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wandering_reads 's review for:
Stolen Beauty
by Laurie Lico Albanese
I saw the movie Woman in Gold a few years ago, and the story intrigued me. When I found out that it was based off a book, I wanted to read it this year for the Popsugar Challenge.
The book alternates between Adele Bloch-Bauer's perspective from the late 1800s into the early 20th century and her niece Maria Altmann's story picking up in the late 1930s until the early 2000s. It explores the perspective of women, their responsibilities and few rights, along with the 'proper' education a woman should receive. It also talks about passion and love and being brave and daring. Self-discovery. It's about courage and being stronger than you think you can be. It is the intimate thoughts and dreams of women constrained by their society and history.
I tore the book because I wanted to know what happened to Adele and Maria. Even though I'd seen the movie already, the book is really, really different. It focuses less on the lawsuits for the Klimt painting than on the private worlds and thoughts of Adele and Maria. Both of them were incredible women in their own right, so different from what society expected of them and for them.
This is historical fiction and biography in turns - extensively researched but with the thoughts of the women being formed around history and recollections. It is amazing to think of how the world has changed from Adele's first memories, what Maria went through during the Nazi occupation of Austria, and what they both did to survive when everything seemed against them.
The book alternates between Adele Bloch-Bauer's perspective from the late 1800s into the early 20th century and her niece Maria Altmann's story picking up in the late 1930s until the early 2000s. It explores the perspective of women, their responsibilities and few rights, along with the 'proper' education a woman should receive. It also talks about passion and love and being brave and daring. Self-discovery. It's about courage and being stronger than you think you can be. It is the intimate thoughts and dreams of women constrained by their society and history.
I tore the book because I wanted to know what happened to Adele and Maria. Even though I'd seen the movie already, the book is really, really different. It focuses less on the lawsuits for the Klimt painting than on the private worlds and thoughts of Adele and Maria. Both of them were incredible women in their own right, so different from what society expected of them and for them.
This is historical fiction and biography in turns - extensively researched but with the thoughts of the women being formed around history and recollections. It is amazing to think of how the world has changed from Adele's first memories, what Maria went through during the Nazi occupation of Austria, and what they both did to survive when everything seemed against them.