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A review by silvani
The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume by Tilar J. Mazzeo
1.0
I was not impressed by this book at all.
Roughly 40% of the ebook was endnotes and citations, which would usually be a good sign, however I looked through the citations and a lot of them cited some random Daily Mail or other, even less reputable magazine or newspaper opinion pieces.
The author made a lot of assumptions for dramatic purposes. While these assumptions were clearly labeled, that had the effect of making the author sound unsure or just really wishy washy about whether something happened a certain way.
At the end of the book the author writes a little summary in which she attempts to clarify what "The Secret" is, stating that she didn't title the book that to be coy or anything. However I feel that what "The Secret" was should have been clear, and even after the summary, it wasn't. The author said some sentimental thing about what the perfume means to us being the secret, but the vast majority of the book focused on the "creator" Coco Chanel.
The author's thesis seems to be surrounding Coco Chanel's emotional relationship with the perfume. I found this extremely confusing because in the beginning, I felt the author was attempting to make her a sympathetic character. However, this changes quickly as the author starts to detail how all of her successes are due to the men in her life. I found this offputting with vague misogynistic undertones. Allegedly she created the perfume to remind her of men, she got the money and the connections from men, etc etc. Maybe this is true and maybe it isn't, I honestly don't have confidence that anything I learned from this book is factual.
Additionally complicating how I should feel about all this, Coco Chanel is a literal Nazi who tried to steal her partners' business because they were Jews. WOW. Instead of the author condemning this as incredibly cruel, she explored how Coco's emotional attachment to the perfume influenced her actions, her relationship with a Nazi (again blaming/crediting her actions to a man) and showed how she reconciled with her Jewish business partner later in life. I am absolutely revolted by this Nazi apologetic BS.
I can't recommend this book to anyone.
Roughly 40% of the ebook was endnotes and citations, which would usually be a good sign, however I looked through the citations and a lot of them cited some random Daily Mail or other, even less reputable magazine or newspaper opinion pieces.
The author made a lot of assumptions for dramatic purposes. While these assumptions were clearly labeled, that had the effect of making the author sound unsure or just really wishy washy about whether something happened a certain way.
At the end of the book the author writes a little summary in which she attempts to clarify what "The Secret" is, stating that she didn't title the book that to be coy or anything. However I feel that what "The Secret" was should have been clear, and even after the summary, it wasn't. The author said some sentimental thing about what the perfume means to us being the secret, but the vast majority of the book focused on the "creator" Coco Chanel.
The author's thesis seems to be surrounding Coco Chanel's emotional relationship with the perfume. I found this extremely confusing because in the beginning, I felt the author was attempting to make her a sympathetic character. However, this changes quickly as the author starts to detail how all of her successes are due to the men in her life. I found this offputting with vague misogynistic undertones. Allegedly she created the perfume to remind her of men, she got the money and the connections from men, etc etc. Maybe this is true and maybe it isn't, I honestly don't have confidence that anything I learned from this book is factual.
Additionally complicating how I should feel about all this, Coco Chanel is a literal Nazi who tried to steal her partners' business because they were Jews. WOW. Instead of the author condemning this as incredibly cruel, she explored how Coco's emotional attachment to the perfume influenced her actions, her relationship with a Nazi (again blaming/crediting her actions to a man) and showed how she reconciled with her Jewish business partner later in life. I am absolutely revolted by this Nazi apologetic BS.
I can't recommend this book to anyone.