Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Obtained from: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours/Netgalley
Read: February 11, 2015
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| Camille Claudel and Jessie Lipscomb |
It's rare that I pick up a book with a premise I know nothing about, but that's exactly what happened with Heather Webb's Rodin's Lover. Before cracking this fiction I'd honestly never heard of Camille Claudel and the only thing I knew about Rodin came from Catherine Zeta Zones in 1999's The Haunting. A virtual blank slate, I had no idea where this story would take me, but I loved watching it come to light in Webb's hands.
Camille was a difficult character for me to appreciate, but I liked Webb's interpretation of her just the same. This is a woman who is dedicated, imaginative and driven to succeed on her own merit, but she is also flawed. She is prone to jealousy and anger and suffers demons few if any can understand. She is complex beginning to end, an individual whose creativity is stifled by mental illness and I stand in awe of how Webb brought that concept to life.
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of time Webb spent in both Camille and Auguste's workrooms. I remember being disappointed with The Queen's Dollmaker and Madame Tussaud for the lack attention paid the heroine's craft, but Webb didn't gloss over Camille's passion, not by a long shot. She actually dedicates several pages to the art of sculpture and I think that went a long way in developing Camille's creative personality and illustrating how much of an anomaly she was as female artist in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Speaking of Rodin, I thought Webb's decision to alternate between Camille and her lover one of the most inspired aspects of the narrative. Unlike Abelard in The Sharp Hook of Love, Rodin's motivations and interest in Claudel are tangible and concrete. There is no ambiguity in his emotions or conflicting loyalties and I think Rodin's Lover a stronger piece for it.
There is a large supporting cast, but I particularly liked Jessie Lipscomb. She is like Camille in some ways, remarkably different in others, but what I liked is that Webb didn't paint her as weak or inferior to Claudel. Jessie has a particular personality, a strength that contrasts and challenges Camille's and I thought that very interesting. There is a tendency to paint women as dominant or submissive, independent or reliant, and I liked how Webb's approach acknowledged the grey area in between and touched on the idea that people can vary and that doesn't necessarily make one better than the next.
The novel is long and slows in places, but I enjoyed the time I spent with Rodin's Lover. The material challenged me, but I don't think a bad thing and would certainly recommend the piece to fans of both historic and romantic fiction.
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She did not regret her suffering or the perception it had brought; it had taught her everything— it was a gift, even, allowing her to know, to absorb the emotions of others in all their intimacy, so she might depict their joys or exquisite pain. The beauty— that which she left behind— would transcend the tragedy of her life. This truth tingled in the depths of her soul and somewhere within she was proud.
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