Synopses & Reviews
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 itselfParis 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.
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“Brilliant and dazzling.…A tour de force of character, point of view and especially atmosphere” Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
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“A dark and glorious tour de force.…In an intricately patterned, ever-morphing, lavishly well-informed plot spanning the French countryside and reaching to Berlin, Prose intensifies our depth perception of that time of epic aberration and mesmerizing evil as she portrays complex, besieged individuals struggling to become their true selves.” Booklist (starred review)
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“A reading experience like none other-a shimmering library of possible truths and forking pathways…Readers of this extraordinary novel become Villar's co-biographers, piecing through ‘official' and underground accounts as ample (and as unreliable) as the human library of memory. I was addicted to this book.” Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia
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“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
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“A master of the craft delivers a riveting period piece that probes the origins of evil.” O Magazine
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“The breadth, nerve and intricacy of Francine Proses big new novel should surprise even her most regular readers. A bona fide page turner.” The New York Times
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“A novel of great reach and power, a portrait of an entire era. Prose…has a miraculous gift for imagining a foggy quay or a smoky cabaret.…Though there are multiple narrators, each is distinct, since Prose has a knack for parodying different voices…a convincing reconstruction of an entire epoch.” The New York Times Book Review
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“Engrossing...The narrative twists and turns, circles back to add depth to previous scenes, at other times casts doubt on the reliability of a narrator, and occasionally calls into question the entire endeavor of historical fiction.” Elle
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“Proses novel pulses with the heartbeat of real life, brimming with colorful characters as artists (including, notably, Pablo Picasso), petty forgers, Nazis and resistance fighters meet on the page… It is a testament to Proses considerable talent that shes able to execute such an ambitious work so flawlessly.” Shelf Awareness
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“An oasis of ribald humor, sexual transgression and military intrigue…So dazzlingly does Francine Prose re-create this seamy chapter of mid-century Paris that its tempting to think of her as not a novelist but an editor who corralled all these people into a raucous work of history...Cest magnifique!” The Washington Post
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“Francine Prose exuberantly conjures up the romance of that unstable era… Ms. Proses novel is filled with felicitous imagery and sparkling period details.” Wall Street Journal
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“Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 is a remarkable work of fiction that feels completely true. Richly atmospheric and utterly engrossing, it is not to be missed.” BookPage
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“The circumstances that foster such unhappiness are always elusive, but they can be explored. That's the task of a good novel, and Prose has done the job.” The Seattle Times
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“[E]xcellent novel.…With a deft and frequently scathing touch, Prose sends up nearly every literary type imaginable and then some.” The San Francisco Chronicle
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“[F]ascinating…Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 captures the vibrance and violence of bohemian Paris before World War II.” W Magazine
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“At its best moments, the reader almost becomes another character in the novel, searching for meaning amid the menace and beauty of wartime Paris, surrounded by the city's many conflicting truths.” The Chicago Tribune
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“Prose's excellent novel, which treads between lightly mischievous (mocking Henry Miller) and deadly serious (invading Nazis), centers on a fictionalized French Olympic hopeful who spied for the Germans — and was killed by the Resistance in 1944.” The San Francisco Chronicle
About the Author
Francine Prose is the critically acclaimed author of nineteen novels, including the National Book Award Finalist Blue Angel and My New American Life. She has written three other novels for young adults: After, winner of the California Young Reader Medal, an IRA/CBC Young Adults' Choice, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age; Bullyville, a PW Best Book and Book Sense Children's Pick; and her most recent, Touch. She is also the author of two picture books, Leopold, the Liar of Leipzig and Rhino, Rhino, Sweet Potato. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, Francine Prose was Director's Fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She lives in New York City.