Experience Never Anyone But You Authored By Rupert Thomson Format Digital Edition

true story of a love affair between two extraordinary women becomes a literary tour deforce in this novel that recreates the surrealist movement in Paris and the horrors of the two world wars with a singular incandescence and intimacy.


In the years preceding World War I, two young women meet, by chance, in a provincial town in France, Suzanne Malherbe, a shy seventeenyearold with a talent for drawing, is completely entranced by the brilliant but troubled Lucie Schwob, who comes from a family of wealthy Jewish intellectuals.
They embark on a clandestine love affair, terrified they will be discovered, but then, in an astonishing twist of fate, the mother of one marries the father of the other.
As “sisters” they are finally free of suspicion, and, hungry for a more stimulating milieu, they move to Paris at a moment when art, literature, and politics blend in an explosive cocktail.


Having reinvented themselves as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, they move in the most glamorous social circles, meeting everyone from Hemingway and Dalí to André Breton, and produce provocative photographs that still seem avantgarde today.
In thes, with the rise of antiSemitism and threat of fascism, they leave Paris for Jersey, and it is on this idyllic island that they confront their destiny, creating a campaign of propaganda against Hitlers occupying forces that will put their lives in jeopardy.


Brilliantly imagined, profoundly thoughtprovoking, and ultimately heartbreaking, Never Anyone But You infuses life into a forgotten history as only great literature can.
I am sorry to the real women this story is portraying, but this book was boring as fuck, nothing but name after name after name in an obnoxiously french accent by the narrator that I could in no way keep up with even if I cared enough to try.


this took way too long to pick up it wasn't until just before themark that the characters start fighting back against the rising Nazi regime.
and don't get me wrong, that was really really cool but it was surrounded by backstory and side characters that couldn't be less interesting.


even when we got to the height of the story when Claude and Marcel have been imprisoned for spreading antiNazi and antiGerman propaganda much of the story was skipped over.
months passed in minutes, and the details of how they escaped the death sentence is glossed over so quickly I don't even remember how they managed it.
the time following their imprisonment was relatively vague too, as it skipped from their first night or two out of prison to, like, five or six years down the road.
it just didn't make sense to me considering this is the part of their lives that they are known for, and certainly the part of their lives that was the most impactful.
so why brush over it just to go into detail about who they've been dining with

I also had trouble like this because of the one character, Claude.
I understand that she was a real person and real people are obviously flawed but it bothered me the way she would emotionally manipulate Marcel again and again and again, and the way Marcel would cater to her every need.
Marcel even says at one point that she feels like Claude's mother, I just never really understood why Marcel stuck around I didn't get enough evidence of Claude caring for Marcel to make me believe she really loved her.
yes, she said it, and yes, she said she wanted to be the one to die first so she didn't have to be without Marcel, but that's not, like, taking care of your partner.
that's just unhealthy attachment, and it got on my nerves constantly,

so, sorry lesbians, you did some incredibly brave and badass things jn your lifetimes but this book was not great,

also, I know it's not their fault, but the fact that they became stepsisters after being together foryears just felt kinda weird.
. . and everyone called them sisters and they called themselves sisters for the next almostyears they were together, . . Sometimes when looking at a book featuring a love story, I end up debating to which genre it belongs, Would it be placed on the romance shelves of a bookstore or with works of literary fiction The reason for my debate is that I like to judge a work by what the author is attempting to accomplish.
I have nothing against either genre, but there is a difference between the two, For example, the romance genre tends to focus more on the plot, while serious fiction concentrates on the complex psychological and intellectual aspects of the relationship.
However, the line between the genres is thin, Readers might question into which category Jane Austin would be placed if she were writing today, Its pretty clear, though, that the two novels featured in this review “Never Anyone But You” by Rupert Thomson Other Press and “Find Me” by André Aciman Farrar, Straus and Giroux would most likely not appeal to readers of the romance or romcon genres, even though the underlying theme of both is love and its aftermath.

