"Felice's Worlds: From the Holocaust to the Halls of Modern Art" by Henry Massie

Summary: 

FIRST SHE ESCAPED THE HOLOCAUST AND THE POVERTY OF THE SHTETL. AFTER THAT, SHE MOVED IN MANY WORLDS. AND IN EVERY ONE SHE MADE HER MARK.

Felice Massie was a student in France, caught up in the horrors of Naziism when she was 20 years old.  Cut off by the war from her family living in a small village in Poland, she shifted from one country to another attempting to find a home for herself and a means to rescue her parents, brother and sister.  As the Holocaust descended on her shtetl, she arrived penniless in America.  Over time she raised a family and amassed one of foremost collections of American modern art.  Her boldness and resilience became a beacon of hope and inspiration for others.

Remarks:   

"Henry Massie never blinks as he creates an astonishing chronicle of a life in diaspora. Only a son could capture this passionate spirit, who escaped both Adolf Hitler and Joe McCarthy." --Patty Friedmann, author of TOO JEWISH

“Henry Massie's FELICE'S WORLDS is a labor of love in more ways than one.  A daughter of the 20th century, Felice Massie's journey is both a personal odyssey and a window on some of the most important events in political history and the modern art world.  It's also the story of a remarkable woman who was ahead of her time in many notable ways.  Although there are heartbreaks along the way, Massie also captures his mother's sense of humor and most of all, her remarkable coming of age in Europe, Palestine and America.  This is a book you'll want to share with your friends and gift to everyone who appreciates the skills of a wonderful writing talent.  Don't miss it.” --

            Roger Rapoport, author of Hillsdale: A Greek Tragedy in America's Heartland, and journalist,   The Frequent Flyer.

Particulars of the Book : 

Genre: Biography/Memoir/Historical (Holocaust)

Publisher: booksBnimble

Publication Date: Feb, 2012

Pages:  211

Link to purchase the book on Amazon (or where it is sold):  http://www.amazon.com/Felices-Worlds-Holocaust-Modern-ebook/dp/B0079Q0HU6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329434260&sr=1-1

 About the Author :        Henry Massie

Henry Massie is a psychiatrist, award-winning author, and pioneering researcher in the field of autism. FELICE'S WORLDS--From the Holocaust to the Halls of Modern Art, is the a memoir and biography of his mother, a brilliant and beautiful woman who participated in many of the most critical periods of the 20th Century.

Learn more about him here:

Email Address: booksbnimble@gmail.com

Website Address: www.booksbnimble.com

Twitter Address: @booksbnimble

Facebook Address: /booksbnimble

 

An Interview with Dr. Massie :

1)  First of all, please tell us a special something about what makes you "tick."  When you aren't writing, what are you doing.

When I'm not solving my fictional characters' problems or recreating real people's lives on paper, I'm in my office consulting with patients, trying to help them solve problems in real life.  I'm a psychiatrist.  And when doing none of the above, I may be walking with my dog on Goat Rock beach in northern California.

 2)  You chose a specific genre, a place and time to write about, what made you choose it?

The genre chose me.  Felice's Worlds is a biography of my mother, in a sense her memoir.  It is often in the very words she used to tell me about her life and adventures during some of the critical periods of the 20^th century.  It is also a double-memoir about how her brilliance, boldness and emotional burdens affected me.  Her story was dying to be told.

Currently I am working in the very different genre of a highly fictionalized account of how somebody I knew was influenced by his friendship with Marilyn Monroe when he was in high-school and she was in her thirties, in the two years before her death.  It is called Prom Date.  I fell into writing it because of my fascination with people's desires and dreams and how they turn out.

3)  Please share with your readers where you like to write. Do you have a particular space or desk?  What can you see from your desk?  Do you have props you use to write from?  What about special "charms?"

