What a wonderful story! I must now go to a perfume counter at the nearest mall and take a whiff of Chanel No. 5. This book leaves you amazed at the life of Coco Chanel. The author, C.W. Gortner, who admits to being a lifelong admirer of Chanel, has written a novel that really grabs the reader. This book has left this reader completely intrigued with Coco and her life.
I know that when I mentioned on Facebook that I wanted to read this book a friend said she wouldn't read about Coco Chanel because she was Antisemitic. But actually I came away from reading this book feeling that Mademoiselle Chanel might actually have assisted Jews escaping France by letting them hide in one of her country homes. During the war she is involved romantically with the German, Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklzge. Though this probably is part of what has led to the suggestion that she was a Nazi sympathizer, this book leaves the reader with the impression that Dincklzge may have been working with resistance to help Jews escape. So Coco did not do anything purposely to help and yes she did denounce her business partner with Parfums Chanel, but she may have been helping indirectly.
The story of disagreement with the perfume distributors, the Wertheimer brothers, was based on the fact that she had negotiated a contract for 10% of the proceeds. When she finds out how popular the perfume is and how quickly it is selling she wants to renegotiate the percentage they receive but they refuse. She tries to take them to court and fight but they win. When the war breaks out so,done suggests that this is her chance to end her involvement with them and cancel the contract by denouncing the, as Jews. In the end it does not help her of of the contract and the Wertheimer brothers escape to America.
The woman was driven and the men in her life helped her attain her goal of starting her business and opening stores but she never wanted to beholden to anyone. She insisted on being self sufficient. This interlude between Chanel and two of her men friends shows her strong feelings when she says, "He's going to help me open my shop. I'll not be kept by anyone.' Balsan rolled his eyes, emptying his glass. 'Again with the shop! G-d save us, she's as stubborn as a mule...She'll ruin you if you indulge this fantasy of hers. She'll take every centime you have.' Boy replied, ' I'm prepared for it, You may think her ambition frivolous but I do not. I'm extending her a loan to be repaid with interest."
The story of Chanel's life is a fascinating one. She is orphaned as a young girl when her mother dies and her father sends her and her siblings away. She is raised in a convent by nuns who teach her to sew. She has an inner passion to work that drives her through her life to succeed. She starts her working life as a mistress and a shop owner who makes and sells hats. She grows her business over the years expanding to casual clothing for women, releasing them from corsets, then she creates the little black suit and Chanel No. 5, Coco's signature perfume. And finally she leaves a legacy of the Chanel suit, a collarless jacket and straight skirt and the smell of Chanel No. 5.
C. W. Gortner has done a fabulous job of creating a novel that though not a true biography gives the reader real insight into the life and world of Mademoiselle Coco Chanel.
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