Victorine - A Novel (by Catherine Texier)

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel about a remarkable woman named Victorine. She was "ahead of her time" in her aspirations and actions and because of which, would fit in quite nicely with today's "modern" woman. The novel bounces back and forth between past and present. You learn of Victorine's life story through her memories as she sits on the beach reading an old diary that she had kept in the past. Her tale is one of love, heartbreak, joy and regret - of the one she married...and the one that "got away." I didn't fully absorb the fact that this novel was based on the author's own family....Victorine being her great-grandmother... until I read the "Notes on Victorine" included at the end of the novel. Somehow it slipped by me unnoticed that the author of the book (Cathering Texier) and the character, Victorine share the same surname. This novel was truly an exquisite blend of fact and fiction combined with nostalgia that led me to "feel" to some degree the emotions experienced by the heroine herself. However, I don't know that I would have been able to make the same choices as she.