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Secret Of Chanel No. 5 Anz, The (2010)

by Tilar J. Mazzeo(Favorite Author)

3.38 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0062048481 (ISBN13: 9780062048486)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

HarperTorch

review 1: This book was interesting, and I learned a lot about perfumes and about Chanel No. 5. And the writing, for the most part, wasn't bad. However, it felt as though the writer were trying to draw out certain points for too long through repetition. So much time was spent on Coco Chanel that I expected the time after her withdrawal from the fragrance to be as detailed. Oddly, the book wrapped quickly up even though the perfume's history continued (and continues) several decades after Chanel's death.
review 2: I really wanted to love this book. I did learn about the stories behind Chanel No. 5 (and I say stories because much of this book remains speculative), my main issue with 'The Secret of Chanel No. 5' is with the writing style.Mazzeo has a tendency to repeat phr... moreases. For example, between pages 12 and 15, she makes reference to the idea that Coco Chanel had "not yet thought of" becoming a fashion or fragrance designer no less than seven times over the course of three pages. While I get the reason for emphasizing these ideas, the technique is clumsy.This repetition of phrases extends to repetition of whole ideas, paragraphs, sections of chapters. Each and every chapter was written as if the reader hadn't read any of the previous chapters. So much of this already-slight book was spent summarizing, re-summarizing and re-re-summarizing. It's the literary equivalent of the air in your bag of chips. I'm all for ensuring that a reader is oriented to the material, however, Mazzeo could have done it more sparingly.Continuing on a theme, the author is unable to resist this tendency to re-summarize even after the book-proper ends. The tacked on afterword re-summarizes the entire book and offers no new insights. I wish she'd just let the writing stand (and end) as it was.All in all, while the subject matter was interesting, the story might have been better suited (in depth and edited-length) to a Vanity Fair-style feature. less

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