"The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre" by Natasha Lester Review (Spoiler Free!)
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| Eiffel Tower, Paris, France |
Please check for trigger warnings for this book. You can check out Storygraph's page for The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
“A woman can be ruined so easily by a man, Anthony,” she said, her voice so thin it was almost transparent…. “Even though my friend Lillie and her mother weren’t responsible for her father losing all their money, they lost everything too. They had no money saved because a married woman isn’t allowed to have a bank account in her own name.”
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| House of Dior Paris, France |
Natasha Lester wove Alix St. Pierre's story so beautifully, and I found every minute captivating. Alix's interactions with those around her - Bobby, Lillie, Anthony March, Christian Dior, Fortunee, Becky, Esmee, and so many others - really showed how human Alix St. Pierre was despite her reputation.
Fiercely independent Alix St. Pierre stood on her own two feet. However, she also knew when to ask for help, even in the toughest spots that may have made it difficult to request assistance. I saw so much of myself in Alix St. Pierre, which is something that I rarely see in the fiction I've read. Previous characters I've related to have often been side characters who aren't in the story the entire time. And the few main characters I've sort of related to were only because of one to two aspects of their personalities or hobbies.
While I would have liked to see more direct interactions between Alix, Bobby, and Lillie, I also appreciated that they weren't directly in the story. It was either a mention of a telegram during the war, one of Alix's letters to Lillie during Alix's time at Dior, or Alix simply mentioned the relationships with Bobby and Lillie to Anthony March in passing. Maybe we could get a novella of all the communications between the three of them during the war? (Maybe not the ones between Bobby and Lillie since we got some of that in the book itself.)
This book broke my heart in the best possible way. It immediately made its way to the top of the list of my favorite books, and it's also at the top of my 2023 favorite books. It is, hands down, my favorite book of 2023 - I don't care what else I read or what may come out later this year.
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| The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre Natasha Lester US Hardcover |
“I sometimes wonder,” she began, haltingly, but his eyes beseeched her to keep going,
“what I’ll regret more when I’m seventy and alone. Will I regret the aloneness,
the lack of a husband and children - will I want to reach into the past and tell myself
right now just to date anyone who asks and acquiesce to the life I’m supposed to have?
Or will I, when I’m seventy and have four children and fifteen grandchildren and have
managed three dinner parties a week for forty years, want to stand in the doorway and scream
at myself right now to never, ever acquires? How can I know, when I’ve never really had a
family, whether it’s worth giving up? How can I know what I’d treasure most when some of
those treasures have never found their way into my hands?”
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| Bern, Switzerland in the winter |
The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre links
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