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There was a time when the family Künstler lived in the fairy-tale city of Vienna. Circumstances transformed that fairy tale into a nightmare, and in 1939 the Künstlers found their way out of Vienna and into a new fairy tale: Los Angeles, California, United States of America. For years Mamie Künstler, ninety-three-years-old, as clever and glamorous as ever, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie's grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City. Like many a twenty-something, he has come to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it is 2020, the global pandemic sweeps in, and Julian's short visit suddenly has no end in sight. Mamie was only eleven when the Künstlers escaped Vienna in 1939. They made their way, stunned and overwhelmed, to sunny, surreal Los Angeles where they joined a colony of distinguished Jewish musicians, writers and intellectuals also escaping Hitler. Now, faced with months of lockdown and a willing listener, Mamie begins to tell Julian the buried stories of her early years in Los Angeles: her escapades with eminent émigrés like Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Thomas Mann. Oh, and Greta Garbo. While the pandemic cuts Julian off from the life he knows, Mamie's tales open up a world of lives that came before him. They reveal to him just how much the past holds of the future. Cathleen Schine's captivating and comedic twelfth novel explores exile, émigrés, movie stars, musicians, family bonds and the power of stories??both those we hand down and the ones held secretly in the heart. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt &a… (más)
Received ARC from GR Giveaway - As a fan of 20th Century historic fiction I was excited to receive this ARC. I am sad to be so disappointed. The storyline is promising and the plot starts out with an upward trajectory. After the grandson Julian moves in, and everyone is quarantined, the story stagnates.
With each chapter I was hopeful that it would improve but it remained as flat as the pandemic experience it chronicles. The dialog was challenging- Grandma Mamie telling stories was wonderful...but then when the author attempted to have the grandson retell Mamie's story to his lockdown girlfriend it was convoluted. Any wonder or dramatic tension over anticipating then learning what great California local or WWII emigre would cameo Mamie's life is lost when the grandson Googles. In the end it seemed more like a mish-mash of name-dropping than a fully-realized historic fiction narrative. ( )
This book was a disappointment, although the reviews i read were mixed. I appreciated the information i learned about a group of refugees who were able to leave Europe before and during the Holocaust. The characters presented were only moderately interesting, and many of the details were tedious. Most of the characters were 2-dimensional and only represented certain topics to the extreme. I would guess that I've read enough of Cathleen Schine. ( )
Lovingly shared moments between a grandmother and her grandson during a pandemic lockdown meander through time and place. Memories from 1939 Vienna, Austria, to present day Venice, California, include an escape from the Holocaust to a relationship with Greta Garbo. A current review calls it “Full of wit and panasche”.
This was a light and easy read about twenty something New Yorker Julian, who is stuck in Los Angeles with his 93 year old grandmother, Mamie as the pandemic begins. She tells him stories of her life as an emigre at the start of World War II. I liked the way their relationship developed and how Julian really grew as a person. It was enjoyable but slow at times, particularly Mamie's stories about famous people who really wouldn't be known by many people born after 1940. Thanks to Goodreads for the ARC. ( )
*I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Thank you to the author and publisher!
Künstlers in Paradise was a light-hearted read, offering an intriguing blend of present-day action and historical flashbacks.
Mamie Künstler, now 93 years old, has taken in her grandson, Julian, for the summer. However, the summer quickly extends as the COVID-19 pandemic hits. Mamie begins to tell Julian the story of her family’s escape from Vienna into the star-dazzled émigré world of Los Angeles, relating anecdotes about the many remarkable people she meets in their new “Paradise”.
While I loved the flashback stories and the way that Julian grew into himself over the course of the book, the plot did lag at times, perhaps intentionally echoing that feeling of time slowly passing that so many of us experienced in the early days of the pandemic.
Overall, an interesting and fun novel that did a great job blending the old and new.
4/5 stars ( )
There was a time when the family Künstler lived in the fairy-tale city of Vienna. Circumstances transformed that fairy tale into a nightmare, and in 1939 the Künstlers found their way out of Vienna and into a new fairy tale: Los Angeles, California, United States of America. For years Mamie Künstler, ninety-three-years-old, as clever and glamorous as ever, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie's grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City. Like many a twenty-something, he has come to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it is 2020, the global pandemic sweeps in, and Julian's short visit suddenly has no end in sight. Mamie was only eleven when the Künstlers escaped Vienna in 1939. They made their way, stunned and overwhelmed, to sunny, surreal Los Angeles where they joined a colony of distinguished Jewish musicians, writers and intellectuals also escaping Hitler. Now, faced with months of lockdown and a willing listener, Mamie begins to tell Julian the buried stories of her early years in Los Angeles: her escapades with eminent émigrés like Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Thomas Mann. Oh, and Greta Garbo. While the pandemic cuts Julian off from the life he knows, Mamie's tales open up a world of lives that came before him. They reveal to him just how much the past holds of the future. Cathleen Schine's captivating and comedic twelfth novel explores exile, émigrés, movie stars, musicians, family bonds and the power of stories??both those we hand down and the ones held secretly in the heart. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt &a
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With each chapter I was hopeful that it would improve but it remained as flat as the pandemic experience it chronicles. The dialog was challenging- Grandma Mamie telling stories was wonderful...but then when the author attempted to have the grandson retell Mamie's story to his lockdown girlfriend it was convoluted. Any wonder or dramatic tension over anticipating then learning what great California local or WWII emigre would cameo Mamie's life is lost when the grandson Googles. In the end it seemed more like a mish-mash of name-dropping than a fully-realized historic fiction narrative. (