The Baroness: The Search for Nica the Rebellious Rothschild

by Hannah Rothschild

A Rothschild by birth and a Baroness by marriage, beautiful, spirited Pannonica – known as Nica – seemed to have it all: children, a handsome husband and a trust fund. But in the early 1950s she heard a piece by the jazz legend Thelonious Monk. The music overtook her like a magic spell, and she abandoned her marriage to go and find him.

The Baroness traces Nica's extraordinary, thrilling journey – from England's stately homes to the battlefields of Africa, passing under the shadow of the Holocaust, and finally to the creative ferment of the New York jazz scene.

Hannah Rothschild's search to solve the mystery of her rebellious great-aunt draws on their long friendship and years of meticulous research and interviews.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Music, Jazz, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Hannah Rothschild is the author of House of Trelawney; The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild; and The Improbability of Love which was shortlisted for the Bailley's prize for womens' fiction and won the PG Wodehouse, Everyman, Bollinger prize for best comic novel in 2016.
Her feature length BBC/HBO documentaries have appeared at such festivals as Telluride and Tribeca. She's written for Vanity Fair, Vogue, The Independent, Elle, Bazaar, T and C, The Times, The Telegraph, the NYT and others. She's a vice president of the Hay Literary Festival, a former trustee of the Tate Gallery, and was the first woman chair of the National Gallery in London. In 2018 she was made a Commander of The British Empire for services to literature and philanthropy.

(source: Amazon)

Reviews

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually a great resource on the birth of jazz

[Chelsea Shipley]

A Rare Moth

This book stroke the cord in me that genuinely enjoys unearthing the life of another and learning about a certain time in the world as seen through a human's existence.

Pannonica is a true piece of history that I would recommend anyone to become familiar with as she boldly represents a woman who lived life on her own terms and used her privilege to influence many unselfishly.

[Maria Lavrador · Rating 1 out of 5]

Na realidade não o terminei, fiquei pela página 100. Não me estava a prender minimamente. Uma biografia confusão com muitos nomes e muita gente pelo meio, que nos deixa perdidas. Por isso vou desistir, com muita pena minha, mas tenho tantos bons livros para ler, que não vale a perder tempo com este...

[Emre Sevinç · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before you start reading:

- Start playing the album "Thelonica" by Tommy Flanagan.
- Prepare yourself a glass of your favorite drink, doesn't have to be a high quality single malt, whatever you fancy.

And then, get ready for one hell of a ride, because this is an exquisite story of a set of unique characters that lived in a very special time in the history of humanity. Meshing personal details, psychological profiles, world affairs, snapshots of jazz history with essential anecdotes, the author truly shines in portraying her great aunt, the famous Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter (née Rothschild), as well her relationship with the high priest of jazz, Thelonious Monk.

Even if you're not into jazz history, even if you're not interested how a tiny, little minority of super-duper rich people who never knew the concept of "gee, I have to work, or else..." lived their lives, enduring "problems" most of us will not even ever dream of, you'll most probably enjoy this beautifully crafted book. Having almost a cinematic quality, the book will take you through adventures in Second World War, surprise meetings, clash of personalities, change of times, mid-century racism in USA, all coupled with a lot of jazz sensibility.

They don't make people like Baroness anymore, and Thelonious Monk was a category unto itself. That era is long gone. But at least, we have this beautiful book.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the book is focused on Nica Rothschild, the parts of the book that I enjoyed the most were the parts focused on the history of the entire Rothschild clan. It really is an amazing rise from abject poverty and discrimination to incredible wealth and power. I guess I need to go search out a book about the family. The author only gave the briefest of overviews about her family; mainly focusing on the British branch since that is the one she and Nica are descended from. I can't stop thinking about the story she told about her poor grandfather, who was sent to a posh private boys school in order to mingle with the future leaders of Britain. Even though he was from a wealthy and powerful family, what mattered to the other boys was that Rothschild was Jewish. They made up a game called fox & hounds wherein Rothschild was the fox and the other boys were the hounds. They would make him run off into the woods, giving him a brief head start, before following him & catching him & beating him. What a fun game, huh! The teachers knew but did nothing. Rothschild wrote pleading letters, begging to come home, but wasn't allowed to. UGH. I just can't stop thinking about how miserable that little boy was.

