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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I really wanted the ending to be more streamlined with its finality. This was run of the mill - story had potential but I feel the writing style wasn't descriptive and enthralling enough to take it where it needed to go.
Could have been something special but just felt a little lacklustre to me.
Could have been something special but just felt a little lacklustre to me.
This is something like the airport novel version of Donna Tartt's [b:The Goldfinch|17333223|The Goldfinch|Donna Tartt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1378710146l/17333223._SY75_.jpg|24065147], but I actually liked it better. For one thing, it's a good deal less pretentious than "The Goldfinch" was, with all that book's lecturing on what does and doesn't constitute great art. For another, coming in at 300 pages next to the latter's nearly 800, "The Last Painting of Sara de Vos" doesn't try the reader's patience to the same degree.
But the book isn't without its flaws. Like any book that's balancing three separate storylines, not all of them are so easily maintained. The thread set in New York in the 1950s was far and away the best, while the one about the painter herself (a fictionalized composite of various Dutch painters) was, for me, clearly the weakest.
This is a novel about regret, mainly, and it succeeds in that it never attempts to bang its reader over the head with its own opinion about what constitutes great art.
I found the character of Ellie Shipley to be charming and quite likable, though I never warmed to Marty nor found the relationship between them to be all that believable (he's got all the charisma and personality of an office chair left outside in a rainstorm).
Unfortunately for its sake, I read this just a little over a month after reading the sublime [b:Rules of Civility|10054335|Rules of Civility|Amor Towles|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1311705045l/10054335._SY75_.jpg|14950407], which I like a little bit more every time I think of it. That book is also set in New York in a bygone era and is similarly about a sort of nostalgia for the past, albeit one less steeped in regret.
But the book isn't without its flaws. Like any book that's balancing three separate storylines, not all of them are so easily maintained. The thread set in New York in the 1950s was far and away the best, while the one about the painter herself (a fictionalized composite of various Dutch painters) was, for me, clearly the weakest.
This is a novel about regret, mainly, and it succeeds in that it never attempts to bang its reader over the head with its own opinion about what constitutes great art.
I found the character of Ellie Shipley to be charming and quite likable, though I never warmed to Marty nor found the relationship between them to be all that believable (he's got all the charisma and personality of an office chair left outside in a rainstorm).
Unfortunately for its sake, I read this just a little over a month after reading the sublime [b:Rules of Civility|10054335|Rules of Civility|Amor Towles|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1311705045l/10054335._SY75_.jpg|14950407], which I like a little bit more every time I think of it. That book is also set in New York in a bygone era and is similarly about a sort of nostalgia for the past, albeit one less steeped in regret.
A great read! My favourite book so far this year. A novel about art, forgery, life, and regret. Slipping between times and locations: 17th century Holland , late 1950s New York and Sydney at the dawn of the new millennium . Wonderful writing, and characterisation, and an element of suspense. A great read for anyone with an interest in art, especially 17th century Dutch art, or possibly for the reader with an interest in forgery. A great read!
medium-paced
Wanted to love it, but didn't. It was a solid story told over three time periods. It jumps back and forth through the timeline to tell the story. I really found myself having a difficult time connecting with the characters at any point.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it could gave gone on for another 200 pages learning about the lives of the characters and where they go, and I still wouldnt have been done with them. I love a book that develops the characters and story so well that it can transport you there
The multiple first point perspective adds to the suspense in the novel, and as the genre of art history fiction goes this is a fairly good one.
Excellent bringing together of two different centuries so far apart.