I ALWAYS LOVED YOU A Story of Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas

Robin Oliveira recreates the era of the Belle Époque, imagining the intertwining lives of artists Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas. Narrator Mozhan Marno quietly demonstrates perfect pronunciation of French places and names. Cassatt was unlike all the other artists of the period—an American and a woman, and an unmarried one at that. Professionally, Degas was Cassatt’s mentor. But personally? Oliveira imagines what their forty-year association might have been. Marno gently renders the complicated inner life of Cassatt with her difficult and unwell family, professional anxiety, and, especially, occasional romance and frequent infuriation with Degas. Marno distinguishes Degas by adopting a light French accent, but it’s still difficult to keep straight all the other famous characters—Morisot, Manet, Monet, Zola, and Abigail May Alcott—who populate the story. A.B. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2014]