Featured Book: Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel by Francine Prose

Sara Trucksess

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel by Francine Prose, is part historical fiction, part satire, and part fantasy tour through the poetic streets of pre-World War II Paris. A visit by the author to the National Gallery of Art’s exhibition of Brassai: The Eye of Paris nearly 15 years ago (coincidentally the very first show that I helped wrap up while working at NGA), inspired her to dig deeper into the true story revealed by the wall label of Georges Brassai’s photograph, “Lesbian Couple at Le Monacle, 1932” (an image worth googling for context as you read this novel). The ensuing dramatization that springs from Prose’s imagination alternates between historical detail so believable that you will forget you are reading fiction and a fantastical rendering so outrageous that it can’t possibly be true. Yet knowing the character of the city of Paris between World Wars I and II, perhaps it could be. Filled with high-society romantic liaisons, a sexually-charged nightclub counter…