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Divine Sarah
In Divine Sarah , Adam Braver, whose previous novel was described as "richly imagined" by the Washington Post , renders a portrait of the great actress Sarah Bernhardt in the twilight of her career as she explores her relationship to art and asks herself, "When does art become the artist?" Sarah was truly the first international star, and she caused a sensation wherever she went. Set during the course of one week in 1906 California, the novel opens with controversy. Facing protests from the League of Decency, she is forced to move her latest production from Los Angeles to the new development of Venice Beach. And though this is only the most recent skirmish she has faced in her tumultuous sixty-one years of life, Sarah is exhausted and beginning to lose the will to fight. Plagued by maladies of the flesh and the spirit, she begins to search her soul, revealing the truths of her life, including the self-doubt and insecurity hidden beneath an extravagant and confrontational lifestyle. Yet Sarah is not alone in her battle. Vince Baker, an ambitious newspaper reporter, faces his own demons as he tries to uncover the truth about the great actress. With a fierce imagination, lyrical delicacy, and a uniquely passionate vision, Adam Braver not only gives us an unforgettable Sarah Bernhardt, he probes the depths of artistry and what happens when it begins to do battle with itself.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 29, 2004
3 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Adam Braver
22 books19 followersADAM BRAVER is the author of Mr. Lincolns Wars, Divine Sarah, Crows Over the Wheatfield, November 22, 1963, and Misfit . His books have been selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers program, Borders Original Voices series, and twice for the Book Sense list. His work has appeared in journals such as Daedalus, Ontario Review, Cimarron Review, Water-Stone Review, Harvard Review, Tin House, West Branch, and Post Road. He teaches at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, and at the NY State Summer Writers Institute."
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 1, 2013
It is 1906, and an aging Sarah Bernhardt is on yet another farewell tour of America. Loosely (very loosely) based on real events, this novel takes us through a week in Los Angeles, where the local Catholic bishop and his League of Decency are trying to shut down Bernhardt’s play on the grounds of the star’s well-known immorality. (Sex, booze, drugs, cross-dressing--you name it, she’s into it.) Bernhardt swears (and in the moment means) that this is it, she’s going to leave the stage for good. But it’s tragically clear to the reader that she, addicted to both opium and adulation, is in the game for life. The book managed to get deep enough into the actress’s psychology to be both heartrending and frustrating. The Divine Sarah does not make a likable protagonist, but she certainly is a compelling one.
April 3, 2011
This is a fictional account of the last years of the actress, Sarah Bernhardt's life/career. While the concept of creating a blend of true-to-life accounts and "creative licensing" is a common concept in the literary world, and is oftentimes captivating, I felt this one fell short. The characters never really feel authentic or approachable, and the writing seems choppy and jumps time frames, causing the reader to feel as if they never get a chance to feel anything for the characters. A lot of readers may enjoy this book, but I found it to be one that I won't be taking off my shelf to re-read anytime soon.
June 21, 2011
Coming in at 216 pages, one would think that a novel revolving around Sarah Bernhardt would be a fast read. Think again.
The year is 1906 and the town is Venice, California. It would have been Los Angeles but the Catholic run ‘League of Decency’ has been able to bar Bernhardt from playing in the city otherwise known for its high morals. It is a testament to her acting chops and her odd behavior that we living close to a hundred years after her death know who she is. Even by today’s more than lax standards, sleeping in a coffin and sporting an opium addiction (which in this novel Bernhardt at times borders on barely functional) she would garner comment.
The book centers on both Bernhardt’s genius and spirit, which are starting to fade. At the age of 61, Bernhardt is playing roles meant for actresses decades younger. Although her acting ability is great, her appearance younger than her years, the main reason audiences clamor for her is because she is a STAR! Let an ambitious Bishop stir up trouble for her and call her immoral (she started her stage career as much as a courtesan as an actress) it is because she is the ‘Divine Sarah’ of legend that the stewards of the society pages ignore those who feel they must protect the larger community from her. Of course, this is a double-edged sword. She profits from being an idol, but does that taint the canvas of her acting art? Even Bernhardt has to admit that great performances might no longer be within her.
