The Painted Girls by Cathy Buchanan

For my birthday I received a copy of Cathy Buchanan’s The Painted Girls, which has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for quite some time. I was excited to read the book not only because I had heard great things about it in the press, but because I also know Cathy. I met her through my friend Ania Szado, also a great writer with a new book out- Studio St. X. A number of years ago Cathy invited me to her home to meet author Brian Francis, author of Fruit and we’ve kept in touch loosely since I moved away from Toronto.          

So does Cathy’s book live up to the hype? You’d just have to ask my children how I ignored them for large swathes of the Easter weekend with my nose in her book to answer that question. Yes, Cathy’s book is really great. Set in the belle époque period of Paris in the 1880’s, it tells the story of two sisters living in the poverty stricken world of Montmatre. Like all good historical fiction, The Painted Girls takes you deep into the Paris demimonde with its meticulous research. The book is narrated by Marie and Antoinette Van Goethem. With their father dead and their mother addicted to absinthe, theses two young girls must find a way to support themselves. Marie becomes a dancer at the Paris Opéra and then a model for Degas’ Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen. Antoinette works as an extra in Emilie Zola’s play L’Assommoir. Cathy describes the girls’ attempts to survive in a world where poor women have little protection in a deeply moving and compelling way. I was swept up by The Painted Girls not only by the sisters’ rivalry and the period details, but also because it provided a female view into the time period. Instead of the erotic male gaze, the book gives voice to the underclass of women who served as their models and this was a welcome change to the experience of viewing Impressionist paintings. 

I’m looking forward more of Cathy’s books. In the mean time, I have CS Richardson’s The Emperor of Paris to keep me occupied with all things francais.