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2.73 AVERAGE
2.73 AVERAGE
I liked this book because I like art history and I thought the art history pieces of this book were very interesting. The characters were good, but there were a lot of them and none of them were very deeply developed. I liked the book (thought it was a good read, interesting) until the end, when it all wrapped up way too quickly. I finished the book feeling like the author spent too much time developing the story, but not enough on making the book end well. I was disappointed with the book in the end.
THE ART THIEF is crime fiction where the crime is not murder or mayhem. The author of this book is (from his blurb) considered the world's leading expert on the history and study of art crime, so the point of this book seems to be to explore the nature and motivation for high profile art thefts and forgery.
There is a rather complicated plotline going on here. Firstly an altarpiece disappears in Rome. A valuable, renowned abstract painting is stolen in Paris from the vaults of the society charged with protecting the legacy of the painter Malevich. Then a new Malevich acquisition is stolen in London, after a lot of chicanery with the computerised alarm systems of the gallery. Now where things get really complicated is whether or not the painting stolen in Paris is the same painting that was purchased in London, and if it was - which one is the forgery? Or are both of them forgeries? It's possibly a little hard to tell as the paintings are all famous examples of White on White.
Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot is leading the investigation in Paris, helped by the curator of the Malevich Society, Genevieve Delacloche, whilst Inspector Harry Wickenden is in London, assisted by National Gallery chief Elizabeth van der Mier. There is also art expert and former Carabinieri officer Gabriel Coffin who is attempting to track down the missing altarpiece from Rome. All of this occurs in a welter of anonymous phone calls, obscure biblical quotes and other clues, fake Malevichs, hugely self-indulgent gourmet feasts (Paris of course), and tea and austere living (London of course). Confused?
Lurking deep within this book there were some highlights. Obviously the author knows a lot about art theft, and some of the aspects of that knowledge were interesting. The problem really is that the plot gets convoluted and there were times when I felt I needed a mindmap to keep track of the who, what, where, when and whys. There was definitely some humour in some of the characterisations but there was also caricature - the French gourmand was frequently too gross, the English tea drinking Inspector too ascetic.
THE ART THIEF definitely provides an interesting glimpse into the world of Art Theft, and for those looking for a crime fiction book that provides some education about that, then this will definitely be the book for you. It could also appeal to somebody looking for a yarn, with a zero body count.
There is a rather complicated plotline going on here. Firstly an altarpiece disappears in Rome. A valuable, renowned abstract painting is stolen in Paris from the vaults of the society charged with protecting the legacy of the painter Malevich. Then a new Malevich acquisition is stolen in London, after a lot of chicanery with the computerised alarm systems of the gallery. Now where things get really complicated is whether or not the painting stolen in Paris is the same painting that was purchased in London, and if it was - which one is the forgery? Or are both of them forgeries? It's possibly a little hard to tell as the paintings are all famous examples of White on White.
Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot is leading the investigation in Paris, helped by the curator of the Malevich Society, Genevieve Delacloche, whilst Inspector Harry Wickenden is in London, assisted by National Gallery chief Elizabeth van der Mier. There is also art expert and former Carabinieri officer Gabriel Coffin who is attempting to track down the missing altarpiece from Rome. All of this occurs in a welter of anonymous phone calls, obscure biblical quotes and other clues, fake Malevichs, hugely self-indulgent gourmet feasts (Paris of course), and tea and austere living (London of course). Confused?
Lurking deep within this book there were some highlights. Obviously the author knows a lot about art theft, and some of the aspects of that knowledge were interesting. The problem really is that the plot gets convoluted and there were times when I felt I needed a mindmap to keep track of the who, what, where, when and whys. There was definitely some humour in some of the characterisations but there was also caricature - the French gourmand was frequently too gross, the English tea drinking Inspector too ascetic.
THE ART THIEF definitely provides an interesting glimpse into the world of Art Theft, and for those looking for a crime fiction book that provides some education about that, then this will definitely be the book for you. It could also appeal to somebody looking for a yarn, with a zero body count.
THE ART THIEF ~by Noah Charney
I have had this book on my bookshelf for years! The Art Thief is a debut novel for Noah Charney and was published in 2007. The story started out slow - took me until page 50 or so before I had a desire to read the entire book.
The setting bounces back and forth from Rome to London to Paris. Charney is detailed about the inner workings of the art world - sometimes to tedium.
As the title suggest, the story is about art theft and thieves - to be specific three thefts in three different counties. The thefts are intertwined and the story weaves forgeries, private collectors, double-crosses, and kidnapping a plot with an unexpected ending.
French is peppered throughout the story and unless one speaks/ reads French this may be frustrating. However, there is not so much French that impedes the reader’s ability to understand the story.
One does learn some art history during the course of the story.
I might have to read Noah’s Stealing the Mystic Lamb published in 2012 to see how he has developed.
I have had this book on my bookshelf for years! The Art Thief is a debut novel for Noah Charney and was published in 2007. The story started out slow - took me until page 50 or so before I had a desire to read the entire book.
The setting bounces back and forth from Rome to London to Paris. Charney is detailed about the inner workings of the art world - sometimes to tedium.
As the title suggest, the story is about art theft and thieves - to be specific three thefts in three different counties. The thefts are intertwined and the story weaves forgeries, private collectors, double-crosses, and kidnapping a plot with an unexpected ending.