I have three desks:  one in my office where I keep charts and so forth, one in a study in my house in Berkeley where I pay bills, and one at my cabin near Guerneville, California, near where the Russian River flows into the Pacific Ocean.  The desk at the cabin is where I do my writing.  I need to escape from the city desks to the cabin to be creative.  "Living on the river," as people say, is to live in another world that fosters fantasies.  From my desk there I see three redwood trees reaching to the sky, climbing so high that I can't even see their tops if I put my face to the window and peer up.  My desk is completely cluttered with paper, clippings, and notes to myself.  My two desks back in town are neat and orderly.  The trees outside my window are my writing totems.

4)  In your opinion, what makes a book a great one?

A great book has to suck me into it like a whirlpool.  After a spell of reading, the characters and their dilemmas in a great book make me feel so tense that I need to put the book down and get some breathing space.  The language and imagery has to be alive and poetic.  I don't think books that obsess over little details and tiny shades of meaning and feeling are great (I call them dandelion cottage books) even though many critics adore them. 

5)  Which author(s) most influenced your love of books from childhood?

Starting in about fourth grade I read every Hardy Boy adventure that came out.  They still influence my writing.  In sixth grade I switched to a series of books about American history for young people.  They taught me about real people and events.  My interest in character developed in high school when I started reading Faulkner.  My favorite was his novella The Bear.

7)  Please share with us the underlying message of your book.  What would you like your readers to take away after having read the book?

There are several themes running through Felice's Worlds:  1) War endures through millennia in the land called Palestine and Israel because of the never-ending folly of men with guns, 2) Those who suffered the Holocaust have passed their psychological trauma from one generation to the next and the next, 3) Traumatized though they may be, some people show amazing emotional resilience, 4) Beauty may save the soul, but only so far.

I'm content if readers understand these things better after reading Felice's Worlds.

8)  Were you able to keep your original title?  What was it, if not?

The title of Felice's Worlds was fluid, a shifting about work in progress as long as the book was a work in progress.  It didn't crystallize until the book was finished, with help from the publisher.

9)  Is there a song or music in general that might best represent your book as a theme song. 

Yes, Eastern European klezmer music captures the book.  The publisher, BooksBnimble, created a video trailer for Felice's Worlds, with an excerpt of Felice speaking about her past when she was in her seventies, and with pictures of her village on the Polish-Russian border, and her home and art in America.  The trailer's klezmer music has snippets of jazz from the 1930s, gypsy rhythms, and Jewish folk melodies. You can access the trailer by going to YouTube, or via the publisher's website, or via the Amazon listing for the book, I believe.

10)  If you could write your book again, what would you change?

Felice's Worlds went through three or four drafts, with input from friends and two editors.  For the final draft I told myself this time I want to get it right, leave nothing I'm dissatisfied with on the page, say what I want to say, and say it cleanly once a for all.  I'm satisfied with what's there.

11)   What was the worst distraction you had to fight through while writing your book? 

Working on the book was riveting.  It could eat me up, gobble up all my time.  I needed to fight myself away from it by looking for distractions.

12)  What did you feel or think when you held the first copy of your book in your hands?

I felt that I had done justice to Felice's life.

13)  Tell us a secret about your book we wouldn't otherwise know, please!

Felice had a saying:  Truth is better than fiction because it is more unbelievable.  Perhaps she invented some of her truths.   

 

I appreciate so much your taking time for this interview, Hank.  Thank you for being so candid!

 

 

Dr. Massie Discusses Feminism and "Felice" :

 

One of my areas of particular interest is feminism in writing and life.  I'm delighted to bring this guest post by Dr. Massie on the subject!

 

 

 

“How my mother influenced my perspective on women and feminism.” 

My mother was my first teacher, not unusual of course, but she was an unusually dramatic one, so I learned from her that women could have many strong emotions, be well educated, and have strong opinions.  They didn't have to be like many other mothers in my parents' circle, playing bridge for long, silent hours at a country club.  I also learned from my mother that women didn't have to be like the low-key Midwestern men around me who worked endless hours a day and rarely showed any feelings.

