The Queen of Paris

This Coco Chanel historical novel covers her life in Paris during the Nazi occupation.  I thought that I knew a lot about her life but I was wrong.  I was shocked to read about her collaboration with the Nazis as well as how her company was run.

The blurb:

"Legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel is revered for her sophisticated style - the iconic little black dress - and famed for her intoxicating perfume Chanel No. 5.  Yet behind the public persona is a complicated woman of intrigue, shadowed by mysterious rumors.  The Queen of Paris, the new novel from award winning author Pamela Binnings Ewen, vividly imagines the hidden life of Chanel during the four years of Nazi occupation in Paris in the midst of WWII - as discovered in recently unearthed wartime files. 

Coco Chanel could be cheerful, lighthearted, manipulative, even cruel.  Against the winds of war, with the Wehrmacht marching down the Champs-Elysees, Chanel finds herself residing alongside the Reich's High Command in the Hotel Ritz.  Surrounded by the enemy, Chanel wages a private war of her own to wrestle full control of her perfume company from the hands of her Jewish business partner, Pierre Wertheimer.  With anti-semitism on the rise, he has escaped to the United States with the confidential formula for Chanel No. 5. Distrustful of his intentions to set up production on the outskirts of New York City, Chanel fights to seize ownership.  The House of Chanel shall not fall. 

While Chanel struggles to keep her livelihood intact, Paris sinks under the iron fist of German rule.  Chanel - a woman made of sparking granite - will do anything to survive.  She will even agree to collaborate with the Nazis in order to protect her darkest secrets.  When she is covertly recruited by Germany to spy for the Reich, she becomes Agent F-7124, code name:  Westminster. But why?  And to what lengths will she go to keep her stormy past from haunting her future?"

The is an engrossing novel with plenty of political intrigue.  While I was reading I wondered what part of the book was true.  The Note From the Author at the end of the book explained all of that. Chanel's life was much more interesting than I could have ever imagined.  From her lowly beginning in life she always had to fight in order to survive.  I believe that this sense of needing to always fight made her make decisions that she shouldn't have made.

I have always been encouraged to look to her  for inspiration because she was a successful woman. However, after finding out about her involvement with the Nazis I don't know why anyone could ever believe that she was an inspiration to women.  After a lifetime of needing men for a place to live, she naturally fell into an affair with a Nazi soldier for four years.  The soldier resided with her at the Ritz where the Germans had taken up occupancy.  She did it for a place to live.  I find her decisions to be repugnant.  A woman should be able to stand on her own.

I do not want anyone to feel that the book was bad because the primary character was bad.  The writing was crisp and the chapters ended with suspense, which resulted in my reading the novel in one sitting.  Chanel's life was fascinating to say the least.  It is unfortunate that she made such bad choices in life.

5 out of 5 stars.