THE PAINTED GIRLS

Cathy Marie Buchanan’s harsh, realistic story, based on the lives of sisters Antoinette, Marie, and Charlotte van Goethem, is enhanced by the understated, unsentimental performances of Cassandra Campbell, Julia Whelan, and Danny Campbell. The narrators transport listeners to the slums and back alleys of Belle-Époque Paris. Campbell reveals Antoinette’s world-weary vision of the Parisian demimonde, the grueling struggle for survival, whether at the Paris Opéra, the washhouse, or the brothel. With vitality, innocence, and heartbreaking naïveté, Whelan voices Marie, a ballet "petit rat" and model for “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,” by Edgar Dégas. Danny Campbell offers a respite from the girls’ travails, reading actual newspaper articles and quotations from the dominant philosophy of the day. Earthy, erotic, always truthful—this is must listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2013]