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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I read the first few chapters of this book in a preview and couldn't get it out of my head so purchased the full novel. I wish I'd enjoyed the rest of the novel as much as I did those chapters as but I simply can't say I did.
The book opens with the preparations for an auction. A missing masterpiece has resurfaced and it has been brought to market. Some of the wealthiest people in the world will be attending and the world is agog to know who will buy the painting. The title of the novel is shared with that of the artwork and, from the auction preparations we are cast back in time to find out how the painting has come to light.
I'm so conflicted by this book. On the one hand it's beautifully written and cleverly plotted but, on the other, it simply didn't engage me the way I hoped it would. Annie McDee is responsible for purchasing the painting in a junk shop and I really enjoyed her story strand but there is a large amount of 'other' cleverness which added to the plot's complexity but not to my enjoyment of the overall story. Sometimes less is more and I think a lighter touch with the history of the painting and some of the supporting cast would have made it more enjoyable. Some characters were superfluous and added little but confusion to the already complicated storylines.
As an observation on the global art market and the issues at play it's quite illuminating, just not as compelling as I hoped it would be.
The book opens with the preparations for an auction. A missing masterpiece has resurfaced and it has been brought to market. Some of the wealthiest people in the world will be attending and the world is agog to know who will buy the painting. The title of the novel is shared with that of the artwork and, from the auction preparations we are cast back in time to find out how the painting has come to light.
I'm so conflicted by this book. On the one hand it's beautifully written and cleverly plotted but, on the other, it simply didn't engage me the way I hoped it would. Annie McDee is responsible for purchasing the painting in a junk shop and I really enjoyed her story strand but there is a large amount of 'other' cleverness which added to the plot's complexity but not to my enjoyment of the overall story. Sometimes less is more and I think a lighter touch with the history of the painting and some of the supporting cast would have made it more enjoyable. Some characters were superfluous and added little but confusion to the already complicated storylines.
As an observation on the global art market and the issues at play it's quite illuminating, just not as compelling as I hoped it would be.
For the entire week that I spent in London this past April, this book was the major display in every bookstore window. Finally by the end of the week, I just had to buy it and I'm so glad I did. There are so many characters in this story and the author juggles them all really well. It reminds me of Julian Fellowes and all of the characters he wrote for Downtown Abbey. The story itself is really entertaining and I couldn't put this one down. I could definitely see this being adapted to film.
This novel suffers from a severe case of ADD/ADHD. It's like the author had all these ideas and decided to fit them all in one novel.
We have art, lots, and lots of art -which I love. I also enjoy learning about painters; I enjoy history and art history; I enjoy learning new words and jargon. While all these aspects were plentiful, at times, it became too much. I can't believe I'm saying this, but there was way too much information dumping, so much so, at times, it reminded me of school, when I pored over the text books.
Food, and the pursuit of perfection and authenticity, play also a prominent part in this novel. Initially, I enjoyed this part. But then, it became too much. Who eats twenty courses? Apparently one of the French kings and a few other kings. I got bored with the food and food preparation bits as well.
There are also some secrets, and Nazis and Jews. Also, there is a love story.
There are way too many characters in this novel. In the beginning, we learn about some sheik and his wife, some Russian oligarchs, some very rich and very snobbish Brits, socialites, art dealers, and academics. Also, one of the main characters is Annie, a thirty-one-year-old single woman, who finds herself penniless and alone, in a tiny apartment in London. She works as a cook for a film director, but she doesn't get to cook often. Other prominent characters are Rebecca Winkleman, the daughter of Memling Winkleman, very rich, well-respected art dealers and owners of a prestigious gallery.
There are so many story lines in this novel, so many threads and subthreads, I'll have to write a much longer review, and honestly, it's late, and I'm tired, and I don't feel like wasting another hour writing this review.
So, I'm going to try to summarise.
The novel is not bad. It has merit and is quite interesting. It is very readable, albeit there are a lot of foreign words (which I love), art jargon (I hope I'll remember the meaning of some of it) and some rare words (thank goodness for Kindle dictionary).I did feel like the author was trying too hard to impress us (I read that she's heavily involved in the art world, so probably that's her vernacular).
