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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
I loved reading this book. The characters are rounded and real. You get a vivid idea of the lives of the individuals in the book. It is a great read.
Interesting, quick read....but, not my favorite. Not a lot of joy in this story.
Fictional depiction of Christina Olson, the model for Andrew Wyath's painting titled "Christina's World". Ms. Kline writes with a good sense of time and place and maybe capturing most of all the indominatable spirt of the people of Maine.
This book was excellent.When I was growing up ,my grandmother had this painting hanging up in her living room .I love the painting Christina 's World .It is very interesting about the back story.It was also a sad story.I read her other book Orphan Train .I will read everything Christina Baker Kline writes.It is a five star book.
Wow. Brilliant, just brilliant.
The descriptive passages, the attention to detail, the characters (especially Christina, who I wanted to pull from the pages into my arms- though she probably would have hated that), the use of synecdoche. Such a thoughtful, well-researched novel.
The descriptive passages, the attention to detail, the characters (especially Christina, who I wanted to pull from the pages into my arms- though she probably would have hated that), the use of synecdoche. Such a thoughtful, well-researched novel.
I’m definitely hovering between 3 and 4 stars. The writing is gorgeous. The story is delicate and sad. The characters are rich. But something about it didn’t come full circle for me. Worth a read.
In the gorgeous and mysterious 1948 masterpiece Christina’s World, Andrew Wyeth depicts a woman crouching on a hill looking toward a weathered farm house. Looking at the painting, one might wonder whether the woman is coming or going. She seems far away and in such a twisted, crouching position with her hair blowing a bit in the wind. I never knew that Wyeth painted this on a farm in Maine. Author Christina Baker Kline creates a riveting story of the artist’s muse. Christina Olson lives a rather solitary, quiet and isolated existence in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine on her family’s farm with her brother.
Christina lived at a particular time in particular circumstances and suffered an illness as a child which led to increasingly physical debility. At school she develops an affinity for Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Her father insists she quit school after eighth grade to help on the farm. Christina wanted to be a teacher. When young painter Andrew Wyeth asks if he can paint the farm, Christina and her brother welcome the distraction and attention.
This masterful work of historical fiction—told through first-person narrative-- allows readers to feel Christina’s pain, disappointment and glimmers of hope throughout. In her youth, Christina dates a young man who summers nearby. But after several years he becomes engaged to another woman. He never intended to foray into a serious relationship with Christina. She’s devastated as she’s looking to be understood and accepted and just seen by somebody. Something many people seek. Readers feel empathy for Christina but not pity. She’s resilient and resourceful. She’s managing her situation. Writing with exquisite detail, Kline transports us to Maine and effectively moves from 1940 to the early 1900s to reveal the personal history of the woman immortalized by a classic American work of art.
posted here: https://entertainmentrealm.com/2017/03/05/book-review-a-piece-of-the-world/
Christina lived at a particular time in particular circumstances and suffered an illness as a child which led to increasingly physical debility. At school she develops an affinity for Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Her father insists she quit school after eighth grade to help on the farm. Christina wanted to be a teacher. When young painter Andrew Wyeth asks if he can paint the farm, Christina and her brother welcome the distraction and attention.
This masterful work of historical fiction—told through first-person narrative-- allows readers to feel Christina’s pain, disappointment and glimmers of hope throughout. In her youth, Christina dates a young man who summers nearby. But after several years he becomes engaged to another woman. He never intended to foray into a serious relationship with Christina. She’s devastated as she’s looking to be understood and accepted and just seen by somebody. Something many people seek. Readers feel empathy for Christina but not pity. She’s resilient and resourceful. She’s managing her situation. Writing with exquisite detail, Kline transports us to Maine and effectively moves from 1940 to the early 1900s to reveal the personal history of the woman immortalized by a classic American work of art.
posted here: https://entertainmentrealm.com/2017/03/05/book-review-a-piece-of-the-world/
I’d give it 3.5 stars if I could. Beautifully written and brought me to tears several times but the plot just wasn’t rich enough to really grab me.
Well... I didn't love it as much as Orphan Train BUT I did love much of how this novel was put together. First, I loved how she used the famous painting as inspiration and melded the fiction around it. I also loved how she mentioned classic literature and connected Nathaniel Hawthorne into storyline. I think these links are great ways to draw kids into other literature, especially some more challenging options that will stretch their thinking. The way that she organized the storytelling by switching from the present to the past was unique, kind of like Orphan Train and the telling of the two characters stories. I also loved the short story at the end of the novel that provided a look into her father and how he came to Maine, and the big White House on the hill. I think it could be a great read aloud as an introduction to Baker-Kline's writing and the editing process which created this story. There are many details that students could connect to: Christina's debilitating illness, her feelings of isolation, family relationships, love and failed relationships, loss of loved ones, adventure, fear of the unknown, and the historical tidbits of the witch trials, and the historical setting of both world wars. I am looking forward to Baker-Kline's next novel about the hidden history of women convicts, sent to an island off of Australia. I will wait not so patiently for that release.