Camille Laurens

Marie Geneviève van Goethem was a young dancer, or "rat," at the Paris Ballet when she got a job modelling for the much older artist Edgar Degas. He turned her slender form into a sculpture known as "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen." This work has met with its share of controversy, with some observers and critics claiming that they see the beginnings of depravity and criminality in the figure's upturned chin and half-closed eyes.

Author Camille Laurens meditates on the unknown fate of the show more impoverished young Marie, who, from what little we can know about her, was exploited and left unprotected by the adults around her, including her mother and Degas. It's a short, sad tale, told with much empathy and with many unanswered questions. Recommended for those who like art, or dance, or both. show less

I almost gave up on this one and have mixed feelings - hence the 3 star rating. A very interesting premise - an almost 50 year old divorced French woman creates a fake Facebook profile and befriends a friend/roommate of her ex-boyfriend in an effort to keep tabs on him. An online relationship ensues and the story is told from multiple and very confusing perspectives. Although the confusion of the varying perspectives may have been intentional, it was difficult to follow. Nonetheless, this show more short novel contains plenty of food for thought regarding social media, online dating, beauty standard differences between men & woman, mental illness etc. show less

It was on an eighth grade school trip to the Chicago Art museum when I fell in love with the paintings of Degas. His painitings of ballerinas fascinated me, at that time I thought the life of a ballerina was one of elegance and grace. Of course, now I know it also includes a great deal of work and pain.

This is a slim book, and instead of focusing on his paintings, though of course that is mentioned on well, focuses on a sculpture he made of a young ballerina. Her features distorted to look show more almost humanoid, the public found her ugly, unacceptable. Degas never showed this sculpture again. He had turned to sculpture because his eyesight had begun to fail, but at that time those were never accepted as much as his paintings.

The book is part art history, part a history of the times, the young ballet girls called rats, from families who needed them to earn money at a young age. Degas himself and how his art was accepted and what as.

"Edward Degas captured an unfiltered reality and provoked disquieting sensations. He questioned society. In this sense, he was much more a realist than Impressionist. His contemporaries, in fact, reproached him for pushing his realism to extremes.It was a well and good to hear down "the partition dividing the atelier from ordinary life" but he went to far in applying "the major rule of naturalism," which was to exaggerate physical and moral ugliness."

The girl in the sculpture was named Marie, she was one of the young ballet rats. It was a hard life, little money, little food. Not much is known about her but what is known is shared. An understanding of her comes from the realities of the time, how those working poor and women in general were viewed. Such luminaries as Zola, Matisse an others also have bits here and there. An interesting book for those who enjoy a slice of art history, but don't expect this book to just be about the life of young Marie. show less

Well...……
this was a very interesting book I will say. The author writes in such a very abstract way that it is a little confusing, or maybe a lot confusing!

The first narrative is of 50 some year old woman who was done wrong by a man and wants to find that love again by stalking through the internet. The internet can be extremely dangerous! "There's a good reason for calling it the Web. One minute you're a spider, the next you're a fly."

I found a quote I liked about finding love on page show more 51. "Love means electing, not selecting. We'd mutually elected each other." The author has a very unique way of explaining different types of love throughout the novel. That is the only reason why this book would get 2/5 stars. Also in the book, the author stated that in short this is a man's world and it is not fair. Camille said this while she was talking to her therapist. She also mentioned that men always only paid attention to the physical attributes of women. Seems like this character needs to meet different types of men!

Now onto another narrative...the therapist admits to be in love with his patient! Where is this book going? The therapist also tells the board, I guess? that the character feels bad because she feels as if she killed her niece, Katia, by throwing her out of her house which resulted in Katia killing herself.

So now the ending...


Camille is not Camille? Camille is Claire? They are both bonkers in an insane asylum. Camille took Claire's story and distorted it to Camille's liking? Claire has a niece named Katia by the way. Katia is trying to marry Claire's husband! Camille had an affair, and a psychotic affair with Chris in real life and online. She was taken advantage of because she wanted love so much that she gave this young kid everything while he was so mean and hurt her physically.

It was a very interesting novel now that I reflect upon it. I will still only give it 2 stars. show less