Anyway, Nica is the focus of this biography, not her grandfather. I am impressed that the author managed to find out as much as she did about her great aunt, considering the lives of the Rothschild women were not deemed important enough to be recorded. Also that the family made it a point of destroying all personal materials once a person died. Letters, diaries, etc. Why they felt the need to do that was never really explained. So props to Hannah Rothschild for finding what she did.

Nica's life prior to meeting Thelonius Monk was fascinating. The wealthy but horribly neglected childhood, the wild days as a debutante in London, her tempestuous romance with her husband - running away from her maid & chauffeur, who were supposed to be chaperones. Those poor servants must have been frantic when Nica vanished. Thinking they'd lose their jobs and not get a good reference so they'd never work again - the maid & chauffeur chased Nica and the Baron all over Southern Europe; the servants in Nica's car & Nica & the Baron in his airplane.....what a good novel that would make. I'd tell it from the point of view of the servants. Get a love story going between the maid & chauffeur, brought together in their quest to find the wayward Nica and not get fired. I kept wondering, well, who was the chaperone for the maid? All alone with the chauffeur - who I imagined to be like the chauffeur in Downton Abbey. Ooh la la.

But I digress. The main focus of the book is on Nica and Thelonius Monk. However, I found that section to be the weakest part of the book. Why? WHY? Why did the two of them connect? The author believes there was never a sexual relationship between the two. Hmmmm. I find that hard to believe. I think there was at first. It fizzled due to the fact that Monk was nuts. Really nuts. I didn't know much about Thelonius Monk prior to this book. I like his music but not as much as I like Sonny Rollins or Charlie Parker or Chet Baker. It turns out that as a human being, Monk was an asshole. An irritating, pain in the ass, jerk. But he was a genius! So all is forgiven!

I did enjoy reading about the jazz scene of the 50s & 60s. The relationships between the musicians, the clubs, the album recording, the touring.....but it was sandwiched between the Monk & Nica story which never grabbed me. In fact, I found it creepy. Creepy because Monk is on record as saying how great Nica is because she was rich and a Baroness - not for any behavior or personality traits of her own. And Nica fawned over Monk's genius to a ridiculous degree. Again, I didn't get the impression Nica liked Monk for who is was but for what he represented. I dunno, the whole relationship rubbed me the wrong way.

[Ian "Marvin" Graye]

SOUNDTRACK:

Promo for the book

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPJkI...

Interview with the author

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83xDO...

All That Jazz: Hannah Rothschild with Bonnie Greer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV6nK...

"Monk and the Baroness": Interview with Thelonious Monk Jr. about the Film for Shtetl

http://shtetlmontreal.com/2011/02/28/...

Joel Forrester talks about Baroness Nica von Koenigswarter and Thelonious Monk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPrWb...

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nica de Koenigswarter is a legendary figure in the jazz world. Known as "The Jazz Baroness," she left her wealthy family (she's a Rothschild) and her wealthy husband (who was a baron) to live among jazz musicians in New York City. This book, written by (I believe) her great niece, is a nice overview of her life and times. It contained plenty of great anecdotes and had an interesting history of the Rothschild family.

To give a little overview, Nica de Koenigswarter grew up in a giant mansion as a member of the Rothschild family. She lived a pretty shut up, highly controlled life. She eventually married a baron and had a somewhat happy but very unstable marriage. Eventually, when the marriage broke down, she moved to the United States. She had developed a passion for jazz earlier in life and wanted to be where they made that music. After hearing "'Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk, she decided it was her life's mission to seek him out and support him, which she did. They were only ever friends, but extremely good ones at that, and Nica took great care of the pretty nonfunctional (outside of music, of course) Thelonious. She also supported and befriended many other jazz legends. Her story is told in a good amount of detail and is well-written, especially for the fact that there doesn't seem to be all that much info out there on Nica.

Despite keeping my interest, I felt I couldn't help wishing it was written by someone who had more of a background in jazz or American culture generally. The author comes off as a bit of a square and essentially admits she wasn't terribly into jazz before starting to work on this book. When she talks about jazz compositions...it becomes pretty obvious she's not super well-versed. When discussing Thelonious Monk's famous "'Round Midnight," she talks about when "the strings" come in....there are no strings in "Round Midnight." There is a plucked double bass, but the way she described it made it clear she is not talking about that. The way she wrote about jazz generally kind of felt that way.