 

 My father commissioned a portrait of my mother just after they married, "So I will have something to remember you by if I lose you," he said.  It captured her at her most beautiful, and my mother hung it over her bed for the rest of her life.  I slowly understood how important it was for her to always know how alluring she was in her youth, and how terribly important it was for her to feel loved and lovable.  I imagine those feelings are important to most women.  I could see that my mother knew how to flirt, to touch a man gently on the shoulder, and how to offer her cigarette to be lit.  She said to me toward the end of her life, 'If I had girls I would have raised them to have feminine interests and femininity.  It is important for a girl to make herself as attractive as possible. Girls are created, are genetically endowed to look pretty, and a normal girl should be raised to make herself as attractive as possible with her endowment.  Beauty is its own essence and very agreeable in life.  It is the pleasure of living.  It is necessary to cultivate beauty, not just of the body but of the mind."

 

Perhaps this doesn't sound like Felice had an ounce of activist Feminism in her, but when she was lecturing on modern art at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, young women flocked to her.  She advised them on their love-life and mentored them in their education.  She never spoke of the Feminist movement, however one of her college students saidheight of feminism in the 1970s, "She was the quintessential modern woman.  That short hair [like Audrey Hepburn's], those clothes [colorful folkloric during the day, black skirt to the knee with a black top in the evening], that lovely petite body with the big brown eyes.  She was alive, forceful, independent and challenging." 

              

Since I respected Felice, in turn I respected her own brand of feminism which she exuded just by the way she was.  I had the unusual experience for a son growing up in those days of being mentored in my own education by her.  Other sons were mentored by a father, uncle, professor, or coach.  My mother directed me to countless books which we discussed together over the years.  In my mind womanhood became linked not just with femininity but also with erudition.  Unfortunately her erudition didn't extend to the kitchen for she never learned to cook beyond scrambling eggs, broiling a steak, and fixing a salad.  Nonetheless, my father, brother and I still admired her.  She was not just my first teacher but the best teacher I ever had.  

 

The Dame's Review :

 

This is a rather long review of "Felice's Worlds:  From the Holocaust to the Halls of Modern Art," but I thought the book was especially fascinating and I wanted to bring as many elements of it as I could to my readers.

 

What I found intriguing about this biography were two things in particular:  1)  it often read like a novel, and 2)  it was the most clear expose' on the Holocaust and European history that I'd read outside of text books.  Finally, this book answered a question I'd wondered about when I worked as an interior designer for so many years; that is, why did so many of my Jewish women clients choose contemporary designs and art for their homes?  What drew them to contemporary styles even in their dress, for the most part?  It was so apparent to me, I wanted an answer...

 

Henry Massie is a very strong writer, of that there can be no question.  His skill at keeping the story flowing and within an interesting and understandable context is compelling.  But his strongest area of expertise was evident in his understanding of European cultural relationships, WWII history as it affected Jews in Europe, and in the beauty of architecture and culture of these countries historically.  Reading these sections of his book was mesmerizing.  Along with the story of his mother in detail, we learn the circumstances of her world as it shattered like crystal around her.  It made for a rare and unforgettable read.

 

Felice comes through as an indomitable spirit.  She is brave above all things.  Beautiful and stalwart, she faces tragedy, hunger, homelessness and loneliness like a champion.  I often wondered as I read the book, if it could have been as easy as it seemed for her to transist from one extreme hardship to another.  I was struck by her life culled from education as an anchor in a stream in which she was initially left abandoned by a mother who was disconnected from her.  Intellectual pursuits and artistic understanding became a lifeline for her, her entire life.

 

The point I want to make here about design, art and contemporary culture which Hank Massie personifies in his mother comes about as he describes her culmination and "soothing of her survival guilt" through the adaptation of the philosophy and spirituality of beauty and aesthetics.  I loosely quote here some of the thoughts/sayings that he uses in reference to Felice:

 

   "..needed something new.  The war had annihilated everything--European Jewish culture,  what we believed in, society's values...  There's no nostalgia in abstract expressionist art because it had never existed before."  Felice

 

   "...new for a new life...a cleansing purity in the new art after the meanness and horrors of WWII."