There were way too many characters, who were given too much air-time, they should have been dropped or just mentioned briefly, as they didn't add much to the story. I get that the author was trying to paint a broad canvas of the characters and the type of people who get involved or play a role in the art world. I totally get it. That's where an editor becomes very useful. My personal opinion is that the editor(s) failed this novel. It could have easily been a 4-5 star novel, but as it stands, I'm only giving it 3-3.5 stars. It's the novel that had lots of the things that I love, yet, it failed to impress me.
Cover: 1 star. This has got to be one of the ugliest, most boring and uninspired covers I've seen in recent times. Honestly, I could have requested it on Netgalley, but I saw the cover and immediately dismissed it. Yes, I'm that shallow, I judge books by their covers. I find it ironic that this novel is mostly about art and its beauty, and how it affects us, and yet the cover is so damn ugly. I see there are a couple different covers. Amen! (I'm commenting on this one, as that's the cover that came with my ebook).
We have art, lots, and lots of art -which I love. I also enjoy learning about painters; I enjoy history and art history; I enjoy learning new words and jargon. While all these aspects were plentiful, at times, it became too much. I can't believe I'm saying this, but there was way too much information dumping, so much so, at times, it reminded me of school, when I pored over the text books.
Food, and the pursuit of perfection and authenticity, play also a prominent part in this novel. Initially, I enjoyed this part. But then, it became too much. Who eats twenty courses? Apparently one of the French kings and a few other kings. I got bored with the food and food preparation bits as well.
There are also some secrets, and Nazis and Jews. Also, there is a love story.
There are way too many characters in this novel. In the beginning, we learn about some sheik and his wife, some Russian oligarchs, some very rich and very snobbish Brits, socialites, art dealers, and academics. Also, one of the main characters is Annie, a thirty-one-year-old single woman, who finds herself penniless and alone, in a tiny apartment in London. She works as a cook for a film director, but she doesn't get to cook often. Other prominent characters are Rebecca Winkleman, the daughter of Memling Winkleman, very rich, well-respected art dealers and owners of a prestigious gallery.
There are so many story lines in this novel, so many threads and subthreads, I'll have to write a much longer review, and honestly, it's late, and I'm tired, and I don't feel like wasting another hour writing this review.
So, I'm going to try to summarise.
The novel is not bad. It has merit and is quite interesting. It is very readable, albeit there are a lot of foreign words (which I love), art jargon (I hope I'll remember the meaning of some of it) and some rare words (thank goodness for Kindle dictionary).I did feel like the author was trying too hard to impress us (I read that she's heavily involved in the art world, so probably that's her vernacular).
There were way too many characters, who were given too much air-time, they should have been dropped or just mentioned briefly, as they didn't add much to the story. I get that the author was trying to paint a broad canvas of the characters and the type of people who get involved or play a role in the art world. I totally get it. That's where an editor becomes very useful. My personal opinion is that the editor(s) failed this novel. It could have easily been a 4-5 star novel, but as it stands, I'm only giving it 3-3.5 stars. It's the novel that had lots of the things that I love, yet, it failed to impress me.
Cover: 1 star. This has got to be one of the ugliest, most boring and uninspired covers I've seen in recent times. Honestly, I could have requested it on Netgalley, but I saw the cover and immediately dismissed it. Yes, I'm that shallow, I judge books by their covers. I find it ironic that this novel is mostly about art and its beauty, and how it affects us, and yet the cover is so damn ugly. I see there are a couple different covers. Amen! (I'm commenting on this one, as that's the cover that came with my ebook).
What a slow, plodding, cliche, repetitive, badly written story. This was a book club read and ugh I am very glad I finally finished it. I really don't need to be told the paintings history two or three times in different ways. It's still the same history. This book is badly in need of a good editor and needs to be a good 150 pages shorter to cut out all the waffle. Maybe it's proof that if you have money you can get anything published.
I really enjoyed this book & the author was clearly well versed with the realm of art & all things luxurious as was evident by her vivid descriptions. That said, I felt I needed to keep a dictionary on hand to comprehend a number of words she’d peppered in throughout the course of her book as they aren’t used in today’s day and age. Had any other author chosen the vocabulary she did they would appear to be trying too hard. In the case of Ms Rothschild as well, I felt this vocabulary was unnecessary for the most part as she had already proven her wits with the story she spun. That said I am more than thrilled to be exposed to said words and will be mugging up their meanings such that I too can add them to my everyday lexicon.