Further, there were a couple of statements I was a bit dubious of. She calls Miles Davis Monk's protege. While they played together at times and Miles learned from him early on in his career, I think it's a stretch to call Miles Monk's protege (in fact, they even had a bit of a rivalry). She also stated that Bud Powell was going to score heroin at one point, which, based on other books I've read about Bud, was definitely not true in the time frame she was discussing. In general, she seemed to be a little out of touch with United States culture and politics. She suggests that black Americans are more likely to become addicted to drugs because when African Americans were enslaved, slavers gave them drugs, so it's in their genes essentially. HIGHLY RACIST, RIGHT? I don't think she really saw the problem with that. AND she attributed racism to people wanting to put others down to make themselves feel better. At best, this all indicates very little thought about the systemic and cultural reasons for racism and substance use disorder. Finally, when talking about Monk's medical treatment, she says that a psychiatric worker who no longer works in psychiatry told her that an EEG "shows the cumulative effects of drugs on the brain." I'm not a medical professional, but that sounds like a suspect claim at best. All of that is essentially why I knocked a star off of an otherwise great book.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The subtitle of the book is "The Search for Nica, Rebellious Rothschild and Jazz's Secret Muse," and the book focuses much more on the first half of that title than the second.

If you, like me, wanted to read this to get more insight into the relationship between Nica and the New York jazz scene of the 1950s-60s, you may wind up disappointed. The author, Hannah Rothschild, admits that she didn't know anything at all about jazz before starting in on this project, and so the book doesn't focus on the music as much as I hoped it would.

If I were starting this book over, I'd skip chapters 2–7, which is mostly a history of the Rothschild family with bits and pieces of Nica's childhood. She moves to New York in chapter 15, though I did enjoy the intervening chapters; I didn't know that she'd served in WWII, or that her husband was an ambassador.

The back half of the book focuses (as it should) on the relationship between Nica and Thelonious Monk, but I found this section off-putting. It seems like the author wants the two of them to have had a romantic relationship, despite all evidence to the contrary. She seems dismayed that Nica had a good relationship with both Monk and Nellie (Monk's wife). This leads to bizarre side comments throughout the book, like (p. 229) "It was in the battle for Monk's health, rather than his love, that the two women finally fell out." (Despite the fact that Nica was never competing for Monk's love, according to everyone else!)

I also found the running commentary of the "search" annoying throughout. You could avoid the same fate by skipping any paragraph that begins "I wondered..." This one towards the end of the book (p. 214) is illustrative: "I wondered whether there were parallels between the Jewish and the African-American experience of prejudice. Was it possible that Nica understood, through family and even throuth personal experience, something of what her new-found friends had to endure?" The answer to that question is certainly yes; and the relationship between black and Jewish jazz musicians is not at all new territory.

There were a few other things that annoyed me about the book (first among them that she refers to Monk's son exclusively as "Toot," despite his having his own career as "T.S. Monk"), but this is the best (only?) biography of Nica you're likely to find. If you're more interested in the relationship between Nica and Monk, you'd probably be better off reading Robin Kelley's Monk biography (which is well worth a read anyway).

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I thought a story about a Rothschild running off to join the bohemian New York jazz scene would be quite entertaining. Alas... After a somewhat lengthy history of the family, the story then flips over to Nica. The account of her life in New York lacked any real verve or sense of adventure that one might have expected. This is a book to be skimmed through, if read at all.

[Tita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apesar de não ler muita não-ficção, este livro despertou a minha curiosidade por referir, na capa, que Nica era de uma família rica, tinha casado com um barão e tinha tido 5 anos mas que, após ouvir uma música, abandonou a sua família.
O livro poderia ser muito interessante, afinal de contas, Nica, era judia, era de uma família abastada e bem relacionada, mas que acabou por abandonar a família por causa de uma paixão pelo jazz e pelo músico Thelonious Monk. Uma branca, rica e ainda por cima, judia, com um músico de jazz, negro, casado e com problemas de droga! Ainda por cima, um livro escrito pela sua sobrinha-neta. Como não ficar curiosa?
No entanto, achei o livro muito maçador e um pouco confuso. Hannah Rothschild apresenta-nos praticamente toda a família, o que se torna algo denso. Além disso, a própria forma de nos contar a história é algo difusa, pois vamos, saltitando, no tempo.
Como ponto positivo, temos várias fotografias, quer de Nina, família e até de Monk.
Uma história que prometia ser bem interessante, sobre uma mulher, muito à frente do seu tempo mas que, infelizmente, foi muito maçudo.