 

   "Beauty will save the world," she thought.

 

   "The art took them away from the realities of the world...to a place where beauty reigned and where evil was overcome by its radiance."

 

   "Beauty could be like the antidote to the horrors and feelings of the Holocaust."

 

 

I think this answers many of my personal questions I've had about the aesthetic of contemporary design and art for the Jewish families I know and love.  When a past has been wiped out, and family memories are too painful, looking forward may be one of the only joys to cultivate and surround oneself with.

 

While I didn't think "Felice's Worlds" was a perfect book; it often made Felice out to be saintly in her perfection, beauty and intelligence,  I thought it was altogether a wonderful experience of a read.  It was a biography that certainly lifted the veil on Holocaust survival from the perspective of not just one, but several generations, including Henry Massie's own life.

 

I would recommend this book particularly for those interested in this time in history, and in survivors of the Holocaust, as well as the history of expressionist art.  A beautiful book.

 

5 stars                Deborah/TheBookishDame

 

Marie Antoinette~Reflections,Interior Design,&Stitching

Dear Marie Antoinette is a female archetypal figure to me. She's not just a Queen of France and a wildly interesting woman of history on her own count. She epitomizes the lot of women...she is symbolic Woman. I can never get enough information about her.

Let's look at the portrait above as art historians. The portrait is painted as if writing us a love letter. Marie Antoinette is only 14 years old. The very first thing we notice is her eyes. The artist has left alot of "white space" around them to make sure they draw our attention. "The eyes are the windows of the soul." Her eyes say that she is sweet and innocent, but strong-minded and ready for the task at hand. The portrait is telling us this young girl has royal blood and great potential as a royal wife. That is; after all, her only value in her Time. The laurel of pearls that softly "crowns" her hair suggests this. She is intelligent as shown by her high forehead and slightly raised brow.

We see that she is pretty and healthy by her red, bowed lips, pink cheeks and fine bosom. The artist, again, has suggested that she is precocious, or will be wise beyond her years by her over all expression and her slightly powdered wig. But, then, he doesn't want to say she's too old...so we have the big, girlish blue silk bow at her neck and chest area. And, the use of the yellow silk dress which indicates royalty and youth, purity and lightheartedness. Aside from the laurel of faintly indicated pearls in her hair, she is wearing no jewelry or other ornamentation. All in all....a very sweet portrait of a young princess to be sent to a future husband for the bargaining!! Or bluntly stated, in a more contemporary way....look at the picture closely. She is shaped like a Queen Bee in her hive....ready to reproduce! She's slightly voluptuous with a beehive hair style.

One of the very first books I ever read was a biography of her. I was smitten from that first historical encounter. I was 8 years old. Marie Antoinette seemed to be a young, kind, sadly alone girl who was a princess, but never really was understood or loved by her people. I first imagined her in my mind all alone being driven across a cold and snowy country in a covered sled headed to a strange land. I could see her bundled up in white fur and blue velvet robes. She was sent away from her home, her mother and siblings. She wasn't sure who would take her in on the other side. She didn't know who would meet her. She didn't know if her future husband would like her. She had no idea what France was, who the French people were and what her home would be like. That was the long and short of it in my child's mind. I had alot to relate to in Marie Antoinette's life. I wanted to love her then...and I still do. I have, as I said, all of my life.

So, I've decided to devote some of my blog to the study of Marie Antoinette, portraits of her, and her domestic interiors. I'm going to focus on studies of her furnishings, the colors, and the fabrics and tapestries of her surroundings. We'll get to know what she personally liked. What colors she preferred and what designs expressed who she was. We'll be able to understand more about her..not only in her palaces, but in her favorite, little rustic village and cottages. Her preferences set the historical face of interior design...and we still live with her choices today.

Our houses tell more about us than we realize. I know....I've been studying and working with arts and fabrics and furnishings in one way or another since I was a baby! What we choose, how we envelope ourselves...it all tells a story. I want to unravel Marie Antoinette's.

This is fair warning! :) I hope I don't drive some of my stitching friends away!

