Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel

by Francine Prose

Book, 2014

Publication

Harper (2014), Edition: First Edition, 448 pages

Content and Summary Info

Bisexual Content: Two supporting characters (cisgender women) have/have had romantic and/or sexual relationships with people of more than one gender.

Problematic Aspects: Both bisexual supporting characters may fit the manipulative bisexual sociopath trope.

Publisher's Summary: Paris in the 1920s shimmers with excitement, dissipation, and freedom. It is a place of intoxicating ambition, passion, art, and discontent, where louche jazz venues like the Chameleon Club draw expats, artists, libertines, and parvenus looking to indulge their true selves. It is at the Chameleon where the striking Lou Villars, an extraordinary athlete and scandalous cross-dressing lesbian, finds refuge among the club’s loyal denizens, including the rising Hungarian photographer Gabor Tsenyi, the socialite and art patron Baroness Lily de Rossignol; and the caustic American writer Lionel Maine. As the years pass, their fortunes—and the world itself—evolve. Lou falls desperately in love and finds success as a race car driver. Gabor builds his reputation with startlingly vivid and imaginative photographs, including a haunting portrait of Lou and her lover, which will resonate through all their lives. As the exuberant twenties give way to darker times, Lou experiences another metamorphosis—sparked by tumultuous events—that will warp her earnest desire for love and approval into something far more.

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