Lee Miller was an amazing woman and an absolute trailblazer. She was a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris, where she met surrealist photographer and artist Man Ray. She become his lover and muse. During World War II, she was a war correspondent for Vogue, covering the London Blitz, the Liberation of Paris and, most poignantly, the horrors of concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. Lee deserves a novel that highlights what a wonderful career she had.

At the beginning of the story Lee is an elderly woman remembering the adventures of her youth, when an assignment for Vogue forces her to revisit her early years in Paris and her relationship with Man Ray. And so, we find the young Lee adrift in the City of Light, and when her camera is stolen at a party she approaches Man Ray, already famous for his unusual photography techniques, and convinces him to take her as his apprentice. They soon become lovers, collaborators, and dangerously co-dependent. But this story of their relationship is insipid at best. Little is shown of their vibrant world and the other Surrealists who inspired them.

Little biographical snippets of Lee’s life are dotted throughout the novel. They appear to have no relevance to the narrative or her relationship with Man Ray. I am unsure what they are for, except to remind us of a different, potentially great story that we are missing.

This book was too long and too focused on the domestic detail of what appears to ultimately be an unsatisfactory relationship. It does little to shine light on two giants of the 20th century.

Reviewed by Lesley West