New York City, 1997 The women is in her 80's walking through the art gallery. This is where she will walk among her art, a retrospective of her artistic life, some 60 years. Flashback to London, June 1937 and we are about to meet Leonora Carrington.

Leonora came from a wealthy family, but a privileged life was not what she wanted. She wanted to be an artist. Her father was opposed, but sent her to London, paid for art school and gave her enough money just to get by, living close to that of a starving artist hoping she would come home. It was in 1937 that she met Max Ernst, a surliest artist, who she instantly fell in love with. Never mind that he was married, or that he was 26 years older than her, or that he had a series of lovers in his life. Leonora she didn't look back, she had her freedom, albeit a bit of a poor one! Once again, breaking free from her privileged life, she flees to Paris with Max. While there she begins to experiment with her art, finally making a name for herself. She is surrounded with the likes of Andre Breton, Pablo Picasso, Lee Miller, Man Ray and Salvador Dali. However, waiting in the shadows is a war which will spread over Europe, the newspapers declare this group as "degenerates."

It's 1940 and both Leonora and Max are forced to flee France, both of them on a journey that will shape them into artists and individuals. He was arrested because of his art by the gendarmerie. On the run from an interment camp, he writes to Peggy Guggenheim to help him escape from the Nazis as she has done for others. In the mean time countries were falling like dominnos as the Nazis moved on, she couldn't wait for Max to return and sold their house to the town barkeeper. With the help of her friends, she manages to escape. However, her father with his wealth and fingers in every pie had spies everywhere, had Leonora drugged when she got to Spain and was put in an asylum. Eventually she managed to escape her father's grip and escape the sanitarium.

Leonora and Ernst lived in a different time, they saw the world through their artistic lens and transferred their realism to canvas. It was the front runner of what is know today as Modern Art. Freedom of expression, freedom of the way they lived, through hedonistic times, disapproving times. It was their way of living, no boundaries, no rules.

This was an excellent book...it was interesting and like the characters, different, but I must say it was chaotic at times, and at times quite sad. The artistic temperament of the protagonists and those as the supporting cast was very much evident in the writing. I thought the research and character development was well done. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

LEONORA IN THE MORNING LIGHT
BY MICHAELA CARTER

This historical fiction was not as accessible reading for me since I had never heard of Leonora Carrington before or her artist boyfriend Max Ernst whom was 26 years older than her while they courted each other in France. They were part of an artist movement during the twentieth century and got separated when Hitler occupied France with Max being sent off to a detention camp twice. She is known as the only woman to have had broken his heart. He was an ex pat from Germany and Hitler denounced the Surrealist art movement that they were a part of. It might help if I give a definition of what Surrealism means: A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images. Launched in 1924 by a manifesto of Andre Breton and having strong political content, the movement grew out of symbolism and Dada and was strongly influenced by Sigmund Freud. In the visual arts its most notable exponents were Andre Mason, Jean Arp, Joan Miro, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Man Ray and Luis Bunuel.

I have only had heard of Salvador Dali and in the definition above it doesn't include Leonora Carrington or multiple other women that were according to this author's extensive research which I applaud were part of this type of artistic movement. This was definitely a challenge for me because there wasn't any background material until I got to the end. I was surprised that Leonora Carrington who left her home on bad terms with her father who more or less told her not to ever darken his doorstep again. She was from Great Britain and during the time when her and Max were torn apart from his arrests while they were living together she flees to Spain during occupied France by the Nazi's she is put into an asylum and the narrative becomes nonsensical at least to me.

I think that this novel could have been better if it wasn't so scholarly written with the author assuming that all of this historical detail to the character's were common knowledge to me at least it was not. I love to learn about real life historical figures but this narrative doesn't fill in any of the blanks or gives enough detail to explain things out so that everyone can educate themselves while reading historical fiction. I have heard who Peggy Guggenheim was and am familiar with Pablo Picasso but he is only mentioned briefly. There was so much of a heavy emphasis on Artists that I have never heard of and their works it just could have been more descriptive for the reader who is interested in learning but maybe others will not have to do further research to appreciate this novel. I think in my humble opinion I have read enough art history that I enjoyed without feeling like the writing is so ambiguous. I can name many author's works that introduced works that I had never heard of before for example "The Girl with a Pearl Earring," or anything else written by Tracey Chevalier, "Claude and Camille" (about Monet's masterpieces), written by Stephanie Cowell, "The Passion of Artemisia" or "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" both written by Susan Vreeland, "The Birth of Venus," written by Sarah Dunant or finally "Leonardo's Swans," written by Karen Essex. These were all written and easily accessible to everybody. In my humble opinion the book "Leonora in the Morning Light," was not anything remotely written for the enjoyment and learning while you read. Henceforth my 3 star rating. I am sure that this book will find its audience with Art History majors but not for the average reader hungry to learn as you are reading it. I do sincerely wish this author, Micaela Carter and the publisher every best wish for success with this historical novel filled with a cast of factual people.

Publication Date: April 6, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Michaela Carter and Avid Reader Press--Simon & Schuster for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.