How will this study connect with our stitching? I want to see and stitch with some of the "colors of Marie Antoinette." I will be choosing colors from threads that are available to us now, so I can have a visual, tangible color palette. I'm thinking of designing a spot or band sampler as I go along.

Here is a beginning example. This is a bedroom drapery and silk bed covering ensemble that was made for MA for Fountainbleu. She never used the room. What it tells us is her color and pattern preferences.

Since no one would dare give her a complete bedroom that would displease her, we can be assured these are some of her favorite colors. In this picture we see that she does not use the darkest or deepest shade of colors...she liked medium tone colors. She doesn't have any pastels here, either. The pastels were kept for her cottages.

I see these 3 main colors: Grass green, peony pink, and yellow. From these you take the different values or shades of each color. There would have been 2 more secondary colors to balance the palette.... The gold acts as a "yellow."

The Chinese image above her bed shows her evolving artistic interest in chinoiserie. Trade with China brought many beautiful china and silks to royals. Marie Antoinette collected Chinese porcelain vases, for instance. By the time she has this bedroom created for her, she is well into her role as the reigning Queen of France.

However, to begin at the beginning: in the portrait at the top, Marie Antoinette of Austria is 14 yrs old. She is one year away from leaving her mother and family to become the wife and Queen of the future King of France. All she knows is music, dance, singing, embroidery, playing with her sisters, opulence, servants, structure of her mother's hard Hapsburg rule, flowers and language studies. She is an obedient child. She is the youngest daughter, and very close to her older sister who dotes on her. Her mother is a daunting and powerful woman...a Hapsburg... Ruler of a Royal Dynasty of Royals...a Queen to be respected...a strong and mostly distant mother. Marie Antonia speaks German. French is not her mother-tongue, nor is she well-schooled in French manners or world history. She is shy and willing to obey.

Here she is a young Queen. More about this portrait later.

"The Reconstructionist" by ~Nick Arvin~Psychological Sting of A Novel from HarperCollins

Published by: Harper Collins

This is a novel that will stealthily

walk into your consciousness

without giving away the underlying messages.

You'll have to dig a little for

the treasures, and the

hunt is well worth it!

Summary:

One instant can change an entire lifetime.
As a boy, Ellis Barstow heard the sound of the collision that killed Christopher, his older half brother—an accident that would haunt him for years. A decade later, searching for purpose after college, Ellis takes a job as a forensic reconstructionist, investigating and re-creating the details of fatal car accidents—under the guidance of the irascible John Boggs, who married Christopher's girlfriend. Ellis takes naturally to the work, fascinated by the task of trying to find reason, and justice, within the seemingly random chaos of smashed glass and broken lives. But Ellis is harboring secrets of his own—not only his memory of the car crash that killed his brother but also his feelings for Boggs's wife, Heather, which soon lead to a full-blown affair. And when Boggs inexplicably disappears, Ellis sets out to find him . . . and to try to make sense of the crash site his own life has become.
Raising a host of universal questions—Can science ever explain matters of the heart? Can we ever escape the gravitational pull of the past?—Nick Arvin's novel is at once deeply moving and compulsively readable.

My Measured Perspective:

Nick Arvin writes in the brief, blunt style of an investigative reporter; this befitting the narration of his character's reconstructionist lifestyle.  The staccato "voice" is one of an isolated, socially inept man who is used to self-commentary and introspection.  It was this controlled inner dialog method that made his book so compulsively readable to me at the beginning.  It was this and the story as it developed that kept me whipping through the pages for answers.  Who would have thought that a book about car accident reconstruction would be so absorbing?  I wouldn't have.  But something about the summary made me take a chance on it, and I'm so glad I did.  This is a book I'll never forget.

While this appears on the surface to be the story of an average boy who grows up living a couple of blocks from a dangerous intersection where there were many car wrecks he was able to witness in the nearly immediate aftermath, it cuts much deeper than that.  It's the story of how that intersection and the accidents shaped him, his perceptions of people, and his life in total.  It's how living within range of continuing, inevitable danger and death, witnessing it regularly, and finally experiencing it personally by way of his brother's death, made him into the man he became.  Life's circumstances, the author seems to tell us, our physical surroundings outside the home, can be critical to who we become.