So thus, Bernhardt ponders these larger issues as she takes temporary residence in an exclusive Venice hotel. Her manager, Max, attempts to manage her, but how does one tame a tiger? When she tears apart a fish with her teeth on the Venice pier, which she set out to catch for her breakfast, he is astute enough in everything ‘Divine’ that he is able to play off the scene as something exquisite. This, despite the gruesomeness of the Divine one’s face covered in fish guts as she is surrounded by reporters.
Sure, the idea of Bernhardt as a novel character eating a raw fish as if she is a blood-thirsty ghost from ‘Hamlet’ sounds like it would rivet a reader to a book, but that is far from the case. Even though Adam Braver produces memorable well-written prose.
Again, she wanted to tell him to stop saying hop. It sounded so juvenile and falsely vogue, and that the word came as stiffly off his mouth as a crippled old man holding on lustily to his buxom nursemaid. But then she realized that for most of her life her entire vocabulary had been a series of slang and exclusive nomenclature for the privileged insiders, only changing when the terms seeped across the borders and polluted the mainstream. Then there was some indefinable point – maybe a milestone – when the old words died away and the new ones seemed shallow or contrived, leaving the general formalities of the language to best express the details. “You are right,” she said, restraining herself from correcting him. “Bad.”
I consider the above passage a nice tight paragraph where Bernhardt touches upon the hipster terms of which her intellectual/eclectic crowd is known for while ignoring the deeper issue within. In spite of Braver’s writing ability, his characters were boring.
Bernhardt’s manager, Max, is gay, thus she calls him ‘Molly.’ They have a symbiosis relationship, which debates nothing new besides stereotypical assumptions of a gay man attending to the needs of an older glamorous woman. The hotel owner/manager wants her performances to be a success because he sees it as a way to really establish his establishment. There is also a newspaper reporter who could have been torn out of the pages of every classic private dick script from the film noir 40’s. Nothing about this story really stuck to me except for the fish incident.
To add insult to injury, the last chapter deals with Bernhardt a few years later performing the role, which earlier in California she thought she was too old to play. By that time, she has lost her right leg due to a car accident and infection.* Talk about interesting! I should add that my cursory Wikipedia research of Sarah Bernhardt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Be... was so thought provoking that I’m including the web address. In other words, I found the Wikipedia entry about Bernhardt a lot more informative than all 216 pages of this novel combined. From her questionable birth to a mother of Jewish descent (Sarah ends up going to a convent school and Catholic imagery, and the rejection of it, plays a large function in her life) to her start as a courtesan, and a lover to a future British Monarch. There were a lot more interesting episodes of Sarah’s life than her time spent in Venice, CA. Even the character of the newspaperman goes nowhere.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend ‘Divine Sarah.’ It feels longer and heavier than it should, plus there is no payoff. All that is accomplished through this short novel could have been done within the structure of a short story. Although Braver has a flair with writing that alone can not save his book.
* One of the more interesting tidbits I read from Wikipedia was that P. T. Barnum offered her ten grand for her amputated leg in order to display it as a medical oddity. She refused.
+ I also want to add that I think it is interesting that her 1900 version of ‘Hamlet’ included a cylinder recording of her voice reciting the lines which would technically not make it a ‘silent film.’
The year is 1906 and the town is Venice, California. It would have been Los Angeles but the Catholic run ‘League of Decency’ has been able to bar Bernhardt from playing in the city otherwise known for its high morals. It is a testament to her acting chops and her odd behavior that we living close to a hundred years after her death know who she is. Even by today’s more than lax standards, sleeping in a coffin and sporting an opium addiction (which in this novel Bernhardt at times borders on barely functional) she would garner comment.
The book centers on both Bernhardt’s genius and spirit, which are starting to fade. At the age of 61, Bernhardt is playing roles meant for actresses decades younger. Although her acting ability is great, her appearance younger than her years, the main reason audiences clamor for her is because she is a STAR! Let an ambitious Bishop stir up trouble for her and call her immoral (she started her stage career as much as a courtesan as an actress) it is because she is the ‘Divine Sarah’ of legend that the stewards of the society pages ignore those who feel they must protect the larger community from her. Of course, this is a double-edged sword. She profits from being an idol, but does that taint the canvas of her acting art? Even Bernhardt has to admit that great performances might no longer be within her.