[Bloodorange · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it on a RL friend's strong recommendation; The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild is an odd, very personally written biography by a family member; I somewhat enjoyed the part about the Rothschilds - the origins, the family history, the peculiarities - but Nica's story in itself was of relatively little interest to me.

[Harriett Milnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to learn more about Nica Rothschild, the great friend of Thelonious Monk.
It begins as a biography of the Rothschild family, which is somewhat interesting, and then Nica begins her New York City life in the jazz world of the 1950s. I found it fascinating.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild, or Nica as she was more commonly known, was born in 1913, the youngest of four children. For Nica, being a Rothschild (the fabulously wealthy banking family), meant living a life of privilege in a huge mansion, surrounded by servants, and often dining alone in the nursery. Life was lonely and restrictive for such a ‘free spirit’ and the only escape was marriage.

As a debutante, Nica met and married Baron Jules de Koenigswarter (who taught her to fly his plane), and together they had 5 children. During the War, she followed her husband when he was posted overseas and played an active part in the Free French Army, employed variously as a driver, decoder and broadcaster. Nica loved to listen to music and it was whilst she and her family were travelling abroad in the 1950s that she heard a sound that she had never heard before and it literally “called” her. That sound was ‘’Round midnight’ a jazz standard by Thelonious Monk, and she was captivated - life would never be the same again.

Nica left her husband and family to find Monk, the jazz music and bebop sound casting a spell on her. She became a patron, benefactor and friend to Monk and his fellow musicians, spending her evenings in the clubs, dressed in furs, smoking a long cigarette, drinking whisky and listening to their sounds. Of course this was not the ‘done’ thing in those days so she was shunned by society. But it mattered little to Nica – she had her musician friends and above all, her greatest love Thelonious Monk, whom she stood by until the day he died.

A great read with just enough historical detail to give a brief history of the Rothschild family, as well as a fascinating insight into the social mores of the day. A bit of a rebel, it is apt that Nica was named after a variety of moth (the Pannonica), as her later years were spent sleeping all day after spending her nights frequenting the jazz clubs.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pannonica Rothschild, a strong willed, courageous, and eccentric daughter of the fabulously wealthy banking family, took an unexpected path. She fled her family and her privileged life to join the New York City postwar jazz scene. Considering the pampered, yet stifling existance of a wealthy matriarch in the 1950s, her flight seemed like a genuine escape. The rest of Nica's life was spent as a patron to fabulously talented musicians, many of whom were seeped in a self-destructive culture of drugs and alcohol. Later, after she moved to Weehawken, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan, she had her cats as well. Over a hundred of them. Nica's grand niece writes with affection and admiration, giving Nica some of the respect she deserved but never attained during her tumultuous life.

[Kasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Od kiedy dowiedziałam się o tej książce, chciałam ją przeczytać. Okazało się, że zabrałam się za biografię Pannonici de Koenigswarter z domu Rothschild, która w latach 50-tych urzeczona utworem Theloniusa Monka, porzuciła męża dyplomatę, przeniosła się do NY i została patronką i przyjaciółką najlpeszych jazzmenów. Baronowa była kobietą niezwykłą, impulsywną, łamiącą konwenanse, nieprzejmującą się uprzedzeniami społecznymi. Dzięki książce poznałam sylwetkę Theloniusa Monka, historię niewyjaśnionej śmierci Charliego Parkera oraz dowiedziałam się więcej na temat rodu Rothschildów. Z rytmu czytania wybijały mnie rozważania autorki nad motywami kierującymi baronową. Jest to zrozumiałe, zważywszy na bliskie pokrewieństwo między kobietami, ale jako czytelnik wolę jak autor, w mniej nachalby sposób przedstawia swoją opinię. Dla koneserów jazzu i NY.

[Jenni Ogden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating memoir of a Rothschild woman who rebelled, penned by her grand-neice. Pannonica (Nica) Rothschild (1913-1988) was known as the "Jazz Baroness" because of her passion for the jazz world and her all-embracing support of some many jazz musicians, including Thelonious Monk(with whom she had an unusually intimate relationship that was probably not sexual) and Charlie Parker (who died in her apartment). A seductive peek into a world most of us could barely imagine, and probably lost forever, now.

