Creole Son

by Michael Llewellyn

Librarian Note: See Alternate Cover Edition HERE.

In 1872, French painter Edgar Degas is disillusioned by a lackluster career and haunted by the Prussian siege of Paris and the bloodbath of the Commune. Seeking personal and professional rebirth, he journeys to New Orleans, birthplace of his Creole mother. He is horrified to learn he has exchanged one city in crisis for another-post-Civil War New Orleans is a corrupt town occupied by hostile Union troops and suffering under the heavy hand of Reconstruction. He is further shocked to find his family deeply involved in the violent struggle to reclaim political power at all costs. Despite the chaos swirling around him, Degas sketches and paints with fervor and manages to reinvent himself and transition his style from neoclassical into the emerging world of Impressionism. He ultimately became one of the masters of the new movement, but how did New Orleans empower Degas to fulfill this destiny? The answer may be found in the impeccably researched, richly imagined historical novel, Creole Son.

432 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2012

About the author

My mom claims I started writing with my first box of Crayolas, with the dining room wall as my tabula rasa. I come by my passion naturally with a grandmother who was a published novelist and Methodist minister grandfather who wrote powerhouse sermons. The women in my family were memorists before it was trendy and a writer cousin, James Agee, won the Pulitzer. I hail from Fountain City, TN, and carry all the picaresque baggage from a '50s Southern childhood.

I spent the '70s and '80s in Greenwich Village. Although I never wrote the Great American Novel (as planned) I sold a bunch of Southern historical romances and adventure sagas before heading to New Orleans to water my Southern roots. My fascination with that city led to more books, my newest being "Creole Son." It's about French painter Edgar Degas and his sojourn to 1872 Louisiana that forever changed his style.

My ongoing wanderlust eventually landed me in California Wine Country which is surely some of God's most beautiful handiwork. When I'm not working on my new book I'm hiking the hilly vineyards and seaside cliffs and wondering how this Tennessee boy got so far from home.

Reviews

[Ciji Ware · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m sure if you asked even Art History majors if French painter Edgar Degas ever worked in New Orleans, you’d receive blank stares. If you mentioned that Louisiana transformed his style from representational to Impressionistic, you'd garner a few inelegant exclamations of “No way!”

Degas’ tremendously significant sojourn to “the land of dreamy dreams” in the period following the American Civil War has been stunningly recreated by historical novelist Michael Llewellyn in Creole Son: A Novel of Degas in New Orleans. Art lovers as well as fans of the Crescent City will likely be mesmerized by a personal portrait so richly drawn that Degas himself would have approved.

There is a disturbing darkness revealed about the horrors of the period of Reconstruction that took place in the former Confederate states--a shamefully forgotten period of American history--and Creole Son fearlessly illuminates this aspect of our country’s past in a fashion Yankees and Westerners, especially, may find surprising, even shocking.

The reader follows Degas every step of the way as his hunger for inspiration and reinvention takes him from the elegant but tragically fading Creole world deep into New Orleans' infamous underbelly. This is an historical novel of such texture and significance, supported by its obvious bone-deep research, that looking at Degas’ familiar portraits of ballet dancers and cotton merchants will never be the same.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artist Edgar Degas is justly famous for his many lyrical and revealing paintings of ballerinas, but in Michael Llewellyn’s “Creole Son: A Novel of Degas in New Orleans”, we are presented with a fascinating portrait of the sometimes irascible but emotionally restrained artist himself. Having left Paris after the horrors of the Prussian invasion and the terrifying slaughter of the Paris Commune, Degas sought solace in his mother’s birthplace of Le Nouveau Orleans, among the aristocratic remains of the Creole population brought low by the ravages of the Civil War and the oppressive Reconstruction Era. Llewellyn, who lived in New Orleans for a number of years, writes convincingly of a chaotic, sensual, dangerous and exotic city that is seething with racial tension, criminal politics, sexual license and moral ambiguity. Degas finds himself both repelled and intrigued by the chaos of a people trying to re-build their city after the devastation of war, lamenting what has been lost and trying to avoid inevitable changes. When I started the book, I had no idea it was going to go to these dark places, but with Degas as a companion, it was enthralling to experience the strange and haunted streets and cemeteries, Mardi Gras balls and brothels, as well as the intimacy of his daily life in his mother’s family. Llewellyn crafts a strong and persuasive argument for New Orleans having brought Degas to a new and daring way of painting, experiences that freed his artistic abilities as much as they opened his heart and soul. The descriptions of how Degas thought, observed and painted his subjects are finely wrought and very well written, showing detailed knowledge of the artist’s style and methods. A book to be savored.

