Madame Picasso

September 22, 2014
Twists and turns of fate are the hook for this intriguing story of love and loss. In 1911 Paris, Pablo Picasso feels uneasy, even though he's on the verge of wealth and fame as an artist. His longtime relationship with Fernande Olivier, who calls herself Madame Picasso although they're unmarried, is fraught with tension and infidelity. When Pablo meets Eva Gouel, a witty, ambitious seamstress at the famed Moulin Rouge, he becomes obsessed with her. Pablo and Eva embark on a passionate affair and a rich, cultured lifestyle in Paris with the best and brightest of the eraâGertrude Stein, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, and Max Jacob. Eva is Pablo's muse, the one woman who understands him and his radical artwork. Happiness, however, is short-lived as they faced an escalating series of challenges, grappling with betrayal, decaying friendships, World War I, and a devastating illness. Girard creates a wonderful period piece, aptly conveying the spirit and irreverence of pre-WWI Paris. She impresses with her insight into the enigmatic, "renegade" Spanish expatriate during his cubist period; Picasso is characterized as kind and generous, as well as dark and difficult. Girard successfully captures the essence of an iconic figure during a brief, but pivotal, period of his life.

August 15, 2014
The romance between Pablo Picasso and the mysterious muse of his early Cubist period, Eva Gouel, inspired several of the master's convention-defying works, including Ma Jolie, and is now the subject of this novel. The story begins with Eva rushing to the Moulin Rouge to apply for a seamstress job through an idealized Paris of 1911, a city of "pretty little windmills, and the secret cobblestone alleyways around them, hiding the dance halls and brothels of that seamy neighborhood that shared space with vineyards, gardens and herds of sheep and goats." At the nightclub, Eva-a girl of Polish descent described alternately as a "sprite" or "nymph" who speaks "with all of the eager assurance that a petite country girl with massive blue eyes could summon"-falls in with performers who have connections in the world of bohemian Paris, connections that put her in Picasso's way. After their first tryst, in which Picasso unknowingly takes Eva's virginity, her beauty "intoxicates" the great artist, but there is little sign in the book of his innovative mind or artistic vision. Even the suspicion that Picasso might have had a hand in the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre is quickly glossed over, adding little color to this dull and dutiful portrayal. Readers expecting Girl With a Pearl Earring will be disappointed not only by the cliched prose, but by the underwhelming heat between these lovers, not to mention the predictable strokes with which Girard draws Eva's inner life-a girl for whom even a smile is a brazen act. A visionary artist and his muse deserve an equally visionary portrait; instead, Girard offers a canvas of the thinnest watercolor.

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February 1, 2015
Leslie Carroll's dramatic narration of this fictionalized portrayal of Eva Gouel brings the waning world of la belle epoque to life. Gouel flees the mundanity of her suburban home to avoid an arranged marriage and ends up in Paris as a seamstress and costumer backstage at the risque Moulin Rouge. Here she meets and is befriended by a mercurial Mistinguett and soon draws the attention of Picasso, a noted roue then in his Cubist period and at the beginning of his blazing fame. They become lovers, he proclaims her his muse, and they plan to marry but tragedy intervenes. Appearances by such real-life figures as Henri Matisse, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Georges Braque enliven the novel. Beginning- and end-of-CD announcements make the audiobook easier to use. VERDICT Recommended for art lovers, historic fiction fans, and those who like a good romantic tale.--David Faucheux, Lafayette, LA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2014
The story of Eva Gouel, the enigmatic mistress and muse of Pablo Picasso, is told through details found in the artist's work and in correspondence with their friends Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Eva, the daughter of Polish immigrants in Vincennes, France, reinvents herself as Marcelle Humburt in Paris, becoming a wardrobe assistant for the famed Moulin Rouge. From their first encounter at the cusp of Picasso's rise to stardom, she enchants Picasso, who is caught in a tempestuous love affair with Fernande Olivier. Not much is known about Eva, who died four years after meeting Picasso, but the author fills the novel with colorful accounts of the social scene in turn-of-the-century Paris. She also tells the tale of Picasso's implication in the Mona Lisa theft. Girard is the pen name of Diane Haeger, the author of 13 historical-romance novels, including a series about the Tudor monarchs. She ably marries history, art, and romance here as Eva remains broadly rendered and famous figures shine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)