A review by drewsof
Costalegre: A Novel Inspired by Peggy Guggenheim and Her Daughter by Courtney Maum

4.0

I love watching authors do their strange-historical-novel thing. A few recents that spring to mind include ISADORA, VISIBLE EMPIRE, AMERICA WAS HARD TO FIND, and now COSTALEGRE. Maum takes the story of the Guggenheims fleeing Europe before WWII to set up a surrealist enclave on the Pacific coast of Mexico, changes a few things (including names), and boils it all down into the diary of the daughter -- our fictionalized Pegeen Guggenheim, Lara Calaway -- whose insights are searing, funny, and altogether perfectly rendered.

(Note: this was a fun book to read interspersed w/ Tove Jansson's THE SUMMER BOOK, fwiw)