cover image French Seduction: An American's Encounter with France, Her Father, and the Holocaust

French Seduction: An American's Encounter with France, Her Father, and the Holocaust

Eunice Lipton, . . Carroll & Graf, $23.95 (223pp) ISBN 978-0-78671-626-5

Spurred, in part, by her father's unrealized dreams, art historian Lipton (Alias Olympia: A Woman's Search for Manet's Notorious Model and Her Own Desire ) left New York for Paris with her husband, a painter, in 2000. In this extended meditation, she gracefully weaves together her eclectic feelings of love and fury toward her father, a Jew who immigrated to the U.S. from Latvia, and toward her seductive adopted country. She considers the widespread French collaboration with the Germans during WWII—and finds echoes in how the French have treated immigrant Algerians and now the substantial ghettoized Muslim minority, as well as the country's persistent anti-Semitism. Drawing on her deep knowledge and love of French art, she includes reproductions of some of her favorite paintings and sculptures through the centuries. She believes that the French mistreated even Picasso, just as they do so many (non-French) "Others," and that they seem to have abandoned once vibrant art, literature and creativity. Passionate, critical and discursive, this account feels very French. (Feb.15)