This is an open-ended blog ranging from news about my latest gigs and publications
to ruminations about politics, world affairs, culture and whatever piques my interest—or ire.
Contact: tomsancton@yahoo.com

Friday, June 23, 2017

Starred Review on Booklist!


The beat goes on...

THE BETTENCOURT AFFAIR just received this nice review on Booklist. I love the last line about the French wine cellars!



BOOKLIST
Issue: July 1, 2017
Advanced Review 

The Bettencourt Affair: The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris.
Sancton, Tom (Author)
Publication date: August 8, 2017. 416 p. Dutton, hardcover, $28. (9781101984475). 338.7.


Veteran journalist Sancton chronicles the thorny saga of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, her mind-boggling fortune (think stock dividends averaging more than $1 million a day), and a proportionately epic family embroilment. A daughter lacking affection from a father she adored, Liliane matured into a lonely, bored wife and mother despite endless riches and responsibilities at L’Oréal. Enter Banier, an exuberant, nonconforming artist, who offers vivacity and intrigue in spades. Eventually, Liliane will bestow gifts in excess of $1 billion on Banier while the relationship with her only child, Françoise, hardens like the obdurate heart both accuse the other of possessing. Convinced he’s conning Liliane out of her own inheritance, Françoise sues Banier, and high-court drama ensues (not to mention Nazi collaboration, political high jinks involving then-president Nicolas Sarkozy, suicide, and Swiss bank accounts). Although this tale seems destined for HBO or Hollywood, to bill this a mere “family drama” belies the staggering depth with which Sancton portrays his subjects, whose motivations, desires, and downfalls are “so difficult to judge according to a moral code based on right and wrong, black and white, good and evil.” A natural for book clubs, which will drain a French cellar’s worth of wine while appreciating Sancton’s meticulous research and discussing this unbelievable cast of characters.
                                                                                                                  — Katharine Uhrich 

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