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Mata Hari Last Dance A Novel Michelle Moran Books

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Mata Hari Last Dance A Novel Michelle Moran Books

Since I read Moran's Nefertiti many years ago she has remained one of my go-to historical fiction authors. She has a knack for bringing strong female leaders from history to the forefront telling their stories with vivid detail and heart. Historical women such as Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Madame Tussaud, Josaphine Boneparte and India's Queen Lakshmi have had their stories shared by Moran and I've enjoyed them all.

Going into this book all I knew about Mata Hari was that she was a beautiful, seductive spy during WWI. Unfortunately, after reading this book I don't feel like I got to really know the woman behind the famous name. That said, this would have been a hard book to write because, although Mata Hari is famous, little is documented about her which leaves Moran to piece together the story and her idea of how events transpired. Even today Mata Hari's death is veiled in suspicion and conspiracy.

Unfortunately I didn't feel as drawn into this book as I have with Moran's previous works. I didn't have a connection with Mata Hari and felt that the book lacked Moran's usual depth of story and emotion leaving me with little sympathy for Mata Hari's decisions which were often selfish and quite immature. I think if more time was focused on Mata Hari's past I could have gotten a better understanding of how and why she became such a well-known historical figure.

Instead the focus was on Mata Hari's numerous romantic conquests where the names and status of these men began to blend together with few of them being memorable. The political scene, an important part of Mata Hari's story, was alluded to but not enough detail was given leaving me to feel like I wasn't quite grasping what was going on.

Due to the fact that Mata Hari's life continues to be shrouded in mystery this book was a big undertaking. And while this book wasn't my favourite book of Moran's she still remains one of my favourite authors and I look forward to her next book.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Touchstone books for providing me with an e-book copy in exchange for my honest review.


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Mata Hari Last Dance A Novel Michelle Moran Books Reviews

I never really knew what to believe about Mata Hari but I always just assumed that she was executed because she deserved it. As I learn more about life and history I realize that things aren't always as they seem. Michelle Moran weaves an incredibly beautiful story of the scandalous Mata Hari. It begins with the young M'greet and all her frivolous naivety. She is carefree, reckless, and flippant. She isn't very likable to start off but as Mata Hari opens up little by little as the narrator you understand there is so much more to her than just an exotic dancer in Paris. The book ends with what history knows about Mata Hari but, deep down, I had hoped history had gotten it wrong this time. This was such a magnificent book and I likely would have finished it in one sitting if I didn't feel the urge to know every possible thing I could about this infamous woman as I turned each page. I constantly was doing research wanting to devour as much knowledge of her as I could. In the end I believe she was a scapegoat. She was just another evil seductress to be killed for the history books by men who didn't understand her.
I typically enjoy Michelle Moran's historical fiction novels, but this one left me feeling cold and apathetic. Unlike the young women of previous novels, such as Nefertari, Selene Cleopatra, or even Madame Tusseaud, Mata Hari is not likable or sympathetic. While it is clear early on that she endured her fair share of tragedies, her present-day persona is one enamored by the latest fashion, gossip, and who's who in whatever city she happens to be in. She uses and abuses men for her own gains, and is only out for herself. While the writing is superb (as always) and the stage is set beautifully, Mata Hari fails to deliver.
This is the story of Margaretha Zelle who morphed into the alluring and beautiful Mata Hari, spy, lover, dancer – true events are rolled into a fictional account of this unique woman’s life.

Most of us have a hazy – possibly crazy – notion of this glamorous woman, her name is famous, but to truly pin her down would be a hard task. The book portrays a woman blighted by early traumatic experiences – abandonment by her father, then by her first lover and ultimately by the man she believed to be her one true love.

At an early age she was single-minded enough to find a husband who would take her to Java, one presumes, so that she could see what became of her first love; but after the loss of one child, the marriage soon turned sour – with domestic violence an integral feature – and she left, to pursue a life of dance, glitz and glamour. An army of military lovers in Paris awaits and between performing risqué dances in the Salons and theatres of Paris, Madrid and Berlin, she enjoys the good life and revels in the gifts that rain down on her. She is the material girl of her era. Her performances in Salome, Cleopatra, plus Tristan and Isolde all hold her audiences in thrall. The first half of the book charts the serried ranks of men who end up being seduced and there are many encounters to plough through. The second half sees her negotiating her way through war-riddled Europe to her untimely demise, desperately finding a way to get her daughter Nom back from the clutches of her erstwhile husband Rudolph Macleod. She is “a woman who routinely couples ill-advised liaisons with requests for compensation“… so very true.

It is her penchant for men in uniform that ultimately brings her down. Naive. Disingenuous. A fantasist. Haughty. Manipulator of men. Vindictive (“I take when someone has taken from me“). Yet at times kind. Underneath of course there seems to have been a conflicted woman, emotionally damaged through multiple losses, who saw the world in terms of how it could serve her rather than what she could back in. A narcissist at heart but still a child too, searching, yearning perhaps for a father figure, and delighted by glittering gemstones as her reward for just being her. This woman was truly “an orchid among buttercups” but a damaged flower who struggled to really see her place in the world.

Mata Hari is a woman whose very essence is nebulous, and to attempt to tie down a credible portrait of this capricious character, dovetailing vulnerability with cupidity… that is no mean feat.
Since I read Moran's Nefertiti many years ago she has remained one of my go-to historical fiction authors. She has a knack for bringing strong female leaders from history to the forefront telling their stories with vivid detail and heart. Historical women such as Nefertiti, Cleopatra, Madame Tussaud, Josaphine Boneparte and India's Queen Lakshmi have had their stories shared by Moran and I've enjoyed them all.

Going into this book all I knew about Mata Hari was that she was a beautiful, seductive spy during WWI. Unfortunately, after reading this book I don't feel like I got to really know the woman behind the famous name. That said, this would have been a hard book to write because, although Mata Hari is famous, little is documented about her which leaves Moran to piece together the story and her idea of how events transpired. Even today Mata Hari's death is veiled in suspicion and conspiracy.

Unfortunately I didn't feel as drawn into this book as I have with Moran's previous works. I didn't have a connection with Mata Hari and felt that the book lacked Moran's usual depth of story and emotion leaving me with little sympathy for Mata Hari's decisions which were often selfish and quite immature. I think if more time was focused on Mata Hari's past I could have gotten a better understanding of how and why she became such a well-known historical figure.

Instead the focus was on Mata Hari's numerous romantic conquests where the names and status of these men began to blend together with few of them being memorable. The political scene, an important part of Mata Hari's story, was alluded to but not enough detail was given leaving me to feel like I wasn't quite grasping what was going on.

Due to the fact that Mata Hari's life continues to be shrouded in mystery this book was a big undertaking. And while this book wasn't my favourite book of Moran's she still remains one of my favourite authors and I look forward to her next book.

Disclaimer My sincere thanks to Touchstone books for providing me with an e-book copy in exchange for my honest review.