So thus, Bernhardt ponders these larger issues as she takes temporary residence in an exclusive Venice hotel. Her manager, Max, attempts to manage her, but how does one tame a tiger? When she tears apart a fish with her teeth on the Venice pier, which she set out to catch for her breakfast, he is astute enough in everything ‘Divine’ that he is able to play off the scene as something exquisite. This, despite the gruesomeness of the Divine one’s face covered in fish guts as she is surrounded by reporters.
Sure, the idea of Bernhardt as a novel character eating a raw fish as if she is a blood-thirsty ghost from ‘Hamlet’ sounds like it would rivet a reader to a book, but that is far from the case. Even though Adam Braver produces memorable well-written prose.
Again, she wanted to tell him to stop saying hop. It sounded so juvenile and falsely vogue, and that the word came as stiffly off his mouth as a crippled old man holding on lustily to his buxom nursemaid. But then she realized that for most of her life her entire vocabulary had been a series of slang and exclusive nomenclature for the privileged insiders, only changing when the terms seeped across the borders and polluted the mainstream. Then there was some indefinable point – maybe a milestone – when the old words died away and the new ones seemed shallow or contrived, leaving the general formalities of the language to best express the details. “You are right,” she said, restraining herself from correcting him. “Bad.”
I consider the above passage a nice tight paragraph where Bernhardt touches upon the hipster terms of which her intellectual/eclectic crowd is known for while ignoring the deeper issue within. In spite of Braver’s writing ability, his characters were boring.
Bernhardt’s manager, Max, is gay, thus she calls him ‘Molly.’ They have a symbiosis relationship, which debates nothing new besides stereotypical assumptions of a gay man attending to the needs of an older glamorous woman. The hotel owner/manager wants her performances to be a success because he sees it as a way to really establish his establishment. There is also a newspaper reporter who could have been torn out of the pages of every classic private dick script from the film noir 40’s. Nothing about this story really stuck to me except for the fish incident.
To add insult to injury, the last chapter deals with Bernhardt a few years later performing the role, which earlier in California she thought she was too old to play. By that time, she has lost her right leg due to a car accident and infection.* Talk about interesting! I should add that my cursory Wikipedia research of Sarah Bernhardt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Be... was so thought provoking that I’m including the web address. In other words, I found the Wikipedia entry about Bernhardt a lot more informative than all 216 pages of this novel combined. From her questionable birth to a mother of Jewish descent (Sarah ends up going to a convent school and Catholic imagery, and the rejection of it, plays a large function in her life) to her start as a courtesan, and a lover to a future British Monarch. There were a lot more interesting episodes of Sarah’s life than her time spent in Venice, CA. Even the character of the newspaperman goes nowhere.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend ‘Divine Sarah.’ It feels longer and heavier than it should, plus there is no payoff. All that is accomplished through this short novel could have been done within the structure of a short story. Although Braver has a flair with writing that alone can not save his book.
* One of the more interesting tidbits I read from Wikipedia was that P. T. Barnum offered her ten grand for her amputated leg in order to display it as a medical oddity. She refused.
+ I also want to add that I think it is interesting that her 1900 version of ‘Hamlet’ included a cylinder recording of her voice reciting the lines which would technically not make it a ‘silent film.’
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June 19, 2020I'm constantly impressed with how well Braver can take historical figures and dance them through our world. The aura surrounding Bernhardt is beautifully captured here, as are the obstacles and inner turmoil that accompanied her fame.
April 26, 2020
I was not a big fan of this book. It felt repetitive and inconclusive.
February 20, 2008
Sarah Bernhardt was portrayed unsympathetically. A book difficult to follow as it jumps back and forth in time.
August 24, 2008
Actress at the turn of the century. Very dramatic and lost. An "artist" picture
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews