Interesting life, was interesting speculation on how much she really knew/collaborated or was just so focused on her work that she deliberately ignored what was going on around her. ( )

A satisfying real life tale of rags to riches tale of Coco Chanel reveals a strong women who made her way up to the higher circles of her time. She established an allure, a romance, a mystery so that even this detailed autobiography leaves questions about her life and real feelings. It is inspirational to a young entrepreneur as she battled through all kinds of setback, problem and disappointment but eventually has led to a household name that has survived the years as a quality luxury product. ( )

Why did I read it? I've always had a fascination with this self-made woman, and I remember reading a review of the paperback version of this book on a blog a few years back, and thinking I must read it. When I saw it was available in audio form, I took the opportunity to select it for my commute.

What's it about? It's a factual biography of Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, better known as Coco Chanel, the orphaned girl who rose to be one of the most famous names in fashion, if not the most famous; credited for the creation of simple, elegant, comfortable designs, most notably the "little back dress" now considered an essential item in any wardrobe.

What did I like? It was a book focussed on revealing truth and facts, and I learned some things about Chanel I had not known before. It's always a good thing when an author attempts to avoid speculation, even if not always successful. The audio version of the book, which was downloaded from Audible, was clear and without fault.

What didn't I like about this book? Where to start? This audio book annoyed me immensely, and I think it may have started with the narrator, Cassandra Harwood, whose voice droned through each sentence making it hard to concentrate on the information being presented. I don't speak French, but I can only hope the times she employed that language she did better than with the English, when words were mis-pronounced (e.g. subsidising, instead of subsiding) and there was no attempt at emphasis, or any kind of tonal variance in her speech. Had the text been more interesting, perhaps her voice might not have grated as much, alas ...

The book was full of facts, but much of the book seemed to stray into the lives of those around Chanel. At one point, it seemed as though quite a few pages had been dedicated to the wife of a lover and, try as I might, I failed to grasp as to why this information was necessary to the book, as it apparently had no bearing on Chanel's life itself.

I think that was the focus of my dislike of the book: very little on the woman herself, with far too much about friends, family, business associates, and acquaintances. I felt the book really could have been considerably shorter, with the cutting of extraneous information.

The way the information was presented was also rather tedious; with no nuance to the writing. It might as well have been a text book.

Would I recommend it? I wanted to enjoy this book; I really thought I would; but I didn't, and I feel any reader would think their time better spent on other books. ( )

If you are interested in Chanel you should read this but there are some caveats.

First the photographs and reproductions are excellent but, instead of being grouped in the center as with many biographies, they are scattered throughout, and perhaps to ennhance them, all the paper has some gloss, which makes it very tiring to read the text due to glare.

Second, the text is in a sans serif font with thin lines which is very hard on the eyes. It would be very stylish for short texts or ads, but for a book length text it's not appropriate and along with the glare from the choice of paper makes reading this extremely difficult.

Finally on content: the book goes on and on about Chanel's friends and lovers at the expense of discussion of her work as a designer. Because she obfuscated her childhood the chapters on Chanel's life up to the early 1920s are difficult to follow and the book doesn't move exactly chronologically so it's hard to tell what things were happening when.

And then there are endless paragraphs of backstory about the families, friends, and lovers of her friends and lovers and it's not always clear how that information helps us understand Chanel herself or why we should care.

The biggest disappointment is how little information there is about Chanel's clothing designs. For example, there's more information about the house she built on the Riviera than there is about the clothes she designed at the same time. I know very little about her artistic development, and I'd like to learn about the salient features of her notable collections and individual pieces--and less about her glamorous "lifestyle" and the yachts of the husbands of her friends. ( )