[Richard Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Michael Llewellyn has produced another, deeply engrossing, very moving historic book set in reconstruction New Orleans. The addition of a master painter as a character and the author's intimate understanding of an artist's processes and inspirations made this a very fast, really absorbing read for me. Since I'm also very interested with anything New Orleans and especially analysis of one of the world's most interesting and diverse cultures, I was caught up in Creole Son's magic from the very first page. The range of characters is wide enough to create lots of conflict, but still small enough to reveal a great deal about each one. I was also very glad I'd read the author's previous book, Twelfth Night which gave me access to several characters and situations with a greater understanding that I would have had.

The author has a very distinct way of weaving historic period and social issues into a very intimate, very personal immersion into the setting. It's very clear that he also invested a great deal of time into researching this material. If you've been to NOLA or had any desire to know her better, this is a must-read. If you are a student of American History you will especially appreciate this critical examination of the political corruption in the Reconstruction Era which dealt the New Orleans society and economy a blow that still resounds. It is also an unflinching look at the pervasive damage inflicted by stratified racism. On finishing the book I immediately googled Degas New Orleans Paintings, which further brought this story to life for me.

[Lynn Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1872, French painter Edgar Degas is disillusioned by a lackluster career and haunted by the Prussian siege of Paris and the bloodbath of the Commune. Seeking personal and professional rebirth, he journeys to New Orleans, birthplace of his Creole mother. He is horrified to learn he has exchanged one city in crisis for another—post-Civil War New Orleans is a corrupt town occupied by hostile Union troops and suffering under the heavy hand of Reconstruction. He is further shocked to find his family deeply involved in the violent struggle to reclaim political power at all costs.
Despite the chaos swirling around him, Degas sketches and paints with fervor and manages to reinvent himself and transition his style from neoclassical into the emerging world of Impressionism. He ultimately became one of the masters of the new movement, but how did New Orleans empower Degas to fulfill this destiny?
The answer may be found in the impeccably researched, richly imagined historical novel, Creole Son.

[TheWeatherWitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read - Creole Son by Michael Llewelyn

Premise - 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Execution - 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Over all impact - 5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

OVERALL 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Blind picked this book. It's very gripping, very intriguing and informative too. Premise is a bit blur (maybe because I blind picked it lol) but it only added to the mysterious nature of the story. Very informative I learned a lot about art esp. painting execution is smooth yet remarkable. One of the books I wished is more popular. Story is well written and author is able to maintain the readers interest in a very challenging plot about art and politics and domestic affairs.

[Yves Fey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeking peace after the devastating political explosion of the Commune comes hard on the heels of grueling of the Franco Prussian war, Edgar Degas leaves Paris to visit his relatives in New Orleans, only to find conflicts as intensely wrenching as the ones he’s fled. In the punitive aftermath of the Civil War, the North oppresses the South, and whites continue to oppress the blacks. Ironically, for many of the gens de coleur, life was better before the slaves were freed. The political backdrop is fascinating, as are Degas’ family conflicts, but the heart of the novel is the examination of a troubled painter seeking new inspiration in an exotic landscape and a fascinating woman. This is a marvelous book offering a unique look at Degas. Impeccably researched and emotionally compelling, its complex themes are vividly rendered in lush, poetic prose that captures the Impressionist world of the artist.

[Jwsrauch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was never a fan of historical fiction, but a fan of Mr. Llewellyn's (different pen name) Alex in Wonderland series. Living in New Orleans, and loving everything about it, was thrilled to discover "Creole Son". Always on the hunt for a good novel about New Orleans. This novel not only made me fall in like w/ Mr. Llewellyn's work again, but made me rediscover Degas, and an interesting thought process on Louisiana politics, the sexual intense issue of race, and romance in general.

[Nae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had really, really expected a bit more from this book. It was a decent read, not the best, but decent.