Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Matisse at War:
A master caught in stasis.
Quick synopsis:
The story of the artist Henri Matisse during World War II.
Fact for Non-History People:
A bout of appendicitis in his 20s led to Matisse giving up a possible law career for art.
Fact for History Nerds:
His Odalisque couchée aux magnolias sold for $80.8 million at a Christie’s auction in May 2018.
My Take on Matisse at War:
When Christopher Gorham burst onto the scene with his last book, The Confidante, it was a perfect storm of excellent writing, an overlooked subject, and a thrilling narrative. Gorham’s follow-up, Matisse at War, has the excellent writing, a well-known subject, but the overall narrative falls a bit flat. It is the case of an excellent author choosing a time period and subject that can’t sustain the energy to keep the reader fully engaged. That said, I do find the lives of artists are usually not my favorite, and yet this one still kept me interested.
Gorham is ostensibly telling the story of famed artist Henri Matisse during World War II. Matisse stayed in Vichy France throughout the war and refused to leave. He was elderly around this time and was in and out of the hospital. Gorham tries to infuse Matisse with the proverbial stiff upper lip in the face of the Nazis. The main issue is that Matisse did not do a lot from a resistance perspective. At least, not much that can be definitively proven. His family, on the other hand, was quite involved, and it led me to ask more than a few times why the book wasn’t about them instead of Henri.
I should be clear that my criticism, while not a small issue, does not make this a bad read. Gorham proves his debut book was no fluke. In fact, in other hands I might have stopped reading entirely. Instead, because of Gorham’s writing talent, this book was only good instead of great. If you take a look and think this looks interesting, then you should definitely read it. You will still have a good time, but you may feel, like I did, that a different focus could have been even better.
(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by NetGalley and Kensington Publishing.)
Verdict:
Not perfect but still recommended. Buy it here!
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