Mademoiselle Chanel

Gortner's (The Tudor Vendetta) Coco Chanel is an innocent, unimpeachable in her intentions. The truly evil (jackbooted Nazis), nauseatingly insipid (every female in her family), or anarchically catty (the bohemians of Paris) force Chanel to make imperfect decisions in response to their failings, not from any character defect of her own. Why have an affair with a German officer? Not to enjoy creature comforts in a time of deprivation, oh no—but because it is her only option. Why take an interest in her nephew's fate? Because he is her sister's child—not because he is, as is believed by many, her own son. This self-delusion torpedoes Gortner's whitewashing of Chanel. In failing to acknowledge even in her thoughts the rumors Chanel certainly would've heard, the first-person omniscient narration is wasted. Someone so alienated from her own reasons for action hardly represents the expectations-defying icon that Chanel should prove to be. Instead, she is a figure of a fan fiction who is afraid of upsetting its long-dead subject.