It is not necessary to know the background of Gladys Deacon to enjoy this book.  While reading this book, I did a little research to see how closely the novel tracked the life of the Duchess.

Read:  Oct. 28, 2019

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe and the United States: Williamsburg

I am Forbidden, by Anouk Markovits (2012)

I am Forbidden is a look into the life of the ultra-orthodox Satmar community. The novel begins in 1939 in Transylvania and follows the family of Zalman Stern, and his extended family.

Five-year old Josef Lichentenstein sees his family murdered and is raised by the family’s gentile maid, Florina.  When he is 10, he rescues Mila Heller after her family was killed running for the Kasztner train, an historical event, that transported approximately 1,600 Jews from Hungary to safety in Switzerland.  Her parents were running to meet the Rebbe who was to have saved them.

Josef sends Mila to Zalman Stern’s family who adopt her.  Zalman has several children, including Atara, who is about the same age as Mila and the two become very close.

Zalman is a leader in the Satmar community and his family must live by the very strict and rigid rules of that community. Following World War II, the family moved to Paris to escape the communist regime.  They live isolated from the secular aspects of Paris.  The girls attend a religious school where they learn how to observe the tight rules.

Atria is curious about the secular world.  She questions the fundamentalist doctrine and leaves the community to avoid an early arranged marriage.  From then on, she is totally cut off from her family.

Mila, however, remains religious.  She is sent to Williamsburg to marry Josef, the boy who saved her years earlier.  Their marriage is challenged with their struggle with childlessness.  There are strict rules within their community regarding their inability to produce children, which is a constant pain for the couple.  The novel explores a resolution that test the bonds of the couple.

I found this book a bit difficult to get into, but once I did, I found it difficult to put down.

4 Stars

Read:  May 11, 2018