Through the course of the book, we come to understand that old adage, "there is no one so blind as he who will not see."  Human beings often know, but can't "know" the truth of horrendous happenings.  We can't "see" them because if we do, they might destroy us or the love we have with others.  In Nick Arvin's book, he causes his characters to wrestle with this issue in several ways.  It's a powerful struggle that works in juxtaposition with the very meticulously detailed job his protagonist Ellis and his boss Boggs have of seeing, looking over, measuring and configuring, reconstructing automobile accidents. Their very livelihoods come from the ability to see! 

While Arvin's characters are seemingly adept at reconstructing the accidents of others' lives, they have blind spots in their own lives. Both Ellis and Boggs are non-conformists, anti-social, odd and inept in their own ways. They fail to see how to fit in with others. The same goes for Heather, Bogg's wife and Ellis's brother's former girlfriend whom Ellis obsesses over.  She creates art projects making tiny, nearly indistinguishable diaramas from trash, and takes odd overexposed pictures made from tiny homemade cameras while hidden in her van.  She won't look at the real world around her, but makes fake, bearly distinguishable mini worlds, instead.

Boggs tells Ellis when he first comes to work they must remember it is an "analytic, emotionally odd job...you have to remind yourself that people died."  Disassociation is a part of the job, yet they find crushed Mardi Gras beads, a Babies R Us receipt, a tie...blood...other evidence that there was a human connection to the measurements and numbers coldly calculated and gleaned on sites.  This disconnect is seen in other areas of their lives: they both love books, and Boggs loves classical music; cultured and intelligent, you'd think.  But, each generally can't relate to human beings and suffering when they first begin their association.

Through the course of the book, we see Arvin's beautifully sculpted characters develop psychologically, socially and humanely.  It is ultimately love that brings them together and saves them.  It's love that helps them see everything they need to see.  And the journey is one that I traveled with them wide-eyed all the way.

I'm wondering if I've said enough to convince you to read his book.  Let me quote Nick Arvin one more time through one of his characters, "...no one lives an average life."  This may appear to be an average novel about average people in average circumstances.  It's not.  I hope you'll try it for yourself.  Guaranteed not to be missed, though not perfect in every way.  The end is a shocker!

4.5 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Nazi Stolen Art Featured In: "The Woman Who Heard Color" by Kelly Jones

Published by:  Berkley Trade

Pages:  400

Release Date:  October 4, 2011

Book Summary :

Lauren O'Farrell is an "art detective" who made it her mission to retrieve invaluable works stolen by the Nazis during the darkest days of World War II. Her quest leads her to the Manhattan apartment of elderly Isabella Fletcher, a woman who lives in the shadow of a terrible history-years ago her mother was rumored to have collaborated with the Nazis.

But as Isabella reveals the events of her mother's life, Lauren finds herself immersed in an amazing story of courage and secrecy as she discovers the extraordinary truth about a priceless piece of art that may have survived the war and the enduring relationship between a mother and a daughter.



The Dame's Thoughts :

Why did I notice this book?  

The cover caught me before I knew what hit me!  Gorgeous dress, beautiful pose and the hand on her hair just screams feminity (meaning a good women's story).

Why would I want to read it?

The storyline is about a young woman art "detective" or investigator who tracks stolen, priceless art pieces.  I particularly like exposing  the Nazi aspect...those art-destructive beasts.  And, it sounds like an interesting story all the way around.

Adjunct story:

The Nazi's hid the stolen art works taken from museums, castles and homes in caves.  Much of the art was either destroyed by war or the damp and caustic conditions of the caves.  The canvases in particular were ripped from their frames, for the most part, rolled and stuffed in crates and boxes with other things.  So much of the art masterpieces were either lost or found themselves in the hands and homes of the cowardly, devious Nazi's who ran from Germany after the War.  The art world scholars and investigators are still trying to locate many of the masterpieces of fine art today.

