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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
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
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
