|
Camille Claudel:
A Novel
Alma H. Bond
An Interview by
Sandra Heptinstall
Wispering Winds Book Reviews (July 2008)
Ah, the summer is on the downhill slide
now. My summer writing project is ending
next week and Correna, my assistant, is
getting ready to start college. You can
actually tell that it is getting darker
just a little bit earlier. But never
fear, the Summer Great Book Giveaway
continues!
I still need to hear from last week's
winner so I can send your book to you!
If I don't hear from S.H. by next week,
I'll draw another winner.
Today, I have Alma H. Bond
talking about writing her book,
"Camille Claudel, a novel."
Alma took an interesting and
unique approach writing about a real
person by not writing a biography, but
instead turning into a novel.
Read how Alma's research was affected in
her decision and why she decided to
write a fictional novel rather than a
biography. How do you win a book? It's
easy. Just click on "comments" before 5
p.m. CST today and ask Alma a writing
question. You don't even need an id, or
to even sign in. However, I do ask that
you leave your first name in case you
win. It's a little difficult to send a
book to "anonymous." If I randomly draw
yours, Alma will answer your question
and you'll win the book!
Tell us a little about yourself.
I am a psychoanalyst who retired from a
flourishing Manhattan private practice
to write full time. Since then I have
had 15 books published. I am the mother
of three and the grandmother of seven,
with a new one coming along in Sept.
2. Let’s hear about your book, “Camille
Claudel: A Novel.”
Here is some PR that was sent out by
Major about the book:
Women of the 1800s were often seen as
second-class or rejected in the business
world, and especially in the artist
world. But, very rarely do the stories
in history books expose the severe
impact on the women of that day. Author
Alma H. Bond's new book "Camille Claudel,
a Novel" offers a close look into the
heart of a woman who aspired to be an
artist during the 1800s, but was
ultimately rejected despite her amazing
talents.
You must have conducted quite a
bit of research for this novel. Did you
encounter any difficulties in finding
the truth of the events in Claudel’s
life and was this the reason you chose
to do a novel rather than a non-fiction
biography? Not too much is
known about her. I read everything I
could find about her in both English and
French, and visited her home town where
she lived and the asylum where she died.
Did your background as a
psychoanalyst make a difference in your
research and writing? Was it beneficial?
It makes a tremendous difference to
everything I write. I believe it
distinguishes me from my honored
literary colleagues. I try to hide the
psychological truth in words that a
layman can understand.
Why did you choose to narrate
from Claudel’s point of view?
I thought I can best demonstrate in her
voice what went on in her emotions.
As a female writer, have you
ever encountered a situation similar to
that which Claudel dealt with in a
male-dominated world? Do you think this
is still an issue in the 21st century?
As a young psychoanalyst I found it much
more difficult to start my practice than
men of similar education and ability.
Once it began, however, it flourished,
until I earned more than any other
female analyst I knew.
Having written 15 books, do you
find it easier to get books published
and noticed?
I get reviewed easier, but it is still
difficult to find publishers. Although
many talented writers cannot get
published at all.
What did you do to promote your
novel?
I sent out postcards to every list of
sculptors I could find, as well as to
many artists. I checked out their
websites, and personally contacted any I
thought sculpted like Camille Claudel. I
advertised in many newspapers, including
the NYTimes, and in art magazines, and
sent out at least 50 review copies of
the book.
What advice do you have for
authors preparing to promote their
books? The marketing is at
least as important as the writing. What
good is your masterpiece, if no one but
your mother knows about it?
What's next for you?
I am presently writing a biography of
Jacqueline Kennnedy Onassis.
My book, Margaret Mahler: A Biography of
the Psychoanalyst was just published by
McFarland Press.
Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell, ASJA, SEJ
Writer/Author
|
|
New Reviews as of February 14,
2008
heptinstalls, February 14, 2008
When pen meets paper our mind can take over and lead us into unknown
places. The same is said of Camille Claudel, except for her it was a
piece of clay or marble.This book is a work of art in itself.
Dr.Bond gives us a psychological insight into the depth and
understanding of the heart, mind and soul of Camille. We also see
the in-securites Camille had because of a leg that was shorter than
the other. Camille had a limp when she walked, and was always
laughed at in school by the other children. One day her brother Paul
came to her defense, and fought with another boy because of what was
said. After that the kids never made fun of her again, but in the
dark resources of her mind she always saw people laughing or talking
about her.
The book begins with Camille telling her life story in the confines
of an insane asylum where she has lived for the past 30 years. She
wanted to leave a message for women in the future about her
struggles as a sculptor. The torment, presecution,prejudice and
unfair treatment, all because of the male dominated artist
community. This book is a work of fiction but backed by historical
facts.
When Camille was a young girl her Papa saw her playing in the mud
making figures. He walked over and looked at what she was doing.
Then with tears in his eyes he told her they were really good.
Camille had captured the soul of her Papa in a piece of mud. He told
her he would try and get her some clay. If Camille did as well with
clay as she did with mud he would take both Camille and her figures,
and show them to Alfred Boucher, the famous sculptor in
Nogent-sur-Sein. Her Papa was the only constant in her life. He
believed deeply in his daughters talents, and did all he could to
help her until the time of his death.
Camille's Maman (mother) did not like her. She was still mourning
the death of her first child, a son, who had died only fifteen days
after his birth. When Camille was born she was never given the
nurturing of a mother's love. Two years later her brother Paul was
born. He brought great joy to his Maman, and Camille loved him
dearly. Then came Louise of whom Camille hated. As Camille and Paul
began to grow they had a relationship bordering on incest. The
relationship haunted Paul for many years, but he still loved his
sister. Louise was the perfect, beautiful, daughter Maman had always
wanted. Camille was never allowd to touch or hug her Maman. She was
told; "You don't deserve to be in this distinguished family because
you are a violent, visious child. She was at fault for all the
fights that took place in the family." No matter who was fighting,
her Maman blamed Camille for every thing.
Camilee's Papa kept his word, and took both Camille and her figures
to meet Alfred Boucher. Boucher could see the work of a future
genius. He told them about a famous school in Paris. The only
problem was they charged twice the cost for a female student than a
male. Both Camille and her Papa were outraged. The unfairness of it
was something Camille would never forget.
Boucher mentioned another school that accepted both male and female
students. Camille enrolled but was soon frustrated. The work neither
challenged her, or taught her how to bring to life the feelings she
had inside of her. Finally Brocher brought her into his atelier
(studio) as another apprentice. Camille began to come alive under
his instruction. Her arms would ache by the time she finished for
the day, but she did not care. All that mattered to her was her
drive to be a sculptor. One day Boucher told his apprentices he had
to go away; but they were not to worry as he had other sculptors
that would come and help them while he was gone.
One day Agusta Rodin came in. He was considered to be one of the
greatest sculptors of all time. As he would walk around and talk to
the students he seemed to spend more time with Camille than the
others. As time went on his hand would stay a little longer on her
arm. Or brush across her breast as he was showing her something.
He considered her work to be brilliant. He invited Camille to become
the first female apprentice he had ever had. Even thought he was a
married man he wanted Camille as his mistress. She fought the
feelings he created inside of her. She even went away for awhile.
But she dreamed at night only of him. She imagined how it would feel
to be held and loved by him. She had fantasies about them making
love. In the end she returned to Paris and became his mistress. For
ten years her life was full of laughter, play, work and sexuality.
Some days they worked and others were spent making love. At times
they forgot who had sculpted what. Their talents were so alike it
was hard for anyone to tell who did what.
When the author describes the feelings Camille felt as she worked
the clay, I wanted to buy some clay and feel it in my hands. I
wanted to kneed it and roll it around in my palm. That is how
powerful this story is.
Eventually Camille wanted more from Rodin. She wanted to marry him.
He would always put her off saying maybe next spring etc. She had
the feeling that Rodin was cheating on her. But she chose to over
look it. One day she went to him and said they had to get married
because she was pregnant. He flew into a rage and threw some money
at her and said get rid of it. It was at that moment she knew he no
longer loved her. She doubted if he ever had. She got the abortion
and with the help of her Papa found a small apartment and moved out.
She brought all the stuff that she could with her when she moved.
When she went back to retrieve the rest, Camille found out that
Rodin had sold her art and claimed it was his work.
That was the beginning of Camille's spiral fall into madness. No one
would believe the work she claimed as her own. She got a few
commissions from friends and it would help to pay the rent and buy
some food. Then she received request from France to do some work.
But they never payed like they said they would. They would give her
a small amount of money but then she had to fight them for the rest.
She was starving and found herself one night going through people's
garbage trying to find something to eat. She fell into a deep
depression. Camille became paranoid that Rodin was behind everything
that was happening to her. Her hatred towards him grew deeper as
each day passed. Camille would hide the sculptures she had made as
she knew that Rodin had hired someone to steal her art. She boarded
up her little apartment to make sure no one could get in and steal
her work. She stayed inside and only went out at night to find food.
She was filthy and her hair was matted. She lived with her cats and
almost never saw another person.
Camille could no longer realize what was fact or what was fiction.
One night there was a knock on her door. She refused to answer it.
The next thing she knew the door was broken open and she was being
taken to the asylum.
There is so much passion in this book, that I will never look at a
piece of art again, and not think of Camille. Thank you Dr.
Bond---you have opened my eyes to a whole new world.
Reviews
By New Great Book
http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com
Camille Claudel: A
Novel
Alma H. Bond, psychoanalyst-turned-author, offers the reader
a beautiful, yet highly disturbing portrait of Camille
Claudel, the gifted French sculptress from the late 1800s
who was mistress to famous sculptor Auguste Rodin in her
latest novel. Told in the form of a memoir, Camille pens her
life from her early childhood to her very last days, giving
a grim glimpse of her love/hate relationship with her
mother, her love, edging on incest, to her younger brother,
her struggle with the male-dominated artistic establishments
of the time, and her turbulent, obsessive, destructive
affair with Rodin, who was a married man.
Beginning with Camille, now a very old woman who has
survived decades of involuntary incarceration in a lunatic
asylum in the French countryside, remembering the first time
she fashioned a family out of garden mud and how those
figurines so impressed her father that he swore lifelong
support, this story is engrossing to the end. Though Bond's
research on Claudel's early years is impressive, her writing
is at its best and most authoritative when she describes
Camille's slow and painful descent into madness. Bond,
herself a psychoanalyst, describes a surprisingly fragile
psyche traumatized by her inability to accept Rodin's
choices and the increasingly intense paranoia that led her
to believe that Rodin was persecuting her even after his
death. Complicated by a painful relationship with her mother
and a possibly incestuous relationship with her brother, the
story carries the reader as Camille slips deeper and deeper
into self-destruction until she is removed to an asylum
where she remains for thirty years.
Camille Claudel: A Novel
is a beautifully written book that seizes the reader's mind
and heart. Readers who have never heard of Camille Claudel
will, upon finishing this book, seek to learn more about
this wonderfully gifted artist and her work.
|
Click
to Go Back to the Home Page
Computer Times
September 2006
Editor's
Choice Book
Camille Claudel: A Novel
Reviewed by Angie Kibiloski
Camille Claudel: A Novel (Retail $19.95), written by Alma H. Bond, is a
fictionalized biography, written in the form of Camille's own memoirs. The
truth is that Camille Claudel was a female artist who had to deal with the
very male dominated field of art in the late 19th century. She
created beautiful sculptures, had a lengthy love affair with the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and ended her life confined to a mental
asylum in France.
The novel takes these facts and expands upon them to paint a picture of who
Camille was, who she loved, what inspired her, and how she devolved into a
weakened mental state.
Camille is a character who has true depth
of feeling, and is easy to relate to. You'll be drawn in to her thoughts
and her world, and become a part of her very quickly. And when she begins
to lose herself to her mind, the change is written so delicately that you
will be well on the way to the asylum before you even realize that you are
living in unreality. Alma Bond has done a masterful job of capturing this
sympathetic artist on the page, and giving her the
life and recognition that she has been due. Camille Claudel: A Novel
was a genuine pleasure to read, and I was sincerely sorry when the last
page was turned. I could have lived with Camille for many more chapters.
Absolutely brilliant.
For autographed copy at no extra charge send
check for $16.95 plus $4.05 S&H, name, address, and desired inscription
to Dr. Alma H. Bond,
34 w. 11th St., Ground Floor, NY, NY 10011, or email Dr. Bond at almahb@aol.com
|
|
|
Camille Claudel, an old lady confined to the Asylum for the
Insane in Montdevergues, France, reviews her
life. She says, “I hope my memoir will illustrate the heights of passion
Rodin and I reached, and unravel the mystery of why they were transformed
into vinegar and ashes.”
The tragedy is not only hers, she adds, but that of many female artists
who found it impossible to achieve the success of men artists of lesser
ability.
The book illuminates her childhood and the rise of her career in the
setting of her ecstatic life with Rodin. Their ten years of bliss are
followed by the disintegration of her love for him, and its evolution
into hatred and psychosis.
The last third of the book describes the horrors of Claudel’s life in the
asylum, ending with the highly original manner in which she comes to
terms psychologically with Rodin and the other important figures in her
life.
|
|
|
ABOUT
CAMILLE CLAUDEL, A NOVEL
By Alma H. Bond, Ph.D.
Camille Claudel, a Novel describes
real-life events behind a façade of fiction. Camille Claudel was a great female
sculptor whose produced most of her work in the late 1800's. She was a fascinating
woman not only because of her genius, but because she was the student, lover,
and confidant of Auguste Rodin. Because of her
rejection by Rodin, her terrible relationship with her mother, and the
insurmountable conditions women artists faced in the last century, she became
insane and spent the last thirty years of her life in a mental institution. The
book describes a magnificent love story in all its details, as well as a
history of the lack of recognition faced by women artists at that time. Because
Dr. Bond is a well known psychoanalyst, she is uniquely qualified to understand
the origin and development of Camille’s mental illness. As she also is an
experienced writer and the author of 12 previously published books (website: http://alma_bond.tripod.com/), she is
able to tell Mlle. Claudel's story in an intriguing and informative manner.
The book
follows the life of Mlle. Claudel from her birth to her death. Excellent
characterizations are given of her unloving mother, caring father, the
brilliant brother who was her best friend and became the great playwright and
poet, Paul Claudel, and the important doctor in the asylum, who almost
succeeded in making Camille well. The book ends with Camille making peace with
all the important figures in her life, and casts a final surprising light upon
her relationship with Rodin.
What was it
like to be a great unrecognized sculptor who is the mistress of the most famous
sculptor of the times? What was it like for Camille to become obsessed with a
married man? A creative genius in her own right, she sculpted masterpieces
between love-making sessions with the older, married man who ultimately refused
to leave his wife. This is an age-old tale of infidelity, told through the eyes
of the young mistress, a story of anguish so great that it both fueled her
creative genius and drove her to insanity. Most of the small amount of
published work on Claudel is in French, and only two books are in English.
Nothing has been done in the United States
to rival the hugely popular French film, Camille.
Camille Claudel, a Novel brings this
juicy story of love, infidelity, and creative genius to America and the
hearts of our countrymen.
Earlier Praise for Camille Claudel, a Novel
Psychoanalyst
Dr. Alma Bond knows how to get inside people’s minds, & in this fictional
reminiscence, she recreates the passionate life & times of one of the most
powerful artists of the early 20th century, who became the revered Rodin’s
apprentice & mistress. As with The Autobiography of Maria Callas: A Novel,
Dr. Bond has breathed fresh life into a forgotten story.
Dr. Bond is a
giant in her field of brilliance, & has written a fascinating memoir of what
drove one woman to break through the glass ceiling in a world ruled by men.–
Rebecca Brown, publisher and editor-in-chief of Rebeccasreads.com
A rave review
for Dr. Alma H. Bond’s brilliant new novel, Camille
Claudel, A Novel. Dr. Bond gives us an intriguing account of the juicy
affair between the young, innocent Camille (a budding and genius sculptor in
her own right) and the older distinguished and very married Auguste
Rodin. We are treated to their love affair as well as a glimpse at her early
years, her rejection by Rodin and ultimate decent into madness and life in an
insane asylum. Dr. Bond’s psychological twist on this age-old story makes this
beautifully written novel a read that is truly impossible to put down. Bravo! –Janet Brill, Ph.D., instructor
University of Miami, author of CholesterolDown.
Dr. Bond has
written a tour de force! Camille Claudel,
A Novel is a beautifully sculpted work, filled with appreciation, insight
and craft.” –Feather Schwartz Foster, author of LADIES: A Conjecture of
Personalities and Garfield’s
Train.
As a woman
sculptor, I feel an overwhelming connection to Camille Claudel. The shared
passion for all things related to sculpture, the smell of the clay, the
fingering of the tolls, the movement of the muscle, the push and pull of the
medium, the power to extract the truth and soul from a lump of clay or a piece
of stone, the sheer physical exhaustion that is part of the work. Claudel
believed that sculptures of women would be best done by women, because of the
deeper understanding of our emotions, sensibilities and soul. I too believe
this. Camille Claudel was a sculptor of genius. Alma Bond, in this book, sheds
an unforgettable light on a truly deserving Claudel. – Maria Trapani, award-wining
sculptor.
Alma Bond has
done it again! Another passionate love story of two illustrious artists, Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel, one whose life ended in
glory, the other in madness. Combining meticulous research with finely honed
analytical skills, the author immerses herself in her subject, leading the
reader through the development of an artist from childhood; her emotional and
artistic life as a woman; and into the creative process itself. Dr. Bond takes
an imaginative leap into the life, mind and work of a woman sculptor and
restores Claudel to her rightful place in art history.
Mimi Weisbord, artist and writer.
Excerpt from
Camille Claudell, a Novel
Somehow I gradually was able to overlook Maman’s
morality and to
ignore my fear of closeness enough to risk the
loss of the me in me and
submerge myself in Rodin. And why not, since he was what I had wanted
since I was five years old? My childhood dream of being carried off by a
“great artist” had come to pass and I never was
happier or more
productive in my life. For a while, a little while, Rodin and I were able
to
stop yearning and to immerse ourselves in each
other and our work.
For they were the same thing; our work was our love and our love was
our work. There was no difference between love time and work time, so
easily did one flow into the other. He would come over to check out a
pose I was modeling for him. Since he couldn’t see well, he would have
to touch my body from head to foot. Naturally, he began to caress me.
Our ecstasy was carried to the sculpture he was working on, so that the
fingers that embraced me became the fingers that
enveloped the statue.
Over and over he moved from me to the sculpture, and back from the
sculpture to me. The smells of our bodies hovered over the embracing
couple and I swear remain there still. And as he savagely kissed my
bruised
lips, the secretions of love melted into the
clay of The Kiss.
One after another masterpiece poured out of our union, so that it’s
often difficult to tell which of us had done the sculpting. We used the
same model and the same pose for his statues of Galatée and Cybèle and
mine of Jeune fille à la gerbe (Young girl with
a sheath), and they look as if
they were created by the same person. I’m sure that some of the pieces
signed by him were sculpted by me and a few of
the works credited to me
were created by him. Or maybe by both of us together. I worked as much
on The Gates of Hell as he did, and would be
hard-pressed to say where his
contributions ended and mine began. What I had been afraid of had
actually happened, he really had taken over my
work and I no longer cared
which of us got the fame and the money. It was as if we were one person.
His work or mine, his fame or mine, what difference did it make?
One night we were sleeping together and our arms and legs were
intertwined so that I couldn’t tell which limbs
were his and which were
mine. It scared me not to know which arms belonged to me and which
legs to him, so I started to move away. Then I sleepily thought, “What
does it matter whose arms and legs they are? Who cares if I’m Camille
Rodin and/or he is Auguste Claudel? It’s all
the same to me.” We slept the
whole night in that position without moving once. When I woke up we
were still entwined. It was very gentle and very lovely.
The next night I dreamed I was encased in a statue of Rodin’s. I think
it was La Pensée (The
Thought), but in the dream I was completely engulfed
by the marble. I struggled to breath, but couldn’t. I woke up screaming.
Latest
Review Camille Claudel: A Novel
Reviewed by Evelyn Sears, Ph.D.
The
story of Camille Claudel is the story of a woman born ahead of her time, a
female genius for whom the world was not ready, a
woman who attained heights of artistic ecstasy and endured acute personal and
mental agony.
Camille
Claudel was born on December 8, 1864 in a village in northern France, the
eldest of three surviving children (her elder brother died when merely fifteen
days old). As a child, she enjoyed warm
relations with her father and brother, but her relations with her mother and
sister were distant and cold. Claudel’s
fascination with art began when, as a young child, she sculpted figures from
stones and mud. Having moved with her
family to Paris
as a teenager, Claudel began studying with Auguste
Rodin in 1884, at the age of nineteen.
Her tumultuous relationship with Rodin shaped the remainder of Claudel’s
life.
Claudel
quickly became Rodin’s inspiration and served as the model for many of his
sculptures. She also became one of his principal assistants whose work on many
detailed portions of his sculptures was invaluable. Most significantly for Claudel, in spite of
the fact that he was a married man more than twenty years her senior, she
became Rodin’s lover. After nearly a
decade of intimacy, and at least one pregnancy that ended in either miscarriage
or abortion, Claudel finally realized that Rodin would never marry her and
severed their intimate relationship.
Soon thereafter, Claudel stopped working in Rodin’s atelier, though she
continued to see Rodin in professional capacities for several more years.
From
1884 until the early 1900s, Claudel was an expressive sculptor whose style grew
more distinct from Rodin’s following the breakup of their relationship and her
departure from Rodin’s studio. Dozens of
her works are still displayed and admired in museums around the world. Her achievements are particularly noteworthy
when one considers the amount of time she spent assisting Rodin’s career in her
roles as his model and assistant.
Claudel was close friends with Claude Debussy, whom she greatly admired. Sadly for both of them, however, she did not
love Debussy with the passion she felt for Rodin.
Although
Claudel’s precarious mental state began manifesting itself around 1905, it is
unclear when her decline began. Claudel
locked herself away for long periods of time, created and destroyed numerous
sculptures, acquired a houseful of cats to be her companions, let her property
and house rot around her and took no care of her physical condition and
appearance. She who had once been a
beautiful woman became, prematurely, a hag, convinced that a jealous Rodin was
trying to steal her works and impede her career.
There
were many factors that probably contributed to Claudel’s mental decline. Her failed relationship with Rodin and the
loss of her child (particularly if she was compelled against her will to have an
abortion) were likely contributing factors.
The dysfunctional relations within her family also may have contributed
to Claudel’s decline. Her father was the
only family member who supported her, her brother tolerated her, and her mother
and sister outright rejected her. The
rigors of being an independent female artist in a male-dominated world
certainly had negative effects on Claudel.
Her life was a never-ending struggle to acquire commissions, sell her
works and attain the professional status she believed (rightly, as it turned
out) she deserved. Rodin, Claudel’s
mentor, enjoyed degrees of fame, success and prestige that Claudel never
attained. While he prospered, she nearly
starved. Unable to support herself,
Claudel remained financially dependent upon her father until his death in
1913. Eight days after their father’s
death, Claudel’s brother committed her to an asylum..
