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A review by topdragon
Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin
3.0
Having read and enjoyed Melanie Benjamin’s [b:The Girls in the Picture|34748722|The Girls in the Picture|Melanie Benjamin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500736872s/34748722.jpg|55941281], I was excited to dive into this novel as well. I’ve wanted to learn more about the days of the German occupation of Paris during WWII and to have the setting include the famous Ritz hotel is definitely enticing.
The novel revolves around two main characters, Claude and Blanche Auzello, both real-life historical people. Claude is the manager of the Hotel Ritz in Paris while Blanche is his American wife whom he has married after a short whirlwind romance. Herein lies a major problem I had with the book. The entire first half of the novel is mostly about their rocky relationship. The author jumps back in forth in time, relating the here-and-now of 1940s Paris (in present tense) and then jumping back to the 1920’s during Claude and Blanche’s early years (in past tense). This was a bit jarring to me, switching tenses and time frames constantly. But I could still deal with this OK if it weren’t for the way these two characters were portrayed. Neither one is likable; Claude is the prim and proper Parisian with a mistress on the side and simply can’t understand American women. Blanche seems like a smart lady but does stupid things over and over, even while soaking up as much glamour and glitz as she can. She has a secret which, unfortunately is foreshadowed a bit too heavily, and therefore not a big surprise when the big reveal comes later. Neither one of these two can communicate with the other, and I kept wanting to hit them over the head as I plowed through this book.
The second half of the novel starts to pick up the pace as we finally start to get involved with the French underground activities that were promised on the cover blurbs. Even so, this is mostly just talked about, rather than allowing us readers to participate in anything—another disappointment for me. We hear about all of these famous people that stayed or even lived at the Ritz, people like Hemingway, Picasso, Hermann Göring, etc. Only Coco Chanel had any kind of active role and even it was very minor. Rather than utilize these characters it came across as mere name dropping.
The final 10% or so of this novel rose to the level I was hoping for in the entire book and is the only reason I am granting three stars instead of two. Unfortunately, it was too little too late. War is Hell, even for those not in battle. It affects everybody and it certainly affects Claude and Blanche. Here, finally, we get the brutal impact of how the occupation impacted this couple, the Hotel Ritz, and, indeed, the city of Paris. The true love story finally comes out. It is a wonderful finale to a mediocre novel. The author can write well and has a proven track record of quality works. But here, as she said in the postscript, she was attempting something a little new for her. Whereas Claude and Blanche were real people, there isn’t much known about them. The author had to fill in a lot of blanks. As she says, rather than writing a book based on real people and events, this one is “inspired” by them.
So in the end, this was a frustrating read for me. It holds lots of potential, but most of it remains unrealized.
The novel revolves around two main characters, Claude and Blanche Auzello, both real-life historical people. Claude is the manager of the Hotel Ritz in Paris while Blanche is his American wife whom he has married after a short whirlwind romance. Herein lies a major problem I had with the book. The entire first half of the novel is mostly about their rocky relationship. The author jumps back in forth in time, relating the here-and-now of 1940s Paris (in present tense) and then jumping back to the 1920’s during Claude and Blanche’s early years (in past tense). This was a bit jarring to me, switching tenses and time frames constantly. But I could still deal with this OK if it weren’t for the way these two characters were portrayed. Neither one is likable; Claude is the prim and proper Parisian with a mistress on the side and simply can’t understand American women. Blanche seems like a smart lady but does stupid things over and over, even while soaking up as much glamour and glitz as she can. She has a secret which, unfortunately is foreshadowed a bit too heavily, and therefore not a big surprise when the big reveal comes later. Neither one of these two can communicate with the other, and I kept wanting to hit them over the head as I plowed through this book.
The second half of the novel starts to pick up the pace as we finally start to get involved with the French underground activities that were promised on the cover blurbs. Even so, this is mostly just talked about, rather than allowing us readers to participate in anything—another disappointment for me. We hear about all of these famous people that stayed or even lived at the Ritz, people like Hemingway, Picasso, Hermann Göring, etc. Only Coco Chanel had any kind of active role and even it was very minor. Rather than utilize these characters it came across as mere name dropping.
The final 10% or so of this novel rose to the level I was hoping for in the entire book and is the only reason I am granting three stars instead of two. Unfortunately, it was too little too late. War is Hell, even for those not in battle. It affects everybody and it certainly affects Claude and Blanche. Here, finally, we get the brutal impact of how the occupation impacted this couple, the Hotel Ritz, and, indeed, the city of Paris. The true love story finally comes out. It is a wonderful finale to a mediocre novel. The author can write well and has a proven track record of quality works. But here, as she said in the postscript, she was attempting something a little new for her. Whereas Claude and Blanche were real people, there isn’t much known about them. The author had to fill in a lot of blanks. As she says, rather than writing a book based on real people and events, this one is “inspired” by them.
So in the end, this was a frustrating read for me. It holds lots of potential, but most of it remains unrealized.