No Regrets Edith Piaf by Carolyn Burke, Bloomsbury, $32.99.
“There has never been anyone like her; there never will be … ” wrote long-time platonic friend Jean Cocteau of Edith Piaf, “… her Bonaparte-like forehead, her eyes like those of a blind person trying to see … a voice that rises up from deep within, that inhabits her from head to toe.”
This brilliant biography delves deep into the world of the extraordinary woman who was born with impaired vision and led a vagabond existence with her oft violent acrobat father, Louis Gassion, when her singer mother “Line” went indefinitely on tour.
Belting out La Marseillaise on bistro tabletops, adoring daughter Edith learnt timing, patter and how to tug at heartstrings from contortionist Gassion, but was disturbed throughout her life by her drug-addicted mother, who sang for glasses of wine.
Knowingly fleeced and financially ruined by “friends” who amused her, she was shaped and loved by many, too, including Maurice Chevalier and lyricist Raymond Asso, who tamed the street singer, teaching her table manners and severing ties with low-lifes who got in the way of her career.
She became pregnant at 16 with daughter Marcelle, who died of meningitis aged two, and married twice, although the love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan, perished in an air crash.
Piaf died at 47 having suffered from arthritis and acute liver damage from medication most of her life.
She wrote nearly 100 songs, including La Vie En Rose, penned on a paper napkin at a cafe in the Champs Elysées and was happiest singing to the “Sunday” working-class audiences.
Her songs were direct, sincere and unpretentious — much like Burke’s engrossing biography.
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