Mademoiselle Chanel

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!

Average customer rating 4.7 (3 comments)

---

`

As a huge fan of Chanel I was excited to read the book. I knew quite bit about the legendary Coco Chanel, however Gortner's book brought the woman to life. Starting off from her childhood when she was abandoned in an orphanage Chanel, always had a talent for the needle and thread. The story takes us from Chanel's humble beginnings to owning one of the most prestigious fashion houses. In addition to learning about the woman the book also touches on how Chanel was influenced and where she drew her inspiration from. A little known area about the woman's life was her connections with the Nazi's during the war. Gortner is much more favorable to Chanel during this time period than other authors have been. Given that I do not know what either of these author's sources where I cannot tell you whether or not Chanel was. It did have me doing some research on my own. I was absolutely fascinated by Coco's story. The woman had a head for both fashion and business that has been unparalleled in other fashion houses. Should you want a good story, Mademoiselle Chanel delivers both the tale of who the woman was and an interesting story.

`

The luxurious Chanel brand is iconic -- the perfume, the fashion, its founder -- and I'm surprised Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel hasn't been featured in a historical novel before. Her hist fic debut comes from C.W. Gortner, whose sublime The Queen’s Vow humanized Isabella, and this novel has set the high water mark for any future reads that attempt to tackle the notorious Chanel. Born at the end of the 19th century in abject poverty, Gabrielle Chanel was turned over to a convent where she mastered sewing. Rather than taking vows to become a nun, Gabrielle instead became a seamstress and more daringly, a club singer -- where she earned her nickname Coco. Quickly, through her skill, ambition, and some fortuitous relationships, Chanel managed to project herself to fame over the decades as her once radical designs -- corset-less, trim, daring, modern -- set the standard for chic fashion. Weathering World War I and II, as well as devastating heartbreaks and notorious love affairs, Chanel lived a life that knew deprivation and luxury in equal part. While the subject of this book is fascinating -- not just Coco herself, but the world she lived in -- the novel is made by Gortner's writing. Occasionally, I eye-roll when biographical novels use the first person viewpoint, as I find it makes the narrative all tell and no show, and allows the author off the hook when it comes to thornier details. In Gortner's hands, however, Coco articulates her life with the spare, artistic verve of her designs. (He took his hand away. Not with harshness. His fingers just unraveled from mine, like poorly spun threads., p11) Even more delightfully, Coco's voice grows as she does, rather than remaining static throughout the book. And the clincher: Gortner dealt with the ugly stuff. I was most curious about how Gortner would handle the allegations that Coco was a Nazi collaborator and spy. It's obvious from this sympathetic novel that Gortner admires Chanel, and his suggestion of how the fashion designer became embroiled with the Nazis is sympathetic. But he offers characters who question her motives, her contradictions, allowing the reader to voice their doubts, too -- and like Coco's friends, we have to decide if we believe her. I found Gortner's articulation of Coco so solid that while I clucked at her choices, I understood why she made them. This makes my second top ten read of 2015. Even if you're not a fan of fashion, consider grabbing this book, as it really is the story of a self-made woman, a visionary who imagined the way women wanted to live that differed from what society said. There are tawdry details brushing shoulders with heavier themes, armchair escape to early 20th century France, and some delicious name dropping that sent me into Wiki rabbit holes. At this point, I want Gortner to tackle every fashion designer -- like Chanel's nemesis, Elsa Schiaparelli -- but regardless of who he tackles next, I'm there.

`

I will admit that I knew very little about Coco Chanel before reading this book. I knew that she was French and worked during the first part of the 20th century. I had a general idea of the "Chanel Style" and was very familiar with the iconic Chanel No. 5, as that is the perfume my mother wears. And that was the extent of my Coco Chanel knowledge. It is somewhat unusual for me to go into a historical novel being somewhat ignorant about the subject matter and, frankly, it is a treat. Usually with historical fiction, I know the parameters in which the story has to operate but, in this case, I really only knew that there were some major (like World Wars I and II) events that would be happening. I hesitate to say that Coco's story is a rags to riches story...it's more of a "raise yourself up by using every single tool at your disposal" story. While there are some "happy coincidences" in Coco's young adulthood, her success is still her own and, at times, comes at her expense. There is not mistake: Coco is a tough, tough woman. Yet, I admired her, even if I felt that some (okay, many) of her choices were questionable. She reminded me of one of those quintessential and glamorous 20th century anti-heroines, usually played on the silver screen by the likes of Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. Gortner creates the France, and especially the Paris, of this time period exquisitely. Sometimes I get the feeling that authors just expect us to know what Paris is like and they get a little lazy in building it for us, but Gortner does not do that. He illustrates every detail beautifully and lets the city evolve as it did through this tumultuous time period. Here is the difficult part of the review for me. What I'm about to say did not actually bother me about this book, but I can see how some readers may have a problem with it. As I said, I knew little about Coco Chanel going into this book. Once I finished, however, I did some admittedly light research (by "light" I mean wikipedia and a few other sites). Gortner was very accurate about his facts. However, judging by what I found online (and, again, it was "light" research), I think he gave Coco's character a very generous dose of the benefit of the doubt when it came to her actions during World War II. I won't go into the details as I don't want to spoil the book, but it sounded to me that the "real" Coco was a little more, how should I say this?, opportunistic during the Nazi occupation of Paris than Gortner's characterization of her. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with this--this is, after all, a novel and, frankly, no one really knows what Coco Chanel was thinking and feeling during that time. Who knows? It could be that Gortner was spot on with Chanel's motivations and just looking at the hard facts might give someone the wrong impression. Still, readers who are more knowledgeable about the subject matter and more concerned with accuracy may have problems with this. Overall, though, this was an exceptionally good read. Even though it is a work of historical fiction, it is definitely more of a "character" novel and that Coco--well, she was quite a character!