The Hare With Amber Eyes

Almost gave up on this. The first half was just a gushing love letter to Charles Ephrussi, a fabulously wealthy ‘spare son' of a banking dynasty with seemingly nothing to do but socialise and provide a source of name-dropping to a future biographer. He knew Renoir! And the Empress! Proust references him! Thrilling stuff.

The recounting of the netsuke's story begins badly too. A brief acknowledgement that they're actually pillaged from Japan and then they take on their own lives - as a conglomerate whole bought en-masse by Charles because Japan was ‘in', and then seemingly left in a vitrine (get used to that word) as a piece of decoration. Eugh.

When they arrive as a wedding gift in Vienna things get a little more interesting, though the fact that Viktor (39) “waited until she was 17 and then proposed [to a girl he'd known since her childhood]” is not so much glossed over as outright ignored. However, the story of what happens in Vienna with the continued rise of antisemitism culminating in the annexation of Austria by the nazis, is interesting and eye-opening. The injustice of the forfeiture of the family fortune and assets is raw and real.

After the Vienna chapter there's a little wrapping-up of the netsuke's return to the family, which is sweet but I felt Anna should have been the real star of the book, her story seemed much more interesting, a life of servitude leading up to one quiet, brave, act of resistance and loyalty. But she only gets a single, apologetic, chapter in which the author admits he doesn't really know anything about her. If only he'd pursued her history with the same zeal as he followed up the whereabouts of every painting Charles ever touched.

The netsuke's return to Japan, I feel, is a return in name only. Yes they are in the country, no they are not returned to the country. The author strongly feels that objects are bought and sold and this is how things are. I think the people who snapped up the Ephrussi's belongings when the Nazis forced them to sell probably feel the same way.