Francine Prose's Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932
Prose is one of those authors who inhabits an entirely different world with each book she writes. This one involves a group of people in Paris in the 1930s, all brought together by the titular Chameleon Club, told through their letters and memoirs and an extremely terrible biography of a lesbian racecar driver turned Gestapo torturer. It's fascinating to see the same scenes from different perspectives, and I loved seeing the art world of that era through an up-and-coming photographer, his baroness patron, a writer who fancies himself as another Hemingway, the latter's ex-girlfriend (who I hate to label that way, since she is by far my favorite character), and more. I also love how character beats are revealed slowly and somewhat hilariously. A few parts drag--including, oddly, a scene where the racecar driver has dinner with Hitler--and I struggled with the casual (and not-so-casual) anti-Semitism of several of the characters (though it is very accurate!) but in generally really loved this--another strong contender from Prose. A-.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 22nd.
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