The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer – Book Review

Oct 252011

The Marriage Artist by Andrew Winer
Published by Picador, an imprint of Macmillan

When art critic Daniel Lichtmann’s wife is found dead next to the equally lifeless body of an artist – one with whom Daniel had a somewhat antagonistic relationship, no less – it seems that Daniel’s life, too, is over. Depressed at the thought that Aleksandra, who was actually Daniel’s second wife, had had such an intimate affair with Benjamin Wind that she even died with him in a supposed suicide, Daniel is all but unable to function, and seems on the verge of losing his job. One might think that Daniel would at least be glad that Benjamin, the man who stole his wife, is dead or, if he is upset, that he might be upset at his inability to take his own revenge. Instead, Daniel almost mourns for the man as he does for his wife. It is lucky that he does so, though, because at Benjamin’s funeral Daniel meets a man claiming to be Benjamin’s grandfather. This man, Max, turns on its head everything that Daniel thought he knew about Benjamin and his relationship with Aleksandra by introducing Daniel to the secret past of Benjamin’s family.

To be completely honest, I was a bit concerned starting The Marriage Artist. Suicide, lust, and infidelity in the art world just didn’t seem like an appealing premise at the time I picked it up, but I also couldn’t put it off because the BOOK CLUB discussion was looming. What I found, though, was a haunting story of love, marriage, and the ever-present influence of the past. Daniel’s story is told in parallel with that of Josef Pick, a Viennese Jew whose story begins in the years before World War II, and who is famous for his creation of marriage contracts. Either of the stories might have been overwhelming on their own, for both are filled with longing and heartbreak, but the way they are woven together prevents either one from becoming overly depressing and builds anticipation for both stories.

The Marriage Artist is a masterful example of a dual time period narrative. The stories work together beautifully, each enhancing the other. In addition, Winer takes what could have been a depressing or unappealing story and set of characters, and works them together in such a way that they hold the reader’s interest with ease. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher for BOOK CLUB.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva – Book Review

Aug 232010

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
Published by Putnam Books, an imprint of Penguin

When an art restorer is shot in his home in the middle of a summer rash with art theft, it seems to be no more than a robbery gone wrong. Unfortunately, that proves not to be the case. A valuable, almost unknown Rembrandt is missing. There’s too much at stake to make this public knowledge, so the art dealer who has been in possession of the Rembrandt contacts his old friend Gabriel Allon, an art restorer and retired Israeli spy and assassin. As Gabriel begins to investigate the history of the painting, he discovers it has a very dicey provenance, disappearing from the possession of a Jewish man in Amsterdam during World War II. This history makes things personal for Gabriel, and he is determined to do whatever it takes to find this painting and get to the bottom of the theft.

What a smart thriller! One thing I really appreciated is that Silva does not treat his readers as if they were stupid. One thing that drives me crazy about a lot of thrillers is that authors often write unnecessarily short chapters with ridiculous cliffhangers in order to keep the story moving. Sometimes it works, but oftentimes it is simply obnoxious. Silva does not indulge in any of that. His chapters are as long as they need to be, without any manufactured drama. It made me feel as if Silva valued my intelligence as a reader. Yes, it meant that “The Rembrandt Affair” started more slowly than many thrillers, but Silva built suspense organically, the tension growing as Gabriel got deeper into the case. Indeed, every time I picked up the book, it grew more and more difficult to put it back down.

Gabriel, by the way, is my new favorite spy. Yes, he’s an assassin, but he’s an assassin with a conscious. Plus, he is a cultured, sophisticated art restorer – and this is a real passion, not simply his cover. And he’s in a monogamous relationship, so no oh-so-predictable sexual tension between the main character and the woman he must work with, which was refreshing for a change.

Let me also just say, this is one of the most beautiful hardcover books I’ve seen in some time. The art on the inside of the front and back covers was lovely, and the page before the title page was gorgeous, looking as if it had been painted, with texture so realistic I could almost feel it. And the paper it was printed on was rapturous. Yes, I know, that sounds far too strong a word for paper, but it was so incredibly thick and luxurious that every time I turned the page I stopped and thumbed the page. Actually, I was a bit worried when I first saw the book, because I assumed from the heft that it was well over 700 pages, but it was really just under 500 pages of wonderfully thick paper.

