Gioia Diliberto

In her memoirs, Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau tells of her life from young girl in New Orleans to celebrated beauty in Paris to scandal-causing portrait sitter.

This book was a rather interesting read. The initial framing device didn't seem all that necessary, but I appreciated how the fake memoir made the tone so conversational and frank. While the main character is fairly frivolous and shallow, concerned almost entirely with looks and high society, it was a neat peek into the cultural milieu of Paris, France during the time -- specifically the upper class and artists' worlds.

An author's note at the end explains how she was intrigued by the famous painting of "Madame X" and wanted to learn more about the subject but couldn't find enough historical documents about her, so she wrote this historical fiction novel rather than her usual biographies. There were times when that transition was obvious, with some rather expositional parts relaying dates and numbers, but overall it's an engaging novel.

The audiobook read by Lorna Raver was exceptionally done. She made it seem even more so like you were sitting down with this person and hearing her story. Raver spoke with passion and bravado when needed, with laughter in her voice for humorous parts, and so on. She also did a great job with all the French pronunciations.

There was a weird glitch in my copy at least, where several tracks on disc 7 were out of order so that a party never before mentioned was being canceled, then we enter the salon with the portrait being exhibited for the first time before hearing it's the end of the disc -- and then three or so more tracks pop up in which the story of the party being planned is presented. Disc 8 begins in the middle of the salon again. Certainly an oddity but not a major inconvenience.… (more)

Having recently read The Paris Wife I was interested to see a more in-depth accounting of her life. This book definitely went deeper than the fictionalized one which focused mostly on meeting and marriage of the Hemingways. Diliberto's biography gives more background on Hadley's previous life and covered the continued connections between them up to Hadley's remarriage to Paul Mrower. Neither of the Hemingways was eager to let go of the other though they argued a lot and both went through bouts of depression. This seemed to run through both of their families. I'm glad I read this although it did not draw me any more to either of them than I was after reading the fictionalized version.… (more)

I tend to find the artists and writers who lived in Paris in the 1920s endlessly fascinating. Although I am not a Hemingway fan, I did like his (Fiesta) The Sun Also Rises as well as The Moveable Feast, which I just read recently. He writes so longingly for his first wife Hadley in that book that I was curious to know more about her. If your curiosity is piqued as well, you will probably enjoy this book, as I did. The writing is good enough although some of the dates are out of order, and if you notice that kind of thing, it can be distracting. Not that the book was heavy with dates, but some were given and when they were not correct, it had me going back and forth, trying to get things straight. But overall getting dates straight wasn't the most important thing. What was important was to learn what kind of man Hemingway was, what kind of woman Hadley Richardson was, what they were like as a couple, and how and why it all turned out as it did. Someone could make a novel out of it, except that Hemingway, in a way, did, several times over.… (more)

Coco Chanel is remembered today as a fashion icon and strong businesswoman, who redefined feminine chic and built a world-famous design brand. But Chanel was a complex character with a darker side.

Gioia Diliberto’s new novel is based on the true story of Chanel's war-time romance with a German spy and how that affair led to her arrest for treason following the Liberation of Paris. The story is fascinating in how it neither glorifies nor demonizes Chanel, but portrays her honestly, as a 60-year-old woman desperate to preserve a semblance of her pre-war life even if it meant deceiving herself and lying to her friends – and her interrogators.

Coco at the Ritz is historical fiction at its page-turning best.… (more)