‘Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932’ Novel contains many voices, each adding complexity

Francine Prose's new novel, 'Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932,” is a story deeply invested in the nature of truth, the underpinnings of evil, and the power of love to undo or ennoble us.

Prose, a former faculty member at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, conjures up a full cast of voices. Some tell their own story. Some interpret the stories of others while revealing much about themselves. Each individual voice adds complexity and depth.

Lou Villars, a cross-dressing lesbian with great athletic prowess, is the hub around which the novel revolves.

Disappointed in love and deprived of her ability to compete, her life's trajectory shifts until she finds herself collaborating with Nazis. Her story is recounted by Nathalie Dunois, a woman in the present day working on a biography of Villars.

This quasi-historian's personal stake in the narrative she is crafting and her clumsy efforts to delineate the wrong turns in Villars life provide many of the book's most affecting moments.

Other voices include those of photographer Gabor Tsenyi, who longs to capture the ineffable in his work; Baroness Lily de Rossignol, whose unrequited love leads her toward heroism rather than evil; writer Lionel Maine, whose cynicism barely masks a longing for recognition; and Suzanne Dunois Tsenyi, a woman who proves her mettle when her country and her friends need her.

The story unfolds in Tsenyi's letter home and the memoirs of de Rossignol, Dunois Tsenyi, and Maine. Only sections featuring Yvonne, owner of the Chameleon Club (a place of scandal or acceptance depending on point of view), are not presented as a personal text.

As a result, Yvonne and her club occupy a unique space in the novel, suggesting that some stories transcend any effort to tell them.