Alchemy of a Blackbird

Starred review from April 1, 2023

McMillan's (Gilded Age) latest details the life of Spanish Surrealist painter Remedios Varo and her decades-spanning friendship with fellow artist Leonora Carrington, as well as the artists' mutual interest in occultism and tarot. At its start, Remedios is living in Paris in 1939, a dangerous time, and is forced to flee to the countryside after the Nazi invasion of France. Reunited there with her older lover, Benjamin P�ret, she learns about tarot reading and foraging from women she meets. When they're forced to leave France entirely, Remedios and Benjamin travel to Mexico, where Remedios's friend Leonora has also fled. Together again, the two women tap into their creative energies through learning about and creating their own occult practices. Full of stunning detail about historical tarot practices, the Surrealist movement's treatment of women creatives, and the thriving artistic and intellectual community in postwar Mexico, McMillan's novel tells of two real-life artists seeking to create despite being stifled by societal norms surrounding gender and class. McMillan's inclusion of tarot-card illustrations and her pairing of characters with certain cards gives the characters further development. VERDICT Readers of historical fiction and those who are interested in women's roles in art and occultism will enjoy.--Tristan Draper

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Starred review from May 8, 2023
McMillan (Gilded Age) chronicles the artistic evolution of surrealist painter Remedios Varo in her enchanting and intricately crafted latest. In October 1939, Varo is living in Paris with her lover, the poet Benjamin Péret. Some in Péret’s circle doubt Varo’s gifts and she struggles with committing to her work, but her deepening fascination with tarot and her close friend and fellow painter Leonora Carrington provide support. Though Varo and Péret find safety in Mexico City after the Germans invade France, she remains creatively blocked. When Carrington moves to the city and the two friends are reunited, they regularly discuss tarot, alchemy, and dreams, their meetings a “cauldron of creativity” that ignite Varo’s long-suppressed talents. Chapters focused on Varo’s activities alternate with segments on other figures famous and invented, in a combination that brilliantly captures the complexity of Varo’s personality and era. McMillan’s expertly nuanced yet accessible references to tarot card archetypes add further richness—the Two of Cups represents for Varo a kindred spirit that can heal “neglected parts of the self” and “bring union and wholeness to the forefront.” This superb exploration of survival and transformation will have special appeal to those interested in art, mysticism, and women’s lives. Agent: Elizabeth Kaplan, Elizabeth Kaplan Literary.

June 1, 2023
Leonora and Remedios are striking and audacious young women artists in Paris in 1939, one in flight from her wealthy, conservative British parents, the other a Spanish Mexican artist supporting herself and her older lover, the French surrealist poet Benjamin P�ret, as an art forger. Both become intrigued by the tarot as WWII shatters their lives. The too-little-known real-life painter Remedios Varo appears in Michaela Carter's Leonora in the Morning (2021), the story of the somewhat more recognized Leonora Carrington; McMillan makes Remedios the star in this inventive and mesmerizing tale of war, exile, mysticism, and creativity. When Remedios and Benjamin find sanctuary in Marseille with other imperiled artists and their benefactor, Peggy Guggenheim, Remedios deepens her tarot studies and puts her forgery skills to more crucial use. They finally escape to Mexico, where Remedios transmutes trauma into art and liberation. Each chapter in this entrancing, vivid, and lushly illuminating novel begins with a tarot card that introduces the next narrator in a scintillating cast of actual and imagined characters offering distinct perspectives on Remedios and her profoundly inspired artistic and spiritual quest.

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