Children and grandchildren of concentration camp family members have begun the search, as well, for priceless art pieces they know were in their relative's homes prior to the Nazi take over in major cities. 

We know, however, that a people so devoid of regard for human life, might also toss aside precious works of art for spite, or simply for convenience. 

Read more about this continuing search at: 

http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/records-and-research/documenting-nazi-plunder-of-european-art.html

This Research Center considers that the Nazi's looted and stole more that 100,000 piece of art from museums.   There is a picture on this site of artworks in huge crates and wrapped smaller packages stacked in what appears to be heights of over 12-14 ft. along side walls of an occupied cathedral.

Example of an Impressionist Masterpiece kept in a cave.

I believe this is a Manet.

It interests me to read this novel of art and the Nazi horrors, but there's no comparison to researching the actual facts surround the story.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

New Orleans Decorating~"Big Easy Style:Creating Rooms You Love to Live In" by Bryan Batt

Published by:  Crown

Release Date:  October 4, 2011

Pre-release Price:  Available

Pages:  208 including photos

Hardcover

Overview :  (Taken from book)

An enchanting space that’s truly unique calls for a sense of humor, whimsy, and an open mind.
From a charmed New Orleans childhood to a successful acting career on Broadway and the award-winning TV show Mad Men to the opening of his popular Big Easy home furnishings boutique, Hazelnut, Bryan Batt has always turned to home design as a creative outlet.

To him, the best rooms are unexpected yet refined and, above all, evoke emotion. He doesn’t think twice about hanging over sized decorations from a Mardi Gras float in an elegant dining room or bringing home vintage etchings of sconces when he was actually shopping for real ones. He believes that a vibrant orange wall can be a neutral backdrop for an antique writing desk and earthy accessories, and that an artist’s whimsical bird’s nest sculpture hung in a lavender entryway couldn’t serve as a better welcome into a cozy abode. New Orleans has taught Bryan so much about how to pull together a space that’s fearless and colorful with plenty of panache. With the city as his muse—its strong roots in history, its celebration of tradition, and, of course, the wild festivities of Mardi Gras—he believes that designing a fabulous, livable home that truly reflects a dweller’s passions need not be intimidating.

Big, Easy Style showcases rooms that make Bryan smile, with pages of rich photography featuring the work of many designers—and plenty of Crescent City interiors—framed by his own entertaining maxims on color, pattern, collecting, living areas, intimate spaces, and more. Explore rooms he’s personally designed and others that inspire him; from an old-world kitchen imported straight from the heart of France to a luxurious Art Deco media room, these homes are enticing and unique, and through their surprising details, completely inviting. 

Decorating your home to reflect your personality and taste takes practice and patience and can be a daunting undertaking, but Bryan proposes that we not worry about making mistakes, that any decision we make is better than no decision at all. With Big, Easy Style, learn how to put aside your hesitation and surrender to the wild side of home design for a big statement that’s easy to achieve.

Let's Meet Bryan!

BRYAN BATT (actor, designer, civic activist, and author) is most recently known for his two-time Screen Actors Guild Award winning performance as “Salvatore Romano” in AMC’s critically acclaimed dramatic series MAD MEN, which has been lauded with awards including Emmys, Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild as well as the Peabody awards.

Bryan is also a designer. He and Tom Cianfichi, his partner of 22 years, are the nationally recognized creative forces behind HAZELNUT, a fine gift and home accessories shop in his home town of New Orleans. HAZELNUT has been featured in the NEW YORK TIMES, HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, IN STYLE, FOOD AND WINE, TOWN AND COUNTRY and many more publications.

His debut book, a memoir, or as he calls it, a momoir, “SHE AIN’T HEAVY, SHE’S MY MOTHER,” celebrates his Steel Magnolia / Auntie Mame of a mom and depicts growing up in wildly colorful  New Orleans in the 1970’s. The book has received wonderful notices… “I Loved, Loved, Loved This Book” – Whoopi Goldberg …and was on Janet Maslin’s NY Times top 10 summer read list.