[Ray Hibbert · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I finally accustomised myself to the forced, romance novel-style prose about half way through the book, I couldn't stop myself reading between the lines and wondering what Nica, her family and Thelonius would have actually been like. Absolute sociopathic pains in the arse no doubt!
I don't usually read biographies...they are always one-sided. This definitely was, and has put me off attempting any more in the near future.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

So little I knew of the early jazz scene here in the U.S. And a fascinating look inside a famous family. I highly recommend this book.

[Martinxo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book on the life of Nica Rothschild who played an important role in supporting the great jazz musicians of the 50s and 60s.

[Julie-Anne Borgias · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting character taking us into the jazz world and crossing the race divide in early 20th C america.

[Jolette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am humbled by the fact that my library had the university of Alabama library ship this book to rotterdam. The efforts was worth it. Highly recommendable reading.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this down. Thoroughly entrancing.

[Cydni Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author did an excellent job of organizing her thoughts in this book. She was capable of going off on tangents, relating a memory or an anecdote, bringing together interview quotes, and then getting on with the story. The transitions were seamless. I admired her craft.

So that's style. As far as substance goes, I think she did a remarkable job of bringing a sense of humanity to her powerful and aloof family. And I think she presented each person in as accurate a light as she possibly could. She told the negative as well as the positive, which must have been difficult because many of her family members are still alive and disapprove of this project. For instance, she mentioned briefly that her grandfather, Victor Rothschild, was a domineering man who bullied his family members. And she didn't shy away from Nica's recreational drug use. I think it would have been easy to present her family members as perfect saints for the sake of appearances, but she didn't take that route. Still, she was more interested in understanding her family than with castigating them. When she toyed with several reasons why a certain person might have done what they did, she almost always settled on the kindest possible explanation. I find that I'm comfortable with that. I didn't need this book to be a gossipy tell-all about the Rothschild family. I'm all right with a Rothschild daughter who sees her family members' flaws but who still wants to believe the very best about them.

Nica is a fascinating person, and I felt as if I would really like to know her and her sisters. I felt the author's disappointment when her aunt died before they could really get to know each other. But I think Nica comes through clearly in this portrait. Her story is really interesting, and I'm glad I read it.

[Tony Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often struggle to complete biographies, but no problems encountered with the Baroness. This is no dry or stodgy read, quite the reverse. Maybe it's the jazz connection as much of the book is about this Rothschild lady's story reflects the years she spent as a muse and friend to the pianist Theolonius Monk. But that part of her life was preceeded by a childhood under the umbrella of one of Europe's richest families, although the Rothschild women were very much second class citizens, never allowed to inherit any of the millions that their banks were making. It's a fascinting story as the five Rothschild enterprises, each run by a family member, male of course, were scattered across European capitals, only to be compromised by the arrival of Adolf. Yes, the Rothschilds were Jews and no friends of Hitlers. Nica, the Baroness by marriage, is unconvential in just about every sense. She leaves her children in care, while somehow making her way across war-torn Europe to join her husband at the battle front. And then, with her five children atill in their puberty or teends, abandons them all to settle in New York, and become the benficiary of Monk and his fellow jazz musicians. Somehow she adapted to their lifestyle, supporting them with her access to family money, something which was quite extraordinary in the racist 1950's and '60's America. As Monk once said of his wife Nellie, and his benefactor Nica, "here I am with my black bitch and my white bitch". Their years together were fraught with musicians carrying serious drug habits, racism, and the mystery influence of a lady of means and loyalty.

[Kelly W · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a child, I used to daydream what my life would have been like had I been born to wealthy parents. Nica Rothschild had it all and then some. Different castles for summer and winter with transport between them by private train. All one could wish for, it seems. But, as we all would,she grew tired of her cloistered existence and resolutely turned her back on it.

The times, the first and second world wars and Nica's rebellious nature led to her escaping this gilded cage. The cost,however,was enormous. Divorce,losing custody of her children and becoming persona non grata to her family all figured in. Her discovery of jazz led her to a new life in New York. The music of Thelonious Monk particularly spoke to her soul.

Nica became "The Jazz Baroness", sitting at stageside tables (in fur coats and pearls)at dives and clubs listening to the great jazz musicians of the era and befriending most of them.

This book was very well researched and a great read about an iconoclastic woman who broke religious,racial,class and societal barriers to live life on her own terms. My own enjoyment of the book was greatly enhanced by going to YouTube to listen to songs and musicians mentioned in the book. When you read it, I suggest you do the same.

