“Degas in New Orleans” by Christopher Benfey

Right before we went into quarantine, I grabbed this book from a local used bookstore. Yes it has been a while since then, in my defense it took me ages to get the energy to read things. But I finally finished it, and it was an interesting read, even if the subject matter was not wholly what I expected.

With a title like Degas in New Orleans I expected the focus to be on the painter Edgar Degas and what he was doing in New Orleans, who he was painting, things like that. This book takes a much more broad approach to it where entire chapters are spent on Degas’ contemporaries like Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were also in New Orleans around the same time frame, as well as Edgar’s brother Rene. The result is that the painter that I expected to be at the forefront of the novel had a tendency to go missing for sections at a time, leaving the reader with some cool stories, but it definitely felt off-topic.

Having said that, when Benfey goes in depth to a painting Degas did while in New Orleans, he goes stunningly through all of the details. A lot of what Degas painted were portraits of family members, meaning that we usually know who everyone is within a scene. And often the way that they are portrayed reflects either their life or New Orleans customs of the time. Having the larger picture of New Orleans during this time period definitely helps to make sense of all this in that sense.

Other than the unexpected subject matter, I have to say that the book is written stunningly well. It is a rather light read, very easy to follow all of the characters (and there are many, often with similar names that can get jumbled up) due to the way Benfey divides up his narrative and presents the individuals. Which made it hard for me to put down once I realized that it was not exactly the book I thought it was.

So very well-written, fascinating read overall. Just be sure that you know what you are getting into once you crack the spine. The contents go way beyond what is conveyed within the title.