And The Show Went On—Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris

By Alan Riding. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2010. 400 pages.

Nice to see a book like this come out from a mainstream rather than an academic publisher. It can be a trying subject, explaining how the arts maintain themselves during times of governmental crisis, but former NY Times European cultural correspondent Alan Riding explains circumstances without getting too wonky, and has the taste and talent to make you appreciates the art he’s writing about.

Riding’s chosen a fascinating time and place in history to open what he instantly turns into a grander exploration of the relationship between art, commerce, national culture and politics. He tells, with far-flung sources that range from contemporary art reviews to obscure French history tracts (in French) how some arts thrived, others ebbed, and expensive media like film were practically snuffed out. Famous names like Andre Malraux are put in new context, having to publicly defend—or hide away because of—their political views whilst creating their art, or interrupting long-term projects for topical protest-oriented ones. The aftermath of the occupation, when Nazi sympathizers and collaborationists were put on trial, adds a concluding central platform for a book that’s already full of scattered episodes of questionable behavior during wartime: Maurice Chevalier explaining why he performed for POWs in Nazi camps, for instances.
The little-known adventures of big celebrities adds to Alan Riding’s already lively style. His chapter titles couldn’t be more inviting: “Resistance as an Idea”; “Writing for the Enemy”; “The Pendulum Swings”; “Surviving at a Price.”
This is as valuable a book about how artistic temperaments cope under political pressure as anything written about the Hollywood Blacklist.