[Holly Ites · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were several reasons why I picked this book for reading. The title was intriguing, since it was a Rothschild writing about a Rothschild who eschewed a life of unimaginable wealth and privilege to immerse herself into the jazz scene, specifically in support of the person a lot of jazz musicians consider the creator of bebop, Thelonius Monk. When I saw in the liner notes that Charlie Parker had actually passed away in her apartment, I knew I had to find out who this woman was.

A fascinating person, I didn't know whether to admire Nica, or condemn her. On the surface, her abandonment of her husband, children and fortune for personal adventure was hard for me, as a mother, to reconcile as anything other than selfish folly. But, when I read the lengths she was willing to sacrifice to help artists who were struggling for acceptance and respect on many, many levels, jeopardizing her own freedom and well-being to protect them, looking after them almost as a mother, and expecting nor getting anything in return, it was hard to pass judgement. Even after finishing the book, there is only ambivalent understanding and grudging admiration. Few of us have the wherewithal to pursue our passions with such zeal, but I have to admit, she gave it all she had.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Baroness was a mystery to me until I finally figured out, in my own mind, her disorder. First, when I read that she had 306 cats in her NJ home (which her brother bought for her since she kept getting kicked out of NYC hotels), I lost interest in reading about her. But the book came in as I had ordered so I read it. She left her 5 kids as I recall and had a very accomplished, intelligent professional sister (horticulture or insect expert) in England. I see the Baroness as reckless and maybe developmentally disabled - the cats and her irresponsibility and inability to live in a cohesive, decent household. Records show 84 of the cats were dead upon being evacuated after her death.

The genius jazz artists had a fairy tale financial gift when she walked into their lives. Pretty much I think she was a stupid person and she lied about not having an affair with Thelonious Monk. There is one picture of the two of them in Central Park and she has her hand under the belt on his sleeve. That.Speaks.Of.Intimacy. Her children never spoke about this book and refused to be interviewed. In fact, it was noted that the book should have been about the successful sister, not the Baroness.

[Susy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book group selection and a title and a woman completely unknown to me. Like many young girls I thought it would be glamerous to live a life of luxury in a palatial home - preferably in Britain - where I fanatasized about being on a first name basis with the royal family. In fact, that was Nica, Kathleen Annie Pannonica Rothschild's, childhood except it was a lonely bereft existance. We learn her backstory and the story of the rags to riches Rothschild family as she grows into a young woman clearly looking to define herself. The pre World War II years and her dangerous exit from France as the Nazis came ever closer to her home were scary and informative reading. As a secular Jewish wife, she and her children were clearly in harm's way in their huge country estate.

But Nica's life began when she met and befriended Thelonius Monk, a jazz pianist, while on a trip to New York City. Her great niece has done an incredible job of researching both the music history and the life Nica lives amongst this group of black artists living in a still very segregated world.

Reading this biography was almost like taking a class in the sociology of music.

[Brittany Hilgemeier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began reading this after I read "The Improbability of Love" by Hannah Rothschild (which I adored). I have an affinity for Jazz and was familiar with and enjoy Thelonius Monk, so I felt like this would be a good read. I had no idea of the notoriety of the Rothschild family, so the opening chapters were confusing for me as I wasn't quite sure why Hannah had decided to recall so much of the backdrop of Nica's life. One day around a holiday, my grandmother picked up the book and said, "Oh, interesting - she's a Rothschild." Until that point, I'd had no idea they were well known.
It definitely wasn't a quick read, though I'll say the first 15% took me about a year and a half, while the remaining 85% took me a month. Once Hannah laid the groundwork for the story, Nica became a fascinating character (though I suppose she isn't really a character at all). It really is an incredible story of race, class, prejudice, and ambition. Hannah does a great job portraying Nica at her best and her worst, not shying away from her character flaws, while still highlighting her generosity.

[Gaelen Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written and utterly fascinating. Nica Rothschild is born in the fabulously wealthy banking dynasty but with the suicide of her father aged ten and the increasing remoteness of her mother, she finds solace in music and animals. she marries well and conventionally but when the war breaks out and she enlists in the Free French army, she finds, for the first time in her life, a cause.
When the war ends she's expected to slip back into routine motherhood. Feelings of claustrophobia increase and then one day, she hears a record by Thelonious Monk and realises that she has to escape her conventional life.
This book is for those who know that their life is at a dead end, that there is nowhere to go, that they are trapped. Read how one person threw over the shackles of convention and started a new life in a new world.
Utterly captivating and highly unusual.