Gigi

Has anybody else seen the movie Gigi? I have -I'll be honest, it's not my favorite. Leslie Caron (who I loved in the movie Lili, which has an oddly similar title) came off as more irritating than spunky, and it bothered me. She was a great actress, but this musical just doesn't do it for me. Regardless, I have always wanted to read the book Gigi.

Sadly, but not shockingly, my library does not have a copy of it. What they did have was "Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette" -a biography of the woman who wrote Gigi. And wow. Just...wow. The woman was fascinating and bizarre and brilliant. It's a long book (500 pages) and I had it finished in about 2 days. I could not put it down from the moment I picked it up.

You know how a lot of artists are temperamental and weird and get in trouble all the time?
That's Colette. She lived in the late 19th and early 20th century, acted onstage, had lesbian and bisexual relationships, got married and divorced, wrote scandalous books -and didn't care what anyone thought of her. She knew what was up. And she just lived the way she wanted to. Fascinating, grumpy woman.

So of course I wrote a review of the book, which you should go read (the review or the book? Both).