A great, smart thriller in an absolutely beautiful package. Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on more books from the Gabriel Allon series. Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from Lydia at Putnam.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Day for Night by Frederick Reiken – Book Review

Jul 072010

Day for Night by Frederick Reiken
Published by Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company

The are novels, there are short stories, and there are novels in stories, which follow the same characters through different periods of their lives in a short story format. And then there is “Day for Night” by Frederick Reiken.

“Day for Night” is unlike any other book I’ve read, in that it is essentially a series of short stories that are somewhat but not entirely interconnected. And yet it was also a sort of novel. Instead of giving the depth of its story as experienced by a few characters like most novels, it instead gave the breadth of the story by focusing on a different set of characters whose lives interacted with one another in each of ten stories.

If you’re not quite sure what Reiken is doing here, it can be a little scary, because you’re wondering when these characters are going to reappear, how he’s going to pull everything together. But, if you’re reading carefully, he tells you exactly what it is that he is doing:

I recognize that we are all magicians in some way. We are complicit in all we see and comprehend that what we see will never coincide with absolute reality.

As a result, the human brain must make a narrative. This I can say with certainty, and yet each narrative we choose will reach a point at which it no longer suffices. One narrative must inevitably be abandoned for another. In this way, any narrative sequence defers meaning, even beyond the point at which it appears to end.

P. 133

When I read that passage, I felt comforted, I was able to let go and accept that everything might not really wrap up with a neat little bow (and it didn’t) and that was okay. I still don’t think I would like to read this sort of book on a regular basis, but Reiken’s strong sense of where he wanted to go with the story and his gorgeous writing made me really enjoy “Day for Night” and helped me be okay with not having everything come together.

Highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel – Book Review

Apr 202010

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

After Henry’s wild success with his previous book, one that was a sort of fable with animals, he decided that he wanted to write about the Holocaust. He doesn’t, however, want to just write a nonfiction work about the Holocaust, he wants to bring truth to the history through fiction. But writing fiction is not simply enough either, he wants to present both a fiction and a nonfiction account. Then, of course, there’s the problem of what is placed first, the fiction or nonfiction. Henry’s solution that he pitches to his publishers is a flipbook, with the fiction and nonfiction bound together. Unsurprisingly, this is rejected pretty quickly.

After his idea is shot down, Henry goes into a sort of depression/writer’s block. He and his wife move to a new city in a new country where nobody realizes he is a famous author and he works at a cafe. Then he receives fan mail from a man who just happens to live in the same city as Henry and his wife, a man who includes a snippet of a play featuring character Beatrice and Virgil and asking for help. Intrigued, Henry actually makes notes on the play and heads over to this fan’s address to drop the package off.

Turns out that the fan’s name is also Henry and that he’s a taxidermist. Oh, and Beatrice and Virgil are a donkey and a howler monkey that Henry-taxidermist has stuffed in his work room. Really, Henry-taxidermist is just a weird guy all around, but Henry-author spends more and more time with him and with Beatrice and Virgil. Until, you know, there’s a shocking ending because this is Yann Martel, after all.

Okay, so “Beatrice and Virgil” as attracted a lot of vitrol from a lot of big reviewers, but I loved the way Martel wrote it. I thought the language was lovely, and particularly loved the mini-treatise on the merits of fiction in the beginning of the book. I’d already heard that someone called this the “worst book of the decade” (by the way, I don’t think there’s a single thing in that review I agree with), although I was waiting until I finished it to read why, so I sat there reading and thinking “okay, I’m loving it, where does the hating come in?” I continued to love it until 20 or 30 pages before the end of the book, and what destroyed me was not the same thing that the previously-noted review detested.

I hated the ending. At least, I think I did. When I first read the ending, I actually felt sort of numb, wondering what exactly had just happened. The more I talked it over with Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog (who had to reread the entire second half of the book after reading the ending – check out her review), the more I felt that I really just didn’t buy the ending. The realizations were too sudden, the responses to those realizations too out of the blue. I was anticipating something totally different that I realize might have been considered derivative, but that I think would have made more sense with the entire book and, frankly, worked better – at least for me. The ending that Martel gave us sort of killed a lot of my enthusiasm for the book, honestly.

Over all I do think it is a worthwhile read, if only because of all of the buzz and dissension it is generating. And, bonus!, it is short and a quick read, so it won’t take you long to determine on which side you fall about whether it is terrible or awesome (or both terrible and awesome).

And if you *do* read it, email me and tell me what you thought of the ending! I want to discuss it with more people!

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*