PositiveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)The use of the epistolary form makes Letters to Camondo more allusive, more philosophically self-reflexive than The Hare, and its brevity doesn’t allow for the richness of documentary detail that made that first book so compelling, but de Waal’s intimacy with the Musée’s collection, not to mention his shared family history, gives Letters to Camondo an undeniable emotional intensity. The book is also beautifully illustrated with nearly forty full-page photographs – as might be expected given the author’s close links to the Musée, which is planning to hold an exhibition of his ceramic work to coincide with publication.
