PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewPlaces Valland at the center of the action, and illuminates aspects of her personal life and details about her spying methods that have received scant attention in the past ... Young, an award-winning journalist, has an energetic and novelistic writing style. Her book is broken into bite-size chapters featuring dramatic cliffhangers and vivid sensory details that enhance the historical events. However, the book leans at times toward hagiography, focusing solely on Valland’s commitment to beautiful objects without fully developing her as a human being ... Despite the claims of the book’s promotional materials, Valland’s story hasn’t been entirely untold ... Young offers a more nuanced view, revealing Valland’s private life outside the Jeu de Paume ... Young has expertly plucked the emotive elements of Valland’s account, and mined her correspondence with Jaujard, her work confidant, for additional tidbits that offer more depth. But, still, the archival cupboard remains rather bare ... In the end, there doesn’t appear to be enough new material or subjective insight available to sustain an entirely new take on Valland; what Young was able to discover still doesn’t quite manage to draw us into her private world ... Anyone familiar with the history, however, will have to be satisfied with just a few new informational nuggets in a well-told recap.
Patrick Bishop
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewWhere there is myth-busting in the pages of Paris 1944, it is subtle. Bishop’s story remains a celebration of a historical moment when individual gusto and gumption, from within and without, overcame authoritarian might.