Claudel
spent the last thirty years of her life in an asylum in the mountains of
southern France. Her mother and sister never visited her and
her brother visited intermittently, approximately a half-dozen times in 30
years. After several years of treatment,
Claudel’s psychiatrist suggested that her family should take her home and
reintegrate her into their home and society.
They did not take up his suggestion.
Since her family had no interest in resuming relations with Claudel, she
remained institutionalized until her death on October 19, 1943, at the age of
79.
Alma H. Bond,
a psychoanalyst, has written a compelling account of Claudel’s tragic
life. She presents the story as a memoir
written by Claudel in the final days of her life. Although the broad outlines of the story are
true, Bond has taken liberties in setting scenes, providing dialog, and
revealing Claudel’s purported thought processes and interpretations. Bond states clearly that hers is a fictional
account, simply one plausible view of Claudel’s life; it should not be read as
a definitive biographical or historical work.
Nevertheless, Bond reveals the heartbreak of a gifted woman working in a
society that rejects her personally and pays scant attention to her
artwork. Bond lifts the veil on the
heartbreak of an impressionable, sensitive young woman betrayed by an older
lover. Bond discloses the family
dysfunctions that remained hidden from view, or ignored, even when they
resulted in gross injustices. Clearly,
even though the work is fictional, it offers a compelling, accurate glimpse at
the broad characteristics of an era.
Bond’s
most extraordinary feat is the way she portrays Claudel’s subtly deteriorating
mental state. Early signs of paranoia
are evident from the outset in Claudel’s descriptions of her childhood home. During Claudel’s happiest period, the height
of her romance with Rodin, the paranoid tendencies disappear from view. After her breakup with Rodin, the paranoid
tendencies resurface slowly and build gradually until Claudel’s
institutionalization in 1913. In an
accurate depiction of mental illness, Bond balances Claudel’s periods of lunacy
and lucidity. Sometimes, the reader is
uncertain whether Claudel’s viewpoint is delusional or uncannily
insightful. Bond understands mental
illness and she presents it masterfully.
Camille Claudel: A Novel is a beautifully written book
that seizes the reader’s mind and heart. Readers who have never heard of
Camille Claudel will, upon finishing this book, seek to learn more about this
wonderfully gifted artist and her work.
This book, notwithstanding the fact that it is fiction, should be
required reading for all students in women’s studies and art history.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Dr.
Bond;
My name is Rebekah Van Westerhuyzen,
I am 32 years old today, I live in Aliso Viejo,
California...But that's not where it began....
It began one day when a friend of mine had an extra ticket to the art exhibit
in Laguna Beach, California...the exhibit is world renowned and called the
Pageant of the Masters.
If you are not familiar, it is basically famous works of art replicated by
live humans.
Sitting there enjoying the awe under the stars...low and behold a statute came
out to the left side of the stage....it was a very real and very alive replica
of Camille Claudel's 'L'Age mûr'....having
never been introduced to her...immediately I understood and completely
identified. The unrequited love this woman...Camille had towards
another...Rodin...tears fell from my eyes. That statue sang a very sad song.
I did some research on this brilliant Camille Claudel who so affected my heart
and read everything at least in English that I could get my hands on.
Finally...your book!!!
You made her so real for me! I feel comforted that I am not the only
"crazy" one. I relate to her before anything! For this...I am truly
grateful...for this...I feel like I can get through each day knowing that I am
or have not been the only one.
So you see...today is my birthday...and I am here alone on my computer...and
the greatest gift of my whole life is Camille, your book and being able to
write to you Dr. Bond! Thank you!
Thank you for putting the pieces of Camille's life together...making her the
most real...making her the most loved. I believe Dr. that you have given me
the gift of Camille's character and I truly admire your imagination...your
gift has become my treasure!!!
Sincerely,
Rebekah
Do we
have notice on the website of this award to the Claudel book? Please highlight
it.
Computer
Times
September 2006