See the rest of my review at sitelink thereportergroup. org/past Paris in thes: for Americans this phrase tends to evoke the U, S. expatriates who spent time there, including Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald, But most of the people who created the magical atmosphere that attracted all those foreigners were, of course, French natives, Rupert Thomson's tenth novel is a fictionalized portrait of two reallife Frenchwomen who participated in the artistic life of that place and time, and went on to play an equally significant part in the resistance to Nazi occupation.


The central characters of this storyLucie Schwob and Suzanne Malherbewere both born in the coastal town of Nantes in the last decade of the nineteenth century to fairly wealthy families who moved in the same social circles.
Suzanne, who narrates the novel, is a shy, artistic girl nearingwhen her mother takes her on avisit to the Schwob househol, She encounters Lucie Schwob, who immediately becomes her closest friend, Lucie is about two years younger, but is generally the dominant figure in the relationship, and is a born nonconformist, with literary ambitions and strong opinions about everyone and everything.
She suffers from anorexia and suicidal tendencies which occasionally lead to supposedly accidental overdoses of ether and other drugs, Some of her problems may stem from a traumatic childhood:

When she was four her mother had a mental breakdown and spent the rest of her life in various asylums and sanatoriums.
A few years later, Lucie was bullied and beaten by antiSemitic schoolmates during the Dreyfus affair, after which she was sent away to a school in England.


After a couple of years Lucie and Suzanne become lovers, a relationship that will endure, Though Lucie, impetuous as always, would like the world to know, Suzanne points out that this would almost certainly result in their being separated and perhaps even institutionalized.
In Lucie's opinion, they are not lesbiansjust two people who love each other, She considers herself what would today be called genderfluidoften, but not always, dressing in men's clothes and wearing a short haircut, She decides to take a genderneutral name Claude Cahun and urges Suzanne to do the same, Suzanne becomes Marcel Moore for artistic purposes, though most people continue to call her Suzanne,

The Great War brings many changes to their lives, including the death of Suzanne's father, After a decent interval, Claude's father quietly divorces his institutionalized wife and marries Suzanne's mother, They are suddenly stepsisters, and when Claude's father, who appreciates Suzanne's stabilizing effect on his daughter, encourages them to live together, they are delighted to follow his suggestion.
Claude, who has spent time at the Sorbonne, urges Suzanne to join her in Paris, where no one will care about their relationship,

Now in theirs, they settle into their new home just as the surrealist movement is developing, and soon become friends with writers and artists, such as Andre Breton, Robert Desnos, Sylvia Beach, and Salvador Dali.
Claude and Suzanne make their own artistic and literary contributions as well, and in particular their avantgarde photography attracts attention, Most of the photos feature Claude, and she usually makes the decisions about costumes and poses, but it is generally Suzanne behind the camera, so their art, like their relationship, is a collaborative effort.


As the headys become the more sombers, Claude and Suzanne are increasingly alarmed by Hitler's rise to power, particularly given Claude's partJewish heritage, and inthey make the decision to move to the isle of Jersey in the English Channel.
They buy a house there and leave Paris behind, but byFrance is under Nazi occupation, and the Germans take control of the Channel Islands, where Hitler plans to launch his invasion of Britain.


Claude and Suzanne are repulsed by their new overlords, and Claude soon hatches a plan to use a hidden pistol to assassinate the German commandantthus accomplishing a blow to the Nazis and her own longanticipated suicide simultaneously.
Everpractical Suzanne points out that Claude is a terrible shot and that her act would certainly lead to reprisals against other innocent people, They come up with an alternate schemea propaganda campaign in which they use their typewriter and carbon paper to produce demoralizing flyers and leaflets, which they sneak into spots to be found by German soldiers.
For nearly four years, they carry out this project in complete secrecy, working at night and venturing out during the day dressed as ordinary middleaged island women, who won't attract much attention.
Despite the hardships of the war years, this is perhaps the most fulfilling period of their lives: They are collaborating on their most important work of artone in which they tacitly acknowledge their willingness to die for a causeand for each other.


Thes chapters also form the most involving and moving section of this necessarily episodic but beautifully written novel, Rupert Thomson has unearthed a piece of World War II history that deserves to be better knownand would make a terrific film,

ed by Robert Anderson, Librarian, Literature amp Fiction Department,