Starry Nights
Paris is a city mythologized by art, a city that makes magic of the mundane: rain, accordion music, even heartaches. Daisy Whitney's charming new young adult novel Starry Nights tells the story of Julian Garnier, a young French artist who, embittered by a recent breakup and suffering a crisis of artistic confidence, turns to his city for solace.
Truth be told, Julien鈥檚 a bit of a fretter. He worries that his art is technically accurate but lacks feeling. He doubts that he has the talent to be a professional artist, but he loves art too much to do anything else. For a self-professed nonreligious guy, art is his religion and museums are his temples. It鈥檚 in his beloved Mus茅e d鈥橭rsay that Julien sees paintings come to life before his eyes.
It all begins when the museum is selected to show "The Girl in the Garden," a (fictional) Renoir painting that was lost for 130 years. Legend has it that Renoir and Monet, both married men, were in love with the subject, and that the girl鈥檚 family hid the painting to protect her reputation. As a part-time guide at the Mus茅e d鈥橭rsay (and son of its director), Julien has unparalleled access to the museum at all hours. On a late night visit, a peach falls out of a Cezanne still life and a Degas ballerina practices Swan Lake in the gallery.
Julien befriends the son of the painting's owner, a cross-dressing artist who keeps sheep on his Montmartre balcony and calls himself Bonheur (after cross-dressing realist painter Rosa Bonheur). Bonheur knows that Julien can see art coming to life and offers to show him the lost Renoir before it goes on display. Julien accepts and watches in shock as a hand extends through the canvas: a real girl named Clio is trapped inside the painting by a powerful curse.
At the same time, paintings across the world are mysteriously falling ill. All the Renoirs are fading. The mirror in a Titian is fractured. In the Louvre, G茅ricault鈥檚 "The Raft of the Medusa" is leaking water into its gallery, and Rembrandt鈥檚 characteristically full-figured Bathsheba is聽 wasting away in her frame, shedding shriveled bits of flesh onto the floor.
Julien learns that Bonheur and his sister are members of a secret society called the Avant Garde, sworn to protect art and the nine divine Muses who inspire it 鈥� the Muses who evidently live in Bonheur鈥檚 basement. According to them, Julien is the first-ever human muse and the only one who can break the curse.
On Clio鈥檚 first night at the museum, she emerges for the first time in over a century and finds Julien waiting for her. He comes to her every night after the museum closes, bringing pastries to fill her very real, very empty tummy. They fall in love while roaming the galleries with the living art and traveling into the paintings.
鈥淭here is magic somewhere in Paris,鈥� he declares. 鈥淭here is clearly magic in art, magic in dust, magic in my hands.鈥�
Together they must heal the world鈥檚 sick art and free Clio. To do that, they鈥檒l have to go up against Pierre-Auguste Renoir himself 鈥� Renoir鈥檚 ghost has inhabited the body of a local street artist, determined to protect his legacy at all costs. The lovers鈥� struggle will demand a greater sacrifice than they can imagine.
Having never been to France or visited the Louvre or the Mus茅e d鈥橭rsay, I reveled in Whitney鈥檚 command of her subject. A Brown University art history graduate, Whitney clearly has a passion for Paris. Her descriptions of Saint-Germain-des-Pr茅s, Giverny, Montmartre, and the Marais are practically caresses.
Unfortunately for readers with empty stomachs, she鈥檚 also well versed in French pastry. Whitney concocts a delectable buffet of apricot tart, cinnamon rugelach, five-berry crumble, macarons, and 卯le flottante (meringue afloat in a sea of caramel custard).
I was pleased that the litany of art references never felt like name-dropping. Julien and Clio interact with Manet鈥檚 "Olympia," Van Gogh鈥檚 "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" and "Starry Night" (naturally), Toulouse-Lautrec鈥檚 "Dancing at the Moulin Rouge," and more. We hear of Renoir鈥檚 "The Swing and Dance" at Bougival, Monet鈥檚 Rouen cathedrals and Japanese bridges. They wander through Turner, Goya, Morisot, and Jackson Pollock. Julien even stops by Edward Hopper鈥檚 "Nighthawks" for a milkshake.
Whitney has a wicked sense of humor 鈥� she decides that Pollock was painting expired food in his refrigerator and that the Mona Lisa is smirking at a dirty joke. Just be willing to take her portrayal of Renoir with a grain of salt. Fans might rankle at the concept of a jealous elitist who returns as a body-possessing ghost.
Given the pastry parade, I found myself likening the book to a tray of profiteroles. It was beautiful, sweet, a bit fluffy, and irresistible to devotees, but with some unexpected hollow spots. The Parisian teens use a jarring amount of American slang: "mad skills," "hits the spot," "really dig," "goes out on a limb," using 鈥渟he was all like鈥� instead of 鈥渟he said.鈥� Julien even orders French fries, which in France, of course, are just "frites" or "pommes frites" (fried potatoes). I love to immerse myself in a novel鈥檚 culture and this proved an annoying distraction.
In addition, Clio behaves anachronistically for a 19th-century girl, kissing Julien, using air quotes, and knowing what 鈥渃lubbing鈥� is without needing to ask. Yet Whitney tries to emphasize that their 鈥渃ultural touchstones鈥� are different, giving Clio a blank look when Julien mentions Spider-Man. It鈥檚 another weak point in an otherwise charming novel.
If you appreciate art history, Paris, or French pastry (and is there really anyone who doesn't?), you鈥檒l enjoy "Starry Nights." Turn on some Eartha Kitt, keep an art history book close by, and read with a warm chocolate croissant.
