Per the author, Anne de Courcy, this book (Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944) isn’t intended to be a definitive biography of Coco Chanel. It is more of a biography of a place—the French Riviera—before and during the Second World War. Because the Riviera was such a hot spot, it attracted the rich and famous and infamous, including Chanel and her many lovers. De Courcy covers a broad range of characters such as Winston Churchill, Aldous Huxley, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and a number of Americans, such as the Singer Sewing Machine family—and all their lavish, hedonistic lifestyles. The writing on much of this was so superficial as to be skimmable and the number of names dropped so copious that I found it difficult to keep track of them—they seemed like endless lists of the well-do-do.
The second half of the book saves the first half as De Courcy gives some insights into pre-WWII France and the “impregnable” Maginot line. She details the treatment of Jewish immigrants as they fled from Nazi Germany. Not until World War Two actually begins, does the writing settle into a more cohesive story. De Courcy describes the devastating effects of German occupation on the lives of refugees, Jews, expatriates and other foreigners along with French citizens on either side of the conflict.
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Chanel’s Riviera was released February 11, 2020 and is available through:
