Customer Reviews

Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In 1998, in The New Yorker, John Updike wrote, "All the evidence points to Chanel's total indifference to the fate of her Jewish neighbors - or indeed to the lesser deprivation and humiliations suffered by the vast majority of Parisians." At the age of 58, she was happy with her German lover and cared little for anything that occurred outside of her new perch at The Ritz. This book explores Chanel's rise and success prior to WWII, how she closed her business during the war, and her relationships and affairs with Germans, Nazis, and Vichy. The author asserts that she not only had a German lover, but she helped with espionage. Yet after the war and her nearly decade-long sojourn in Switzerland, she returned to Paris in triumph. The author also explores whether Chanel leveraged the Nazi Aryanization (make companies Jew-free) rules in order to get rid of the Wertheimer's control of Societe de Parfums Chanel (No. 5), so that she could gain full control. I found this to be an interested read and suspenseful, and it also makes you question if the wartime history of the founder affects the brand's image over half a century later.

This work is well named. However, the name does not cover Chanel's treachery in serving the Nazis. Having grown up regarding Chanel as a splendid couturier, and Chanel Number 5 as an especially nice scent, I was disappointed in her virulent antisemitism, although she was far from alone in that. It seemed to be endemic in the upper classes of Western Europe and Britain in the 30s and 40s.

Also I found her relationships with men like Winston Churchill and the Duke of Westminster quite surprising. That Churchill, knowing of her perfidious relationship with her German lover, Dinklage, protected her from trial and execution is quite appalling.

There is little question that the Russian Revolution and the subsequent murder of the Royal Family horrified those in Europe that such a thing could have happened in any of the countries. Hitler saw Communism as greatly to be feared, as did the British and French. Also, historically German and England together have fought France, barring the First World War. There were remnants of that alliance referred to.

It was interesting to learn how well the upper classes fared in Paris, and to see the ordinary people looking through the garbage for food. The pictures with which this book is studded are helpful, although very small on the Kindle.

The research that went into this book is extensive. The writing is clear and informative. All in all, a good read.

I found this book to be extremely interesting and superbly researched. Although I am a fast reader, this book was very frustrating to read because it's so badly written. There's even a spelling error - the pin that women wear on their dresses or coats is not a broach; it is a "brooch." As an author myself, I am aware that publishers are cutting back on expenses, such editing and proofreading, but the huge chunks of out-of-place text and the disturbing lack of transitions, which made the reading of this fascinating book such a grueling experience, is something Random House (and the author)should be ashamed of. The author should have hired a good copyeditor and given him/her a couple of months to make this book what it should have been.

Do I recommend it? Yes. But if you care about good writing, be pepared for a tough read.

It's a shame that Hal Vaughn isn't a better writer. I've also read his DOCTOR TO THE RESISTANCE, which also took an exciting true story and told it with resounding dullness. I'll grant that SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY is well researched, and is a story that deserved to be told, but the life and times of Coco Chanel, and her wartime treason, remain dead on the page, thanks to what I can only describe as an extraordinary lack of sophistication.

Although I usually appreciate authors who simply present facts and remain unjudgmental about their subjects, there's something chilling in this author's bland acceptance of what Chanel did, and the fact that she was never punished. But it seems that, with the passage of time, everyone thinks it's no big deal that the phoenix-like chic designer, Coco Chanel, slept with a German spy for several years (even post war); lived quite well in the Ritz while her countrymen died, and actively worked for the conquerors of her country - and got away with it. The author seems to reflect this particularly 21st-century, wasn't there-can't judge, laissez-faire attitude, despite the wealth of detail he provides about Chanel's wartime activities. He even drops in handy excuses for it, such as the illness and imprisonment of her favorite nephew, and the fact that Chanel was emotionally damaged by abandonment at an early age (repeated at least once per chapter). In the case of Coco Chanel, I'd prefer a little fire, a little righteous indignation.

Just so no one thinks I'm being too harsh, either to the author or to Coco Chanel, I can understand the reasons for Chanel's anti-Semitism (while I don't relate to it) because the climate of her times and her own educational background steeped her in it. Treason, of course, is much less easily explained, but the author doesn't come close to making it in the least way comprehensible. He also seems somewhat enthralled by Chanel's international fame, which helped conceal her perfidious behavior during the Second World War from so many.

I'm surprised at the rave reviews for this book, and I'm also relieved that I only borrowed it from the library.

I realize this story was written to substantiate Chanel's collaboration with the Nazis and it is obvious that extensive research went into proving this. However, I found the endless page after page commentary of the dozen or so Nazis and persons involved with her spying excessive. What I really would have liked would have been more information about Chanel the woman and designer, although this was not the purpose of the book. Proof-reading missed the error in describing one of Chanel's Nazi friends as a "calvary" officer. Aaack! Unless he was hanging on the Cross, I doubt he was at Calvary. Later on the same page, he was "demoted" to his proper place in the CAVALRY. I was disappointed in this book.

This book is a fantastic read and amazing history!

Yes, it is about the life of Chanel but it also presents

the most compelling account of the occupation of Paris

that I have ever read. It puts Chanel in her context

and illustrates the stark choices -- betweent the far

political right and the far political left --that people

made in order to survive. The re-creation of Chanel's social

life and her circle both before, during and after the war

is the best that I have read and gives us a front row seat

to the strange tangle of alliances; indeed, the truth--

and we have it in this book-- IS stranger and more

compelling than fiction.

I knew the biographies of Edward, the Prince of Wales, Stravinsky,

Chanel, Cocteau, Diagliev, and others but to see them re-membered in

relationships to one another, is to connect the dots on that dramatic

time and place bring it all into a coherent story line. The characters

are all on stage and we get a front row seat on the interaction of

their lives with Paris during the 20s 30s and 40s a resplendent, if

not always joyful background.

How positively refreshing that the story of Chanel's alliegences

is told without that overbearing judgemental sense of political

correctness. The author presents the facts with just the appropriate

amount of emotional detachment. He, of course, is not responsible

for Chanel's alliegences or for the lack of fight of the

French. Yet he tells the tale in such a manner that we

can fill in the blanks with our own (moral) judgments. This book

is so good it reads like an exceptionally good novel.

Amazingly, by telling the history of Chanel's life, the author

provides a most engaging and comprehensive history of WWII

as well. But the history comes alive on the page like never

before with Churchill in one corner foreground and spys like

Dincklage in the background with Chanel behind him meanwhile

Thomas enters and carries out amazing feats of loyalty for the

Wertheimer family. This is truly an unabashed, thorough and

gripping drama. Gratefully the author tells the tale without

any political ideology motivating him; it is a very truthful

account.

This is Great, great read and a beautifully produced, high quality

book with thick pages, a comfortable size and font and compelling

illustrations and photos. The research is impeccably thorough and

in many cases, unprecedented.

Bravo!!!

I think the title says it all, she slept with a Nazi. We'll never know her true reason for that. I think Vaughan tried to make a big deal, and write a book, out of a lot of evidence that really doesn't add up to much. Unless I missed something, he found no smoking gun. She went to Berlin. She went to Madrid. She had a Nazi for a boyfriend. Vaughan managed to come up with a few quotes about her antisemitism, and then referred to it as extreme. (Any utterance of it is bad, but was she extreme?) He called her a spy, but what information did she turn over? What/who exactly did she spy on? And all of those long, drawn-out descriptions of the German officers, though interesting, had nothing to do with Chanel - they just filled pages. I'm not saying I think she was an angel, I just don't think he has enough to put together a convincing book.

Vaughan clearly did his research. This book is full of facts, and sources are well-documented in the endnotes and bibliography. I learned a lot about well-known individuals at that time and their alliances, and my understanding of Vichy France certainly deepened. I also learned about Coco Chanel's role in society beyond her fashion contributions.

The title and description, however, promise a much more lurid tale than the straightforward accounting of facts delivers. I'm not even sure that I agree with the category "biography," given that so much of this book is context rather than a focus on Chanel. Here, Chanel serves as the centerpiece of a very broad description of the wealthy, influential Europeans who made self-serving decisions in a time when 99 percent of those touched by the war suffered greatly.

I would recommend this book to readers interested in any of these topics, but also let them know that this is not the kind of non-fiction narrative that reads like fiction. It can be downright stilted and get lost in the family histories of minor characters.

Great book! My wife loved it! It was exactly as described and very well packaged.I will definitely recommend this to my friends and family.

This is a book about Coco Chanel, about things I never knew. Mostly during WWII, it is a look into how she became popular in fashion and stays that way today.