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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
Becky Farwell is a flawed person with bigger dreams than her small midwestern town can provide. She gets a glimpse of the art world and wants in, but can't afford it on her civil servant salary. Thus is the setting of Emily Gray Tedrowe's newest book. The book is written in a series of well crafted vignettes that weave together many decades as Becky grows into her duplicitous life style. A good and fun read.
Emily Gray Tedrowe's third novel is an engrossing story about a woman who lives a double life. Most of the time Becky Farwell is the comptroller for her small town of Pierson, Illinois, a small town always teetering on the edge of financial disaster. In Pierson, Becky is heralded as the woman who can work magic with the town's budget, always finding money for things like senior prom, or plugging holes in their hemorrhaging finances. But in Chicago, New York and even places like London, Milan and Tokyo, Reba Farwell is a proficient art dealer, buying on speculation and holding onto pieces, in some case for a decade, and selling at prodigious profits. Through the financial disasters of 1987 and 2007, Becky manages to embezzle funds from the town coffers in order to buy art. She usually can sell and pay back the funds she's stolen but as her purchases become bolder and her obsessions for collecting grow, so does the risk of being caught.
I've read some reviews of the novel that claimed the novel was slow or overly detailed. Having been raised in a house full of antiques and art, books like this one or [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] are like a warm and friendly blanket to me. I felt an almost absurd degree of excitement when Becky decides she wants to collect Leonora Carrington's art, for instance. As a character study, The Talented Miss Farwell is a fascinating study into the horrifying extent of narcissism and self-justification that a person can display. (In a female character for a change!) There is so much collateral damage in her community yet Becky, even to the very end seems to display little remorse for what she has done. She is a fascinating, talented, yet despicable woman. Yet I loved her taste in art, and couldn't stop reading until I knew when, how, and why, the whole scheme would fall apart.
The audiobook is nicely narrated by Allyson Ryan who deserves kudos for artist name pronunciations.
I received a digital and paper review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I've read some reviews of the novel that claimed the novel was slow or overly detailed. Having been raised in a house full of antiques and art, books like this one or [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] are like a warm and friendly blanket to me. I felt an almost absurd degree of excitement when Becky decides she wants to collect Leonora Carrington's art, for instance. As a character study, The Talented Miss Farwell is a fascinating study into the horrifying extent of narcissism and self-justification that a person can display. (In a female character for a change!) There is so much collateral damage in her community yet Becky, even to the very end seems to display little remorse for what she has done. She is a fascinating, talented, yet despicable woman. Yet I loved her taste in art, and couldn't stop reading until I knew when, how, and why, the whole scheme would fall apart.
The audiobook is nicely narrated by Allyson Ryan who deserves kudos for artist name pronunciations.
I received a digital and paper review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing for this eBook advanced reader’s copy.
I enjoyed this novel about Becky/Reba Farwell and the double lives she was leading. It was uncomfortable watching her descent into obsession and madness, and even to read the physical manifestations/ramifications of that obsession. I applaud the author for her research and ability to follow this character over such a long span in history, starting in the 1980s, with topics from local town finances, to art, to US and world history. I greatly enjoyed the shout out to feminism towards the end (I don’t want to give away any spoilers).
Overall, I liked the book and will recommend to friends. 4/5 stars.
I enjoyed this novel about Becky/Reba Farwell and the double lives she was leading. It was uncomfortable watching her descent into obsession and madness, and even to read the physical manifestations/ramifications of that obsession. I applaud the author for her research and ability to follow this character over such a long span in history, starting in the 1980s, with topics from local town finances, to art, to US and world history. I greatly enjoyed the shout out to feminism towards the end (I don’t want to give away any spoilers).
Overall, I liked the book and will recommend to friends. 4/5 stars.
A book club book I enjoyed quite a bit!! I enjoyed the characters dynamic and enjoyed the glimpses of the art world and of small town government bureaucracy.
QUICK TAKE: I don’t know about you, but #TheTalentedMrRipley is one of my favorite movies, as I’m a huge fan of stories about people with secret identities and ulterior motives climbing the high-society ladder. So when my friends at @customhousebooks asked if I would be interested in #TheTalentedMissFarwell by @egtedrowe (love a talented stranger!), a book about a small town con woman who takes advantage of her position in municipal government to launch herself into the wealthy and cosmopolitan art scene, well…consider me an auction item at Sotheby’s, because I.was.SOLD (I should probably stop reviewing books after having a glass of wine).
The book is so twisty and fun and escapist and I flew through it in an afternoon. The eponymous Miss Farwell is a fabulously complex and complicated con woman with a heart of gold; she spends most of the book balancing her love for her community with her obsession for art that you don’t know whether to root for her success or demise. I think fans of #ABeautifulCrime and #CatchMeIfYouCan and the Hugh Jackman HBO movie #BadEducation will really dig this one (it’s actually based on a true story!).
The book is so twisty and fun and escapist and I flew through it in an afternoon. The eponymous Miss Farwell is a fabulously complex and complicated con woman with a heart of gold; she spends most of the book balancing her love for her community with her obsession for art that you don’t know whether to root for her success or demise. I think fans of #ABeautifulCrime and #CatchMeIfYouCan and the Hugh Jackman HBO movie #BadEducation will really dig this one (it’s actually based on a true story!).
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was okay, the book reads like a news article, just information organized in chronological order. There's no real emotion from the characters and the story seemed flat.
Interesting first half and then it seemed to drag for me, but I still enjoyed the premise.
I think I was supposed to like the main character but I really didn't. This had an interesting concept but it just dragged on with very repetitive events happening over and over. Becky was just not likable and I couldn't figure out what exactly drove her. Did she have an obsession? Was she trying to be someone else? I only finished it by doing major skimming to find out what happened in the end. And even then, I didn't really care.
I received this book in advance via Netgalley for which I'm appreciative.
I received this book in advance via Netgalley for which I'm appreciative.
This book flew by for me. I loved this story and that it was set in the 90s. I was rooting for the character to be okay in the end. I was surprised at the ending despite other reviewers who said this book was predictable. Books usually don’t end end tightly kept, and the fact that this one explained exactly what happened to Becky/Reba was what surprised me. I love how the changes in technology changed what Becky could do/needed to protect.