What drew me to this book initially is the fact it had anything to do with Robert Capa. For the past couple of years I have been steadily gathering books about him, watching documentaries and basically finding out all that I could about the man and his work. Anecdotal evidence of this is when I found a second-hand copy of Robert Whelan's biography of Capa in a bookshop in Cork. I squealed when I saw it on the shelf and as I paid for it, I regailed the man at the till about how I had sought the book for 18 months and generally gushed about Capa. The man admitted that it had only come in the week before and they weren't sure how to price it. I could tell he was thinking 'Jesus, she'd have given her first born for this.' Evidently enough I can get quite fan-girly on the topic of Capa, so I had high hopes for Greenhalgh's account.
The novel tells the story of the first meeting of Capa and Berman at the end of the Second World War. Bergman is in Europe to entertain the allied troops and Capa is there as a commissioned allied war photographer. The couple begin their relationship in Paris at the around the time of the end of the war in Europe. Bergman extends her stay in Paris as long as possible, spending her time with Capa, until the time arrives when the calls of her family and the studio can no longer be ignored. Bergman returns to America and Capa follows soon after. Finally together the stresses and dangers of their relationship come to the fore. The tug of work and other responsibilities cause Capa and Bergman to reach breaking point.
Greenhalgh is not only noted as a novelist, but also as a screenwriter. He adapted his own novel 'Coco and Igor,' another account of a famous affair, for film, which was then screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The fact Greenhalgh has done screen-writing work becomes very evident as you read 'Seducing Ingrid Bergman.' The narrative takes on a very cinematic style. Passages are broken up like scenes of a film and he uses very literal imagery. Greenhalgh's vision is put across scene by scene and image by image. While for the most part this style of narrative has it's merits, I thought it was somewhat cold and detached. Capa and Bergman were in a passionate affair and the narrative style doesn't quite match the content.
While Greenhalgh does well to try and get into the mind of his two characters, he fails to flesh out these two intriguing figures. He succeeds in communicating Bergman's fear that the media would define how she was perceived and highlighting the self-destructive side of Capa. While these two traits give great insight, there is still much more to be explored in the characters of Capa and Bergman. Greenhalgh had artistic license to deconstruct their characters as much as he pleased, in order to create convincing profiles of these enigmatic figures, especially considering he chose to use a first person narrative, which alternated between the two characters.
Despite these two criticisms, 'Seducing Ingrid Bergman' was a pretty enjoyable read. Greenhalgh's suppositions about the relationship between the two and their intimate thoughts made for interesting reading. My only wish is that he felt the freedom to do a bit more with this. Otherwise it serves well in evoking intrigue about these two dynamic figures of the media.
Rating: 6/10
