FICTION

Paris Red

by Maureen Gibbon
Norton. Apr. 2015. 224p. ISBN 9780393244465. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9780393244472. F
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Seventeen-year-old Victorine's life is changed forever when she and her friend are approached on a Paris street by an unusual stranger. The man, impressionist painter Édouard Manet, expresses sexual interest in both girls, but a fascinated Victorine casts friendship quickly aside for his sake and becomes his lover and the model for some of his most renowned paintings, including his nude Olympia. Refusing to accept a permanently passive role in their relationship, she soon develops artistic ambitions of her own.
VERDICT The strength of Gibbon's third novel (after Thief and Swimming Sweet Arrow) lies in Victorine's vivid sensual descriptions of the world around her and in the believable portrayal of the psychology of a gifted but immature young woman changed by her relationship with a famous man. By focusing so closely on the self-absorbed Victorine's inner life and on candid physical descriptions of her sexual encounters with the artist, however, Gibbon gives comparatively short shrift to developing Manet as a character or to exploring the historical context of his work, something that may disappoint readers looking for a Tracy Chevalier or Susan Vreeland read-alike.
Reviewed by Mara Bandy, Champaign P.L., IL , Nov 15, 2014
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