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For readers of The Paris Wife and Z comes this vivid novel full of drama, passion, tragedy, and beauty that stunningly imagines the life of iconic fashion designer Coco Chanel-the ambitious, gifted laundrywoman's daughter who revolutionized fashion, built an international empire, and become one of the most influential and controversial figures of the twentieth century. Born into rural poverty, Gabrielle Chanel and her siblings are sent to orphanage after their mother's death. The sisters nurture Gabrielle's exceptional sewing skills, a talent that will propel the willful young woman into a life far removed from the drudgery of her childhood. Transforming herself into Coco-a seamstress and sometime torch singer-the petite brunette burns with ambition, an incandescence that draws a wealthy gentleman who will become the love of her life. She immerses herself in his world of money and luxury, discovering a freedom that sparks her creativity. But it is only when her lover takes her to Paris that Coco discovers her destiny. Rejecting the frilly, corseted silhouette of the past, her sleek, minimalist styles reflect the youthful ease and confidence of the 1920s modern woman. As Coco's reputation spreads, her couturier business explodes, taking her into rarefied society circles and bohemian salons. But her fame and fortune cannot save her from heartbreak as the years pass. And when Paris falls to the Nazis, Coco is forced to make choices that will haunt her. An enthralling novel of an extraordinary woman who created the life she desired, Mademoiselle Chanel explores the inner world of a woman of staggering ambition whose strength, passion and artistic vision would become her trademark.… (altro)
A disappointing novelization of Coco Chanel's life with cursory descriptions of the clothes and rather uninspired writing overall. Mlle. Chanel's life and times were so extraordinary, that it's unclear why the author chose to create a historical fiction of it, much less so poorly. It rather felt like a wikipedia article with created dialogue. It's also not clear that Gortner added anything to the historiography in either speculation or research-- so perhaps reading a non-fiction work about her and/or her career might serve better for those interested. ( )
In the spirit of full disclosure, my opinion may be (probably is; okay, definitely is) affected by my utter contempt for the actions of this Nazi whore before and during WWII. At the same time, I grudgingly admire her talents as a designer and the way she refused to be held back by the limitations of her circumstances early in life.
That being said, I'll try to keep my review focused on the writing of this book. I am a C.W. Gortner fan. He is an excellent author who usually tries to show the good and the bad in his subjects, using meticulous research to create a 'can't put down' book. This particular book, however, didn't strike me as his best. It seemed to me that he was a little too enamored of Chanel, a little too 'yes she was a Nazi collaborator, but look at the pretty dresses!'.
Mr. Gortner does much better when he stays away from the 20th century. (His book about Marlene Dietrich wasn't particularly good, either.) Maybe he needs a few hundred years between him and his MC for clarity. ( )
Gabrielle Chanel was the daughter of a laundress and of a man who deserted his young children when his wife died. The remainder of Chanel's childhood was spent in an orphanage where the nuns recognized her usual talent with a needle. It was her first lover that took her to Paris where her skill, ambition, and independence lead her to becoming Coco, an internationally known couture who still influences design almost fifty years after her death.
G. W. Gortner knows the fashion industry, having worked in all levels of it before becoming a fulltime writer. The Chanel story he tells (1895 - 1954) is well researched and reveals a complex and independent woman who was not always likeable. In some ways it is a cautionary tale because while Coco achieved a dizzying level of success, she also suffered from questionable decisions, sadness and loss.
This is the second book I've read by Gortner, he has written six others, and I'm surprised he's not better known. He writes very well in a woman's voice and I look forward to reading more by him. ( )
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
My life didn't please me, so I created my life. —GABRIELLE "COCO" CHANEL
Dedica
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For Melisse, the only person I know who loves Chanel more than I do, and for Jennifer, who always believes
Incipit
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The herd gathers below.
Citazioni
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She didn't see that he left because he had to—her love was like smoke without flame. It left him nothing to breathe.
Even from a distance, seeing her like that made me think that when people said the dead were at peace, they lied.
He took his hand away. Not with harshness. His fingers just unraveled from mine, like poorly spun threads.
By day, everywhere I turned, I saw only black or white and shades in between, the black of the nuns' habits, flowing as if they glided on air, and of our uniforms, plain and sturdy. The starched white of linens, piled in cupboards or stretched taut on our narrow cots, glimmering like halos on the nuns' headdresses; and all the grays, shifting in the light of the flagstone floors and in the monotone voices of those charged to watch over us.
She might as well have asked me to yoke the moon with my rosary.
Fear had become my enemy because it might take root inside me and never leave.
Even the nuns sat together to lift their shuttered faces to the sun.
I saw Julia's entire person lean toward Adrienne's sun.
Better to be remarked upon than ignored.
"Get whatever you are due, my dear. Youth and love fade in time, but money never loses its luster."
"The price of fame: when everyone is watching, one can never afford a mistake."
I had no judgment. I believed that what people did was what people did, and who was I to condemn, providing no one forced me to do the same?
"What we do not earn ourselves," he said, "is never truly ours. It can always be taken away. But even if we lose everything we work for, the achievement is ours forever."
I spoke tentatively, as cautious as if I was unwrapping a fragile heirloom. I had lied to Balsan about my origins; now, for the first time, I told someone else the unvarnished truth and though it felt awkward, too revealing, it relieved me of a secret burden I had not realized I carried.
The war continued to slaughter men like a thresher scything wheat.
The road veered around a sharp curve; a kilometer stone near the site bore an angry smear of bright blue paint. His beautiful automobile, the splendid Bugatti we'd sped around Paris in, was tilted on its side, a carbonized ruin, tires melted into the underside, its spokes twisted and blackened, sticking outward like imploring fingers.
It was as though the entire world held its breath, to allow me this moment as I stood before the unexpected annihilation of my existence and the loss of the only man I'd ever known whose life had been to magnificent, too intense, to be constrained by banal time.
And the clients still came—business was as heartless as death.
In a flash of rage, as Adrienne tallied the clients' purchases and I clenched a pen I longed to stick in their eyes, I began to scrawl on a pad of paper: Capel and Coco, Coco and Capel, Capel and Coco... C and C. In time, I would revert the positions, interlocked but facing outward, independent yet together. Always. It would become my emblem. It was how I would honor him.
I respected her craft, and in time would translate it for my own collections, but we kept an implicit distance from each other, not poaching on our respective clientele, two women intent on conquest without stepping on each other's hem.
"Education is the most important thing you can possess; without it, you're just another ox under the yoke."
"Sometimes, it is not enough to do our best, but rather to do what is required."
He told me he loved pigs, making me laugh. "Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference," he said at length.
"Too many people struggle to become what is expected of them, when, as we both know, what is expected of us is rarely what we desire."
While I went to bed with my loyal dogs at my side, the weight of my solitude hung like an anchor upon me nevertheless.
"You loved and were loved. It is all we can ask from this life. Some people never have it."
Hollywood had not suited me and, frankly, neither had America, but it reinforced my long-held belief that to resist progress was to risk extinction.
Ultime parole
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May my legend gain new ground. I wish it a long and happy life.
For readers of The Paris Wife and Z comes this vivid novel full of drama, passion, tragedy, and beauty that stunningly imagines the life of iconic fashion designer Coco Chanel-the ambitious, gifted laundrywoman's daughter who revolutionized fashion, built an international empire, and become one of the most influential and controversial figures of the twentieth century. Born into rural poverty, Gabrielle Chanel and her siblings are sent to orphanage after their mother's death. The sisters nurture Gabrielle's exceptional sewing skills, a talent that will propel the willful young woman into a life far removed from the drudgery of her childhood. Transforming herself into Coco-a seamstress and sometime torch singer-the petite brunette burns with ambition, an incandescence that draws a wealthy gentleman who will become the love of her life. She immerses herself in his world of money and luxury, discovering a freedom that sparks her creativity. But it is only when her lover takes her to Paris that Coco discovers her destiny. Rejecting the frilly, corseted silhouette of the past, her sleek, minimalist styles reflect the youthful ease and confidence of the 1920s modern woman. As Coco's reputation spreads, her couturier business explodes, taking her into rarefied society circles and bohemian salons. But her fame and fortune cannot save her from heartbreak as the years pass. And when Paris falls to the Nazis, Coco is forced to make choices that will haunt her. An enthralling novel of an extraordinary woman who created the life she desired, Mademoiselle Chanel explores the inner world of a woman of staggering ambition whose strength, passion and artistic vision would become her trademark.
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