As a Broadway veteran, Bryan’s leading and principal roles include: 2005 revival of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, SUESSICAL THE MUSICAL, SUNSET BLVD, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, STARLIGHT EXPRESS, and CATS. Off Broadway: FORBIDDEN BROADWAY (Drama Desk Nomination). Theatrically, Bryan is most proud of originating the role of DARIUS in the N.Y. and L.A (Drama Logue Award) productions, as well as the film adaptation, of Paul Rudnick’s ground breaking comedy JEFFREY.

A civic activist, Bryan champions many causes including Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS, Habitat For Humanity, Second Harvest Food Bank, the Human Rights Campaign (Equality and Visibility Awards), the SPCA, The Preservation Resource Center, The Point Foundation, N.O. AIDS Task Force, and Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré.

His next book is a design book for Clarkson Potter entitled “BIG, EASY STYLE” and will be released October 4th.

Bryan (left, back section of picture!) 

The Dame's Review :

"The Big Easy..." is a beautifully written book in addition to being a book with gorgeous photographs of homes in lush details and sophisticated tastes.  Bryan Batt displays his Renaissance man characteristics not only in acting, it seems, but in writing, decorating and presenting himself as an entertaining man-about-town in New Orleans.  This is a book of many surprises, one that you'll be pleased to reference, and have available for friends and family.

I love 1800's period homes.  Having been an interior designer myself, and having owned a few houses in that time period, I know the joys and the challenges they can present.  Mr. Batt has shown them off and led us through those with panache!  It's a real joy to see and read his excitement over the smallest of details that makes a house a home and a room spectacular.

In terms of learning to decorate for oneself, Bryan gives so many practical examples and easy lessons covering such things as:

~  attention to lighting

~  importance and use of paint, which paint co. he uses, and

    some color choices specifically

~  sophisticated small things that enhance

~  how to use a splash of strong color for taste and drama

~  bars that set a mood and sparkle

~  art to bring a home to life

It was particularly heartening to read how much support Bryan gives to clients and readers of his book in the very common area of decorating fright.  Here, I quote him:

"..never make a decision based on fear; one can never be truly stylish without taking a risk or two." 

Regarding our color education and use in our own home design, he urges us to keep our eyes open in nightclubs for colors, in art galleries, museums, books, and when we travel.  In "Big Easy..."  he also shows the gorgeous home of one of his school friend's, a local New Orleans artist, who employs her own artwork and crafts to fill her house with personality and punch. 

 I loved when he wrote:

"...think of this (your powder room, specifically,) as a perfect chance to express yourself and get your ya-yas out!"

So funny, and so true!   He suggests an antique gold enamel paint, a piece of art inspiration, a theme that can set the tone such as; "The Last Emperor" or "The Secret Garden."  I once had a powder room designed around the small mistress eye paintings that were done for noblemen during the Renaissance to carry with them in secret.  These beautiful eyes, peeking out of knot holes of alabaster, exotic woods, agate and the like gave me a jewelled palette from which to decorate that little room for guests.  It was such fun and I called it my "Little Jewelry Box."

With his homebase of New Orleans, his apparently fabulous decorating shop (it has to be spectacular!) called "Hazelnut," with a nod to his beloved mom; and, including the cultural mix of Mardi Gras...Bryan Batt has shared with us his whole heart and gifts in this special book.

It's visually a treat, it's a happy read, it's helpful and it's a reference for interior decorating.  I would recommend it for everyone who loves their home, who wants to gift a loved one or newlywed, or friend; and a decorating professional looking to build her/his reference library.

5 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

*Oh, and one more thing;  I would love to share with you Bryan's delicious recipe for "Tequila Mockingbird II"  his signature drink for parties, but you'll have to get his book to find out for yourself.  Yum--mie!  I've enjoyed mine while reading "Big, Easy Style:  Creating Rooms You Love to Live In"   Hope you get a chance to enjoy!   Cheers, New Orleans style!