Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 - Hardcover

Prose, Francine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061713783 ISBN 13: 9780061713781

Publisher: Harper, 2014

Synopsis

A richly imagined and stunningly inventive literary masterpiece of love, art, and betrayal, exploring the genesis of evil, the unforeseen consequences of love, and the ultimate unreliability of storytelling itself.Paris in the 1920s shimmers with excitement, dissipation, and freedom. It is a place of intoxicating ambition, passion, art, and discontent, where louche jazz venues like the Chameleon Club draw expats, artists, libertines, and parvenus looking to indulge their true selves. It is at the Chameleon where the striking Lou Villars, an extraordinary athlete and scandalous cross-dressing lesbian, finds refuge among the club's loyal denizens, including the rising Hungarian photographer Gabor Tsenyi, the socialite and art patron Baroness Lily de Rossignol; and the caustic American writer Lionel Maine.As the years pass, their fortunes--and the world itself--evolve. Lou falls desperately in love and finds success as a race car driver. Gabor builds his reputation with startlingly vivid and imaginative photographs, including a haunting portrait of Lou and her lover, which will resonate through all their lives. As the exuberant twenties give way to darker times, Lou experiences another metamorphosis--sparked by tumultuous events--that will warp her earnest desire for love and approval into something far more.

About this title

Review:

"Prose's latest book goes further in destroying the concept of a single truth than 'Rashomon.' It's also an uproarious portrait of Paris from the mid-twenties to the Second World War. Prose has always been adept at slaying sacred cows; in this book, she pretty much machine-guns them."--Gary Shteyngart, author of LITTLE FAILURE, A Memoir

"An engrossing literary mystery...Refracting the vivid, villainous life of Louisianne Villars through letters, memoirs, and the recreations of a biographer, Prose coaxes into kaleidoscopic view both a tortured human being and bohemian Paris before and during the Nazi occupation... she cleverly exploits the vain, self-serving nature of memory itself."--Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

"Significant writers are rare. A writer like Prose, who is not only significant but capable of writing brilliantly about pretty much anything-from obsessive love to religious ecstasy to life in Paris in the twenties and beyond-is not only rare. She is, essentially, the Hope Diamond of literature."--Michael Cunningham

"Prose is the real chameleon here, blending effortlessly into half a dozen disparate voices...The result is a perfect stunner, the novel-as-a Picasso, or a kaleidoscope-vivid, fractured, and spellbinding...Prose is one of our sharpest critics and our most daring novelists, and this is her best book."--Joshua Ferris, author of AND THEN WE CAME TO THE END

"A novel of great reach and power, a portrait of an entire era."--The New York Times Book Review

"So dazzlingly does Francine Prose re-create this seamy chapter of mid-century Paris that it's tempting to think of her as not a novelist but an editor who corralled all these people into a raucous work of history...C'est magnifique!"--The Washington Post

"Brilliant and dazzling...A tour de force of character, point of view and especially atmosphere"--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"An ingenious excursion into the Parisian demimonde."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR.org

"The novel skillfully portrays the headiness of Parisian cafes, where artists and writers came together to talk and cadge free drinks, and the terror of the Nazi Occupation... Prose deftly demonstrates with a wink the self-seeking nature of memory and the way we portray our past."--Publishers Weekly

"Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 will be many things to many people-history, mystery, chronicle, commentary-but above all, it's a generous book that offers complete submergence in a world constructed for readers' enjoyment. It's a dark and complicated place, this lamp-lit prewar Paris, but a remarkably entertaining one."--Kirkus Reviews

From the Back Cover:

A richly imagined and stunningly inventive literary masterpiece of love, art, and betrayal, exploring the genesis of evil, the unforeseen consequences of love, and the ultimate unreliability of storytelling itself

Paris in the 1920s. It is a city of intoxicating ambition, passion, art, and discontent, where louche jazz venues like the Chameleon Club draw expats, artists, libertines, and parvenus looking to indulge their true selves. It is at the Chameleon where the striking Lou Villars, an extraordinary athlete and scandalous cross-dressing lesbian, finds refuge among the club's loyal denizens, including the rising photographer Gabor Tsenyi, the socialite and art patron Baroness Lily de Rossignol, and the caustic American writer Lionel Maine.

As the years pass, their fortunes--and the world itself--evolve. Lou falls in love and finds success as a race car driver. Gabor builds his reputation with vivid and imaginative photographs, including a haunting portrait of Lou and her lover, which will resonate through all their lives. As the exuberant twenties give way to darker times, Lou experiences another metamorphosis that will warp her earnest desire for love and approval into something far more sinister: collaboration with the Nazis.

Told in a kaleidoscope of voices, Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 evokes this incandescent city with brio, humor, and intimacy. A brilliant work of fiction and a mesmerizing read, it is Francine Prose's finest novel yet.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0061713783
• ISBN 13: 9780061713781
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 448