Reflections

Beautifully written and full of period details, this novel features American artist Mary Cassatt and her complex relationship with the talented, sometimes infuriating Edgar Degas, but the viewpoint also switches to Berthe Morisot and her brother-in-law/maybe-lover Edouard Manet, creating a broad intimate portrait of Belle Epoque Paris and the loves, doubts, struggles, triumphs, yearnings, fears, and ambitions of four painters hoping to change the direction of art. I’ve read several books on the era, but nothing that focuses so much on the personal lives of the Impressionists. I usually prefer biography to fiction in books about actual people, but Robin Oliveiera did her research and breathes life into the characters, intriguing me enough that I have biographies of Cassatt and Morisot on hold at my library. One fun fact I didn’t know: Cassatt was a dear friend of Abigail May Alcott--Louisa’s artistic younger sister and the basis for the Amy character in Little Women.