The Bridal Chair

November 1, 2015

Goldreich (Leah's Journey) fictionalizes the life of Marc Chagall, one of the masters of modern art, by centering her evocative and compelling novel on Ida, his only daughter. Although he disapproves of Ida's relationship with the son of middle-class Russian Jewish shopkeepers, he still forces her to marry the boy after encouraging her to have an abortion. Chagall paints an empty wedding chair and presents it to his daughter as a wedding gift. Goldreich examines how that painting, The Bridal Chair, symbolized the complex relationship between father and daughter. (Xpress Reviews, 3/6/15)

READ-ALIKES Susan Vreeland's Lisette's List and Dara Horn's The World To Come.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2015
Goldreich (Dinner with Anna Karenina, 2006) tells the story of the relationship between artist Marc Chagall and his only child, the beautiful Ida. When Ida is only 18, her pregnancy forces tough decisions, and she ends up a wife, if not a mother. Soon after this upheaval, the Nazis invade France, and Ida takes charge, arranging for her parents to escape, along with her father's priceless paintings. Ida and her husband also find safe passage out of France, and she becomes her father's business manager, organizing exhibits, selling paintings, and keeping the books. But as the years pass, and the war complicates their lives, even in America, Ida will have to make some difficult decisions about her relationship with her father and what kind of woman she wants to be. Goldreich fills her historical novel with cameos by the likes of Picasso and Matisse as she explores and imagines the extraordinary lives of the petulant, egotistical, and self-absorbed artist and his enabling, self-centered, and controlling daughter. Goldreich's portrait of a major artist and his daughter is fascinating.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)