Ms Rothschild’s sense of humor was top notch and I devoured her sharp & scathing barbs that were hurled at varied characters. Some of my favorite dialogues in the book were as follows -
“Your aunt Joanna has let herself go, I saw her at the Devonshires’ the other night. She sat down and her bottom spread over the sofa like a ripe Brie.”
“John’s written another book on the history of taste. The heart sinks. He will tell us everything we need to know about the subject and quite a bit more. In his review, Trichcombe Abufel unkindly called it a burden to the bookshelves of London Library.”
“My shrink says I have a bad case of FOAs: Fear of Appearing Stupid.”
“Beachendon walked back to his car. This time he hardly noticed the canine weapons of mass destruction. Stepping in a large pile of excrement, he didn’t stop to scrape the shit from his shoe.”
“What am I going to do with you? If you get any fatter, I will be able to bounce you out of these doors, down Piccadilly and around St James Park.”
I could go on - and just reading the text I’ve highlighted for this review has me in splits and has brought tears to my eyes - but I’d prefer not to give away all the gems this book contains!
There was perhaps only one place where the author slipped up but that could happen to the best of us. For context, Aditi is a woman’s name, not a man’s. That said, this hardly deviates from or takes away from how special this book is.
I understand that a lot of people found this book tiresome based on the reviews I’ve read. I can see where they might be coming from but I personally feel that this book is too special to dismiss so easily. There is far too much subpar fiction flooding the markets lately and the realm of romance is particularly awful as most authors feel obliged to add graphic elements to their creations to get more readers interested so this book was a welcome change. The plot itself was a little lame in terms of the painting starting a monologue of its own but I was willing to look past it as I felt I learnt a lot from this book and thoroughly enjoyed the authors sense of humor.
Ms Rothschild’s sense of humor was top notch and I devoured her sharp & scathing barbs that were hurled at varied characters. Some of my favorite dialogues in the book were as follows -
“Your aunt Joanna has let herself go, I saw her at the Devonshires’ the other night. She sat down and her bottom spread over the sofa like a ripe Brie.”
“John’s written another book on the history of taste. The heart sinks. He will tell us everything we need to know about the subject and quite a bit more. In his review, Trichcombe Abufel unkindly called it a burden to the bookshelves of London Library.”
“My shrink says I have a bad case of FOAs: Fear of Appearing Stupid.”
“Beachendon walked back to his car. This time he hardly noticed the canine weapons of mass destruction. Stepping in a large pile of excrement, he didn’t stop to scrape the shit from his shoe.”
“What am I going to do with you? If you get any fatter, I will be able to bounce you out of these doors, down Piccadilly and around St James Park.”
I could go on - and just reading the text I’ve highlighted for this review has me in splits and has brought tears to my eyes - but I’d prefer not to give away all the gems this book contains!
There was perhaps only one place where the author slipped up but that could happen to the best of us. For context, Aditi is a woman’s name, not a man’s. That said, this hardly deviates from or takes away from how special this book is.
I understand that a lot of people found this book tiresome based on the reviews I’ve read. I can see where they might be coming from but I personally feel that this book is too special to dismiss so easily. There is far too much subpar fiction flooding the markets lately and the realm of romance is particularly awful as most authors feel obliged to add graphic elements to their creations to get more readers interested so this book was a welcome change. The plot itself was a little lame in terms of the painting starting a monologue of its own but I was willing to look past it as I felt I learnt a lot from this book and thoroughly enjoyed the authors sense of humor.
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
After my initial excitement at what this book was meant to be, it was difficult to read and certainly to review. Whilst I loved the narrative of Annie and Jesse, it became caught up in too many other narratives and characters. I often felt as if Rothschild could not choose between a story that was plot driven or stylistic or character led , and felt like trying to do all was best. Instead it felt too clogged up. I never truly fell into the story. Perhaps the incescant references to the art world were just not my cup of tea, leading me to feel as clueless about it as Annie most of the time, but no reader wants to feel like the outsider.