When These Good Hands came out, I noticed it because I loved both the cover and the title, but I didn’t know yet what the book was about. When I saw Carin’s review and an interview with the author on her blog, Matilda Magtree, it decided me.
These Good Hands tells the story of Camille Claudel. It is 1943 and she is at the end of her life, having spent the last 30 years of it in a mental institution in France. Claudel’s story takes the form of letters written to her younger self about her life leading up to her confinement. She starts out as a promising and talented young artist who ends up having a passionate affair with her teacher, Auguste Rodin. Then, in later years, she begins to suspect Rodin of spreading lies about her and wanting to keep her work for himself. This paranoia creeps into the story so artfully that it is hard to pinpoint when exactly it all starts, but the weight of it is devastating.
Life was a blur of clay always seconds from drying out, needing wet rags to dampen it. Life was clamminess, a chill and the ache of work in our bones, dust in our throats and noses. The endless turning of hips and shoulders, bending Monsieur’s models towards light. We rendered, in clay, their knotted muscles, the invisible fibre of nerves. Their torsos arched over the splintery platforms they posed upon; their spread knees jutted. I don’t suppose you remember, for by then you had begun to depart.
In alternating chapters, we hear from Claudel’s nurse, Solange, through her journal entries. She is new to the institution and takes a special interest in Claudel. She is curious about her past and her constant need to be writing. We also find out a little about Solange’s own life, past and present (including bits about the war going on and the occupation of France). One thing I found especially interesting was hearing about some of the old treatments used on psychiatric patients; fever therapy, the Freeman-Watts procedure, electroconvulsive shock therapy, and the Utica crib. I also know I would never have wanted her job.
This book is not a quick read and I wasn’t immediately captivated, but once I got into it I felt immersed in their worlds. Claudel struggled to become recognized for her own talent, rather than just as the student (and mistress) of the well-known Auguste Rodin. Her story is tragic, but it is so worth reading about. It is heart-breaking to think of her in that asylum for 30 years where no one really knew her.
Here is a passage I like, comparing Auguste Rodin and Claude Debussy:
Like wind and rain, wildflowers and weeds springing up in knot gardens, his notes leapt from silence with a liquid quality the opposite of Monsieur’s suffocating thunder. Debussy was air and sunlight on faceted water, Monsieur a little volcano spewing rocks and dirt.
A few good lines:
Penis-heads guarding advancement’s ladder, claiming the light reflected by women.
Who knew buttercup-yellow frills and candy-floss curls could be harbingers of disaster?
There are days when one’s best intentions can serve to create a small hell.
But like any labouring mother I had to push. Her marble head crowned. Mouth, nose and eyes appeared.
To learn more about Camille Claudel, Rodin, and their sculptures, go here, here, and here.
Movies were made of Claudel and Rodin’s story in both 1988 and in 2013.
In her interview with Carin, Carol Bruneau tells us why she felt motivated to give Claudel a voice, what she would have asked her had they been sitting together at a dinner party, and 3 places she would recommend you visit if you are ever on a Claudel tour in France.
I wanted to try and give her a voice, to get inside the character of someone so feisty yet so vulnerable and—in just about every worldly way—defeated.
Carol Bruneau lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia and is the author of 6 books, her most recent being These Good Hands. I will definitely be reading more of her work.
Consumed by Ink 
This sounds like a book I will enjoy. I will add it to my TBR
I hope you like it! 🙂
Sounds interesting. Thanks for the links to the films. My list of books to read is too long but I will watch the movie.
Good idea! Sometimes the movie comes in handy, doesn’t it?
The 2 movies look so different – you might have to watch them both. 🙂
I will make a note of this title. I tried to read a fictionalized biography of Claudel a few years ago, but I just couldn’t get into the author’s style. From your quotes, I can already tell that this one will be more accessible for me.
And, if not, there are always the movies! The trailer for the second movie gave me the same ‘feeling’ as the book, so I’d like to watch that one first and see how it compares.
Oh, I think Camille Claudel is really interesting. I loved the movie.
BTW, I didn’t notice you had mentioned two movies. I’m only familiar with the older one with Gerard Depardieu and Isabel Adjani.
I was just about to ask which one you saw when I noticed your second comment. Hopefully I’ll eventually end up watching them both. It’s good to hear you liked it!
It almost sounds like the second one is a sequel, but I don’t know.
To me, the first one looks like it is more about her life as it happened, and the second one looks like it’s more about her in the institution looking back on her life. From what I can see in the trailers, the second one seems more like the book I read.
OK, that makes sense. The first one ends when she goes crazy.
What an incredible woman, I knew nothing of her. Can’t wait to read this. Juliette Binoche, I see, played her in the movie, it looks good!
It does look good- I can’t wait to see it! And it really is an incredible story.
Glad you enjoyed this, Naomi… She writes ‘place’ especially well. (have you read ‘Glass Voices’?
I searched out locations when I was in Halifax… fun!)
Glass Voices is high on my list of books to read. I’m hoping to get to it soon!
I like those lines you quoted about life as a blur of clay, life as clamminess. So glad you enjoyed this one, Naomi! Like Carin, I enjoyed searching for the locations described in Glass Voices. I haven’t done that for places mentioned in These Good Hands, but I do like seeing the photos she posts on her FB author page from the trips she made when she was doing research for the novel.
I’ll have to go and have a look at those pictures!
I’m looking forward to Glass Voices!
That quote comparing life to clay is gorgeous! I may check out the movie also.
It is, isn’t it? And, it’s a good story. I can see why so many want to write and make movies about it.
“There are days when one’s best intentions can serve to create a small hell.”
I think I need to look for a copy of this one! I too just finished up a book set in France, ‘All The Light We Cannot See’ and I really enjoyed that. 😀
Oh, that one has been staring me in the face for a long time now – I can’t wait to read it!
If you get to this one, you’ll have to come back and let me know what you think. Thanks for commenting!
It’s great, you should move it up your pile. 😀 RE These Good Hands I’ll try to remember you recommended it first when the time comes! Thanks honey.
Fascinating! I remember vaguely seeing some of her work at the Rodin Museum in Paris (nearly 10 years ago)—but I had no idea of the background. Thank you for the review!
You’re welcome. 🙂 It’s such a great story, isn’t it? You’ll just have to go back to Paris!
I’ll DEFINITELY be adding this to my TBR. One of my favourite places I visited in Paris was the Rodin Museum and I found Rodin and his life so fascinating.
Yay! If you decide to read it, it’ll be interesting to hear your thoughts as someone who went into the book already knowing something about their story.
That is an engaging picture and title! I’m glad it turned out to be a book you enjoyed 🙂
It’s too bad it was a library book. It would make a nice-looking addition to the bookshelf. 🙂