{"id":4002,"date":"2013-03-20T09:55:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T09:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=4002"},"modified":"2013-03-21T10:31:58","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T10:31:58","slug":"petite-mort-by-beatrice-hitchman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=4002","title":{"rendered":"Petite Mort by Beatrice Hitchman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Serpent\u2019s Tail 7 March 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

288pp, hardback, \u00a312.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Shirley Whiteside<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beatrice Hitchman\u2019s debut is a novel of dualities, from the title (idiomatic French for orgasm), to the bisexuality of her heroine, and the doppelganger film tricks that are the speciality of her older lover.\u00a0 Set in Paris in the early years of the twentieth century, with the embryonic film industry as the backdrop, it tells the story of Ad\u00e8le, a country girl who longs to be a silent movie star.\u00a0 However her first audition goes badly and instead the charismatic special effects director Andr\u00e9 Durand offers her a job in the costume department.\u00a0 His offer is not without strings and Ad\u00e8le begins an affair with him, their trysts taking place in the empty wardrobe department after hours.\u00a0 Ad\u00e8le\u2019s naivety over her affair – she obviously believes herself to be a woman of the world – is sadly touching.<\/p>\n

This is a beautifully researched story but thankfully the facts never overwhelm the fiction.\u00a0 Pre-Great War Paris is well drawn as are the inner workings of the Path\u00e9 film studios.\u00a0 Telling details, such as the swarms of flies attracted to the chemicals used in film production, add to the authenticity of the setting.\u00a0 It would have been good to have more about early film-making processes but Hitchman quickly moves her character out of the studio and into the claustrophobic home of her lover.\u00a0 Her account of how Andr\u00e9, born in America, ended up in Paris reads like a 1980s bonk-buster novel \u2013 orphaned, adopted by rich man, has affair with avaricious step-mother, leaves to make his fortune – and jars somewhat against the more realistic back stories of other characters.\u00a0\u00a0 The exact nature of his filmic special effects and how he achieves them is nebulous, leading Andr\u00e9 to be a rather thin character.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ad\u00e8le is wholly convincing, however, and her determination to succeed leads her to accept a job as personal assistant to Andr\u00e9\u2019s wife, Terpsichore, the most famous and glamorous actress of her day.\u00a0 The work allows\u00a0Ad\u00e8le to learn from a great artist and make contacts in the film industry, but also means that Andr\u00e9 has easy access to Ad\u00e8le at night.\u00a0 All, however, is not as it seems and instead of disliking Terpsichore, Ad\u00e8le falls in love with her.\u00a0 Terpsichore is as temperamental and demanding as any true diva should be but in private Hitchman shows the vulnerable side of a great beauty contemplating the aging process.\u00a0 A scandal erupts and a notorious silent movie, Petite Mort<\/em>, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.\u00a0 In the late 1960s the film reappears and a young journalist, Juliette, interviews Ad\u00e8le about the movie which is missing the key section that led to its infamy.\u00a0 Ad\u00e8le\u2019s expert manipulation of the younger woman is well paced as is Juliette realization that she is being used.<\/p>\n

As a period drama this novel works well but as a mystery it is rather measured.\u00a0 Hitchman takes a little too long to plant the clues but the excellent final twist is both surprising and satisfying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Shirley Whiteside<\/p>\n

Ad\u00e8le is wholly convincing and her determination to succeed leads her to accept a job as personal assistant to Andr\u00e9\u2019s wife, Terpsichore, the most famous and glamorous actress of her day. The work allows Ad\u00e8le to learn from a great artist and make contacts in the film industry, but also means that Andr\u00e9 has easy access to Ad\u00e8le at night[…] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4002"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4017,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002\/revisions\/4017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}