I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me want to learn more about Lee Miller's life and I plan to read her son's biography about her. This book isn't completely true to her life but I do think that's to be expected when writing a fictional novel. It kept me interested and I enjoyed the several jumps in time to Lee's work as a photojournalist during WWII. I didn't really find the two main characters very likeable, however that didn't deter my reading and as I stated before, wanting to learn more of the real life inspiration of this book. Very good character development. Whitney Scharer did a great job at letting us get inside Lee's mind, even if at times I wasn't on board with what she was thinking.

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer is an exquisite historical fiction novel about the real-life Vogue model turned renowned photographer Lee Miller. The writing will draw you in immediately and you won't want to put this one down.

The story follows Lee when she's arrived in Paris from New York—she's tired of being photographed and is ready to become a photographer. A chance encounter leads her to the famous Surrealist Man Ray where she convinces him to take her on as his assistant and teach her everything he knows. The two work closely together and eventually their personal and professional lives become intimately entwined. Lee’s journey takes the reader from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII.

As you can see, Lee lived quite a life. Instead of telling her story in a traditional style, the chapters mainly alternate between Lee's life in Paris and as a war correspondent in WWII. However, the main part of the story is about her growing into her talents in Paris and her complicated love story with Man Ray. The writing is so vivid and detailed and really paints an image of Lee in all forms—somewhat retired on her farm in Sussex, her start in Paris and seeing the horrors of war up-close. Yes, the story is based on a real person but the author Whitney Scharer really brings her to life.

At the heart of the story is Lee wanting to craft her own legacy and not live in the shadows of a man. While photography and art bring Lee and Man Ray together, it also carries plenty of complications. He's possessive and obsessive and while he does support her, he doesn't want to be outshined.

Lee overcomes the odds in so many ways. When people write her off as just a model, she proves she's capable of taking photos that will contribute quite a bit to the surrealism movement of photography. While the book takes place primarily in the '30s and '40s, Lee is quite a modern woman and ahead of her time.

The big questions are can she reconcile romantic desire with artistic ambition? And what sacrifices will she have to make?

This is a beautiful, heartfelt read about a capable, intelligent and strong woman who did it all her own way.

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

A dark and beautifully researched novel about the conflict between the heart and the head, between art and love.

A captivating debut about Vogue model turned renowned photographer Lee Miller, and her passionate affair with the artist Man Ray in 1930s Paris.

When Lee Miller comes to Paris in 1929 she wants nothing more than to create a new life. She is tired of being the one in front of the camera and wants to be the one taking photographs. 

Lee had a rather abusive childhood which is alluded to but I would have liked to have heard more about it. It led her to make some bad life choices. When she is introduced to the famous Man Ray, they immediately have a connection. At first,he wants her to model for him but they get into an intense and not that healthy relationship.

The story is told between timelines and is rich in detail and full of all the horrors of war and the debauchery of Paris at that time. Opium dens, erotic vaudeville, multiple lovers.

After betrayals on both side you have a feeling this isn't going to work out. He is egotistical and condescending and she is emotionally messed up.

I enjoyed reading about these two. I would have enjoyed it more if there were fewer words. I found myself wanting it to be over.

Great story, just a lot wordy.

February 5th 2019 by Little, Brown and Company/Netgalley

A book to learn from the past and apply to current times. Lee Miller's break from man after man after Man (yes, that capitalization is correct) is a reminder to break free of all that is holding us back from making a dream into reality. We all belong to ourselves. It is a female photographer's inspiration to trust their instincts and forge their own path. Set against the financial crash and the days leading up to World War II, Lee Miller leaves New York for Paris and then Paris for the European Front. Brilliant artists and minds of the day dance in and out the story like fireflies in the summer. They offer bursts of light in Lee's life and illuminate a hope she has for herself. What's best is that the novel doesn't sugar coat her life or decisions. The age of light is flecked with the darkness of PTSD, abuse, rape, depression, and alcoholism. But even in the blackness, it isn't possible to turn of the effervescence of Lee Miller.

What a lovely book! I had never heard of Lee Miller or Man Ray before picking up The Age of Light, but was quickly sucked into their lives. The story is an interesting one as it starts off with Lee later in life acting as a gourmet cook and food writer. When her editor asks her to write a story about her time working with famous photographer Man Ray, the story jumps back in time to when Lee was in her 20s living in Paris and acting as Man's assistant and eventually lover. The book also flashes to Lee's years in Germany as a war correspondent- at first I was confused by these sections, but soon realized it would have been a huge loss if Scharer didn't include them.

Lee is such an incredibly strong force of a woman and someone hard not to admire. Despite her flaws, I found myself constantly rooting for her and wanting the best. Her relationship with Man was very complicated; beautiful in many ways, but also filled with jealousy and strong personalities.

After reading The Age of Light, I did a fair amount of research into Lee and Man because I was so intrigued by their story. I was a little bit disappointed by how much was left out of the book... So many techniques Man was known for and so many accomplishments in Lee's life. However, I realize that the book needed a focus and wasn't meant to be biographies of their lives. And I always say that the mark of a good historical fiction novel is when I'm intrigued enough to do more research on my own after the book ends.

As someone who dabbles in photography, I'm excited to continue looking into all the advances that Lee and Man made, both together and independently. I would happily read another book (or 3) about Lee Miller and/or Man Ray!

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer chronicles in historical fiction the love affair between a former model turned photographer Lee Miller and the famed photographer Man Ray, an influential force in the Dada and Surrealist movements rooted in Paris in the 1930s.

We first meet Lee in 1966 as a puffy middle-aged woman prone to drinking whiskey and dulled by the monotony of her marriage and life on a farm on Sussex England. At midlife, Lee has settled for a meh marriage and an unfulfilling but steady job writing cooking articles for Vogue as the magazine’s domestic correspondent, the same magazine where she once was the cover model. Lee’s life is a far cry from the passionate adventurous years of her youth as the lover of Man Ray and later a war photographer.

Midlife malaise has set in and is seeping through her every fiber. As the author writes of her current state: “There is so much more that’s making her angry that the stranger who greets her in the mirror each morning, burst blood vessels blooming across her puffy face.” The quality of Lee’s writing has thinned along with her drive and enthusiasm to remain the domestic correspondent. Lee is stuck:
“But she knows her writing is still good. Her photos are still good. Or they would be if she could do them if she could shrug off the stultifying sadness that she pulls around with her like a heavy cape.”

In an effort wake Lee from her sleepwalking slumber professionally and personally, and salvage her writing career at Vogue, her editor Audrey and her husband Roland want Lee to write a piece for Vogue about her years with Man Ray suggesting it would do her good to have a big project to focus on. Lee has no choice to acquiesce to this thinly veiled threat: if Lee refuses to write the article, she is finished at Vogue. So begins the story she chooses to tell: “If you tell something enough times it becomes true, just the way a photograph can trick you into thinking it’s a memory.”

Or as the author states: “Lee could tell the real story: the one where she loved a man and he loved her, but in the end, they took everything from each other—who can say who was more destroyed? It’s the story that she’s locked up tight inside herself.”

Thus the heart of the novel begins in 1929 Paris as we witness in vivid detail the friendship and professional mentorship that turned into a passionate love affair fueling a prolific period of art and creativity in Lee and Man Ray’s lives, as each becomes the other’s muse.

Lee and Man Ray bring out the best of each other for a while. He is inspired to paint, his primary artistic passion. Lee learns to become an accomplished photographer in her own right. Their relationship and professional lives bloom amid the backdrop of 1930s Paris, and the creative class of literati, moneyed patrons, artistic outliers and the Avant-guard providing plenty of fascinating fodder for vignettes and encounters that propel the book’s plot.

The eccentric characters who cross the path of Lee and Man Ray offer a voyeuristic window into the sexually fluid society that left Lee perpetually questioning Man Ray’s own sexuality while she struggles to reconcile with her unhealthy relationship with her father.

The author writes each chapter as cinematic scenes where I could easily envision the action and setting playing out in real time. The sensory detail, the dialog, and the characterization work in perfect sync to immerse the reader in a time, place and creative ethos that produced some of the early 20th Century’s most noted artists.

Lee Miller has been a muse her entire life: for her father; countless fashion photographers; Man Ray; even own husband, Roland, who seeks to capitalize on his wife’s rarefied artistic connections. What’s left for Lee to claim as her own, when her very essence is the source of everyone else’s art and success? The author’s debut novel, The Age of Light, is an engrossing read with profound subtexts about beauty, love, art and the tortured struggle to be both muse and master of your art.

A trifle sensational at times, this is an extremely fascinating look at two enormously talented and interesting people. Lee Miller was a model in the 1930's, who moved to Paris and became the lover/muse/protégé of Man Ray, renowned photographer. She in turn later became the first woman war correspondent. This is the story of her transformation from model to photographer, her love affair with Man Ray, and her struggle to succeed in a man's world, all set in the middle of the decadence of Paris of the time. Glimpses of her childhood, her work during the war, and her later years add a whole level of depth to her at times tragic story. I could have done without the steamier scenes, but the ending was so moving it made it made it all worthwhile. Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the e-arc. 4+ stars! This one will stay with me for awhile.

This book has everything I love. 1920s Paris. Art. A smart, strong, creative woman - Lee Miller, who has always fascinated me. This book is exceptional and I can't wait to tell everyone I know about it.

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer

This book grabbed my attention right away. I love the cover and am instantly intrigued. When I read the description, the words “bohemian” and “Paris” instantly jumped out at me, then learning the book goes from 1930s Paris to Europe during World War II and I knew I HAD to read it. I cannot wait to get started!

Synopsis:

Their romance unfolds against the backdrop of bohemian Paris, with nights spent at smoky cabarets, opium dens, and Surrealist parties, and days spent working together to discover radical new photography techniques. But as Lee begins to assert herself, and moves from being a muse to an artist, Man’s jealousy spirals out of control, and soon their mutual betrayals threaten to destroy them both.

Told in interweaving timelines of 1930s Paris and war-torn Europe during WWII, this richly detailed, sensuous, and captivating debut by Whitney Scharer brings Lee Miller– a brilliant and pioneering artist in her own right–out of the shadows of a man’s legacy and into the light.

I'm an obsessive fan of surrealism, modernism, and Paris between the wars, and this book ticks all those boxes, plus a few extras like underappreciated female artists, non-conformist women navigating relationships with celebrated men and behind the scenes insight into Cocteau's filmmaking process. Sharer covers all this and more in this easily digested epic of one woman's life. Everyone who is frustrated with their book group should recommend this book to enjoy reading again.

The Age of Light is one of those books that says with you long after you've finished it. The story follows beautiful model Lee Miller as she moves from NYC to Paris and reinvents herself as a photographer. She meets Man Ray, already a successful artist and photographer, and they embark on the kind of love affair that defines one's life. Lee is Man Ray's lover, partner, protege and overall muse and their relationship plays out on the pages , drawing the reader in. I had no idea I was reading about 2 real people and as soon as I finished the book and googled them I was fascinated all over again.

The beauty of this book is hard to put into words. It's not a light read--it's the kind of book that each sentence, each moment, is crafted so beautifully that you'll want to slow down and savor it all. It's literary fiction at its best. Lee and Man are extremely well drawn and even though both of them are a bit unlikeable sometimes, as a reader, I was completely along for the ride --wherever it was taking me. The end of the 1920s part of the book did not disappoint, and I also appreciated the way the epilogue completed the story. The only thing that was somewhat out of place, were the parts at the end of each section that followed Lee through Europe during and after WWII. I understand what the scenes were meant to show about Lee, but to me, the were completely unnecessary. Overall, this was a captivating piece of historical fiction that I can't get out of my head!

Thank you NetGally for the advance copy!

What a great book!!! I am a fan of all things WWII, so I know a little about Lee Miller. This novel gave a great glimpse into her life with Man Ray and her time taking photographs during WWII. She helped pave the way for women.

I knew very little about Lee Miller before diving into this delightful debut novel (thanks NetGalley and Little, Brown). I was immediately drawn in, not just by the exquisite language and Scharer's gift of storytelling, but also her ability to send you right into the mind of Miller. Scharer squeezes your heart, and inflames your senses with every move that Miller makes. It was only afterward when I wanted to know more about Man Ray and his enchanting lover that I found Scharer took a few liberties with Miller's history, but all for the good of the story itself. I devoured this gorgeous book and all of the decadence of Paris in the 1930s, the bohemian lifestyle of these artists and Miller's complex transformation into a woman of her own that underlies it all. This book left me in tears on the last page. The impression of this novel is one I will carry with me for months and years forward.