French is peppered throughout the story and unless one speaks/ reads French this may be frustrating. However, there is not so much French that impedes the reader’s ability to understand the story.
One does learn some art history during the course of the story.
I might have to read Noah’s Stealing the Mystic Lamb published in 2012 to see how he has developed.
For almost the first half of this book, I found it guilty of something that is the reverse of most novels I dislike. Instead of having characters I didn't really get to know, and being drowned in plot, this book was almost all characters for the first half. Though in many ways they were cartoonish, stereotype characters, they provided enough entertainment value to keep on reading, (though the early signs were that the plot was getting lost in all of the personalities.)
I laughed a few times, and the information provided about art history sparked an interest. But not in this book, in the subject itself.
Then the halfway point came, and all of the silly characters that initially had kept me going through the book because of their amusement value got on my nerves a bit. And the more of them, the more on my nerves they got. As it went on it became clear that it would be virtually impossible to pull the plot back to the forefront of the piece, choked as it was by caricatures, pages-long descriptions of dinners and office furniture, character back-story, red-herrings, and some of the worst exposition I have ever read.
Certainly exposition is needed. But this author would literally have a character show up someplace, turn to someone and say, "The problem with art thieves is..." and the next three pages would literally be one long lecture, contained within quotation marks. Or perhaps broken up once so the speaker could sip a glass of wine and continue.
Worse yet, these long lectures within the plot rarely matched up with the characters that gave them. The biggest sin of all however, was that they ended up having nothing to do with solving the mystery of the art theft that was supposed to be at the heart of this book.
It is a mystery that never truly is solved, either. By the time the author realizes he has spent too much time on describing such things as the five course meals and decadent desserts eaten by two of the characters during virtually every appearance they make, he has to rush to cram the plot back into the book, and hence into your attention. He tried to do so by taking a Dan Brown short cut into puzzles and numbers, but it fails terribly. I don't understand what happened after all, and worse, I don't care.
I laughed a few times, and the information provided about art history sparked an interest. But not in this book, in the subject itself.
Then the halfway point came, and all of the silly characters that initially had kept me going through the book because of their amusement value got on my nerves a bit. And the more of them, the more on my nerves they got. As it went on it became clear that it would be virtually impossible to pull the plot back to the forefront of the piece, choked as it was by caricatures, pages-long descriptions of dinners and office furniture, character back-story, red-herrings, and some of the worst exposition I have ever read.
Certainly exposition is needed. But this author would literally have a character show up someplace, turn to someone and say, "The problem with art thieves is..." and the next three pages would literally be one long lecture, contained within quotation marks. Or perhaps broken up once so the speaker could sip a glass of wine and continue.
Worse yet, these long lectures within the plot rarely matched up with the characters that gave them. The biggest sin of all however, was that they ended up having nothing to do with solving the mystery of the art theft that was supposed to be at the heart of this book.
It is a mystery that never truly is solved, either. By the time the author realizes he has spent too much time on describing such things as the five course meals and decadent desserts eaten by two of the characters during virtually every appearance they make, he has to rush to cram the plot back into the book, and hence into your attention. He tried to do so by taking a Dan Brown short cut into puzzles and numbers, but it fails terribly. I don't understand what happened after all, and worse, I don't care.
I started out really liking it. I enjoyed the facts about icons and symbolism, and I found Bizot and Barrow very endearing. But then I got sick of Bizot and lesgorges banter. Oh my god, I get it, you like food! I found it irritating that when something happened, it would switch to a new character's perspective. So there was a cliffhanger every 2 pages. What is this, an episode of LOST? Also, I found the author photo on the back HILARIOUSLY pretentious.
The author thinks he's pretty funny...I didn't think so. I enjoyed the art history aspect of it but the rest of it....blah.
I think this was trying too hard to be relevant and exciting. There is a lot going on. It was interesting to see what role the full cast of characters played in this story; however, I didn't find a single one that I really liked or connected with. I enjoy art, art history, art fraud, or art theft in a fiction thriller. I understood all the art related terminology and I understood everything going on. I was more interested in how the theft happened then who did it and why so just didn't invested towards the end. Would I re-read this? Nah. Would I recommend this? Possibly to non-art world/loving readers maybe.
I gave up on this one after about 50 pages. It wasn't keeping my interest at all.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Alrhough there are interesting tidbits of art history and Charney's passion clearly comes across the novel suffers due to the author's lack of refinement in writing technique.
"Like a radioactive centipede" was perhaps the worst line of the novel but there was quite a few to choose from. It also annoyed me (proably far too much) that British characters seem to throw American colloquialism about with abundance and Professor Barrow seems to use a register about 50 years too young for himself. The writing in many parts was simply sloppy - repetition of phrases, cumbersome turn of phrase "iridescent phosphoresence of ..." and a very random Caravaggio sub-plot that seemed to be thrown in simply so the author could talk about the painter, which spoiked the overall great idea.
"Like a radioactive centipede" was perhaps the worst line of the novel but there was quite a few to choose from. It also annoyed me (proably far too much) that British characters seem to throw American colloquialism about with abundance and Professor Barrow seems to use a register about 50 years too young for himself. The writing in many parts was simply sloppy - repetition of phrases, cumbersome turn of phrase "iridescent phosphoresence of ..." and a very random Caravaggio sub-plot that seemed to be thrown in simply so the author could talk about the painter, which spoiked the overall great idea.