I hadn't know of Florence Gould prior to this book, but I was quickly fascinated by this high-society woman who managed hotels on the French Riviera and purchased artwork looted by Nazis. Florence Gould is not a heroine, but she was certainly interesting. I particularly found her activities during World War II, when she resided in France and appeared to have contacts with both the Nazi occupiers and the French Resistance. Highly recommended for those seeking a complicated read about a woman during this time. ( )

"Florence understood instinctively that beauty, as well as money, was power; and she had both in abundance."

Florence Gould was an intelligent, conniving, self-centered, savvy business woman, but most of all she was a survivor. She survived the San Francisco earthquake and fire as a child, a major flood in France, World War I and World War II. Her survival skills came into play again with her questionable connections with top officials of The Third Reich which was a contention with FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, after the war. Hoover tried everything to get her convicted for aiding and abetting the enemy to no avail. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Her open marriage to a very wealthy and shrewd American multimillionaire, Frank Gould, gave her the opportunities she needed to become an independent wealthy woman in her own right by investing in real estate and art, though obtained under dubious conditions. It's known that many of her art purchases were bought from collections taken by the Nazis from French Jews. Though rumors said she was an anti-Semite, Ronald supposes that Florence didn't care one way or another. She preferred to have fun rather than worry about "political rumblings", and being the self-serving woman she was, she chose to help both sides when it suited her.

See my complete review at The Eclectic Review ( )

The book was sent to me by the publisher St. Martins Press via Netgalley. Thank you.

The author begins chapter one with a Mark Twain quote. “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” That is one of the precepts with which Florence Lacaze Gould lived her life. She lied about everything from her “eye-witness” account of the San Francisco fire to where her father was buried. She lied about important things and unimportant things. She used anyone to further her position in society and to increase her wealth. She was a thoroughly despicable woman who was a traitor to her country. Did she have any redeeming qualities? Well, she could be generous to her friends and she did donate to charities when she got older. She probably did it to see her name plastered on buildings up and down the East Coast.

Ronald does not like her subject and makes it very clear in this biography. At times, she cannot avoid a snarky comment when Gould pulls off a particularly objectionable act of flimflamery. And how can one like a woman who marries her first husband just to be able to return to the United States to collect an inheritance? A woman who schemes to marry her next husband, a drunken and druggy scion of the infamous Gould clan, to get her hands on his money. One decent thing she did do was make him clean and sober; however, she did this because she did not want him dead before he changed his will in her favor.

Florence was a fantastic business person. With Gould’s money to invest, she created a business empire consisting of casinos and hotels up and down the Riviera. If she broke the licensing laws, it really didn’t matter. Just pay someone off. The Goulds had an open marriage, each content to let the other spouse entertain lovers. That’s fine, but Florence' s lovers in the 1940’s were high-ranking Nazis. She was happy to entertain them in her Paris salon, sleep with them, accept their gifts, and even launder their Nazi loot through her properties at the end of the war so they could have a comfortable life in South American, or in the case of her chief lover, in the US. Her fabulous art collection was the result of buying the paintings of Jewish Holocaust victims.

She almost paid for her collaboration. J. Edgar Hoover had her in his sights. Somehow, the FBI did not buy her story that she was really part of the Resistance. Fortunately for Florence, McCarthyism swept the US and the FBI dropped the investigation to pursue the Red Menace.

Which just goes to prove that if someone is beautiful enough and rich enough, she can get away with treason, live to a ripe old age without suffering any consequences for her deeds, and sweetly smile while concert halls and college buildings are named after her.

Susan Ronald wrote a good biography of a woman she did not like. The Gould Foundation did not allow the author access to Florence’s papers. Heaven knows what else would have turned up. ( )