Looking at our own family histories, we tend to imagine the roles our ancestors played in the events which shaped their times. How did they survive the Great Depression? If they immigrated, did they come through Ellis Island? Were they listening to the songs or reading the books from their time that are now classics? In Gabriele, sisters Anne and Claire Berest uncover their real-life family history and find a cavalcade of romance and drama at the heart of the European art world. Gabriele Buffet, the authors’ great-grandmother, was a bold and brilliant woman caught in a fiery love triangle: She married the Spanish artist Francis Picabia and also became the lover of the French artist and sculptor Marcel Duchamp (infamous for his sculpture “Fountain,” a signed urinal). The Berest sisters trace their great-grandmother’s life, limning her personal history with their family lore while simultaneously giving readers an intimate portrait of a transformative time in world history.
The Belle Epoque, the peaceful period right before World War I, was a progressive and hopeful time in Europe and around the world, which would prove the naivete of humankind. Though she certainly wasn’t naive, Gabriele Buffet was an idealist and artist. In 1908, at the pinnacle of the Belle Epoque, Gabriele is 27 and has moved to Berlin from France to complete her musical studies. She has already had several fateful encounters with history, including meeting Vladimir Lenin in Switzerland and hearing Claude Debussy play. Her brother, a painter, introduces her to Francis, who has been obsessing over Gabriele before even meeting her, spinning a life for her out of the stories told by her brother. Gabriele dazzles him even more in real life and, after hearing his exciting ideas about art, the two start a romance based on the life of the mind. In community with other artists, however, the couple starts to face problems, not the least of which being Gabriele’s obvious attraction to a rebellious younger artist, Duchamp. As each artist strives to create their masterpieces, and as the world grows increasingly unstable, this love triangle simmers and catastrophically erupts.
The most engaging part of Gabriele is the Berests’ prose: Early on, the authors note that they will be telling the story in the present tense, to capture the feeling and energy of their great-grandmother. The result is a historical novel unlike any other.
