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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
This fast-paced quirky tale, sometimes narrated by an 18th century French painting, contained all the story elements that appeal to me when reading for pleasure: British setting, dysfunctional families, art fraud, ethnic-eccentricity, gourmet meals at opulent parties, art history lessons, political intrigue, a charming aged drag queen, unlikely heroes who rise to meet the occasion, and a girl-meets-boy-happily-ever-after ending. A most satisfying read!
This is probably filed at the library simply under fiction, but I read through its 400 pages because of the mysteries throughout -- Is the picture Annie picks up at a junk shop really worth something? Will her mother ever stop drinking? Can Annie recover from losing her love and the beautiful countryside? Her new employers have something to hide--is it only their humanity? Can Vlad the Russian who is richer than any one person deserves to be find what his heart craves? Is the market for art really this crazy? What happened to the art stolen from Jewish families in World War II? How many ways can people hide themselves in London? When will the picture from the junk shop reveal more of its story? (Those chapters did remind me of the animated "Beauty and the Beast" where the teapot and candleabra are anthropomorphized as is the picture in this tale.) Will Annie make room in her heart for anyone? What about Jesse? How great a chef and party creator is Annie? Is there any hope for happily after? What is it about great art that touches our souls? The author, from 'that' banking family, has served as trustee of two major galleries in London, and her knowledge of that world shows. A compelling read.
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The title of the novel, "The Improbability of Love," is also the name of the painting that this novel is centered around.
Annie, still feeling the heartache from the end of a long relationship, purchases this painting at a thrift shop not realizing that it is an art world treasure. At the same time, Rebecca, who also happens to be Annie's employer, is uncovering family history and discovering that her art-dealer father may have come by works of art, including "The Improbability of Love," in ways that were not on the up and up.
Throw in a bit of family drama, a dash of romance, cheeky art-world characters, and historical love affairs as seen through the "eyes" of a painting and you've got a so-so novel that tries to capture the way in which art can be so captivating.
What I did like about the novel was having the painting serve a narrator for a few chapters and the references to real historical figures who had owned this fictitious work. That brought to life the timelessness of art.
Annie, still feeling the heartache from the end of a long relationship, purchases this painting at a thrift shop not realizing that it is an art world treasure. At the same time, Rebecca, who also happens to be Annie's employer, is uncovering family history and discovering that her art-dealer father may have come by works of art, including "The Improbability of Love," in ways that were not on the up and up.
Throw in a bit of family drama, a dash of romance, cheeky art-world characters, and historical love affairs as seen through the "eyes" of a painting and you've got a so-so novel that tries to capture the way in which art can be so captivating.
What I did like about the novel was having the painting serve a narrator for a few chapters and the references to real historical figures who had owned this fictitious work. That brought to life the timelessness of art.
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Meh.
There is a LOT of raving about this book, and that's part of why I stuck with it, but, overall. . . I didn't like it much. Rothschild's characterization relies too much on telling and too little on actual development, and her tropes are over the top. This one reminded me of Crazy Rich Asians a bit: rich people tend to have mixed-up values, and they can do bad stuff.
Some sections about the value of art that struck me, and Annie's banquet planning sections were fun, but overall: I slogged through it.
There is a LOT of raving about this book, and that's part of why I stuck with it, but, overall. . . I didn't like it much. Rothschild's characterization relies too much on telling and too little on actual development, and her tropes are over the top. This one reminded me of Crazy Rich Asians a bit: rich people tend to have mixed-up values, and they can do bad stuff.
Some sections about the value of art that struck me, and Annie's banquet planning sections were fun, but overall: I slogged through it.
The Improbability of Love is the story of an 18th Century French painting, which turns up in a junk shop, and sets an awful lot of drama in motion. It's a fast-paced mystery/thriller with elements of chick lit and satire. It was a bit of a mixed bag for me, sometimes the sense of everything going wrong before it could go right, just made me want to put it down, and I found some aspects over done, but the resolution was satisfying and the journey often amusing or engaging.
Many voices but one story well crafted combining art, food, the holocaust and a love story.
So this was going to be my original review:
I’ll start by saying that I did like this, but I think I would have loved this book instead of barely enjoying it if only the author would have kept things simpler. The story about the missing picture is good and enthralling, but then you get lost in a sea of characters that for the most part don’t bring anything interesting to the story.
I can honestly say that there was not a single character that I truly liked. At first I was happy to read about a flawed female MC (Annie) that is trying to get her life back on track after getting out of a very long and not entirely healthy relationship, but the thing is that although we are told that she wants to move on, it’s only way ahead into the story that she actually does something to try to move on, and her obsession with ‘not ending up alone’ truly bothered me. She also has this love/hate relationship with her mom, a woman that Annie does not respect at all, which I though was rich because many of the things that she cannot stand in her mom were the same things that made me want to smack Annie. Annie and Jesse’s love story is so random that I don’t understand why the author bothered with it at all…I suppose that in a book called The Improbability of Love there should be some kind of love story, but we already had that!! The book is absolutely full of love for art, and there’s plenty of bittersweet love stories surrounding the picture, there was really no need for this – or if you are determined to include it, please don’t write it as a really bad case of teenage insta-lust and try to make it pass for a tru wuv story.
I know what you’re thinking, so far there’s not a lot going on for this book, but I still gave it 3 stars… as I said at the beginning I did like it, but it was mainly Memling and Rebecca’s story and relationship that kept me reading – it really would have been a much, much better book if this would have been its main focus. Then there’s of course the actual story of the picture, which was pretty good too, and there’s tons and tons of beautiful art and I absolutely love art :)
I wrote that at lunch time, when I had less than 20% of the book left, thinking that I would finish it this evening and maybe change my review if the book improved with the ending. It did not. In fact, at 85% the book takes a turn so unbelievable, so utterly ridiculous that I almost DNFed this. In the end I started to skip pages like there was no tomorrow just to see how the author was going to solve the mess. I know this is supposed to be a social critique/satire, but to me it was pompous and as I said, utterly ridiculous. I'll leave you with my favourite quote:
She is a miserable specimen. Broke, single, in her thirties - her life is a kind of prison already
(Rebecca about Annie. Btw, she's 31)
I’ll start by saying that I did like this, but I think I would have loved this book instead of barely enjoying it if only the author would have kept things simpler. The story about the missing picture is good and enthralling, but then you get lost in a sea of characters that for the most part don’t bring anything interesting to the story.
I can honestly say that there was not a single character that I truly liked. At first I was happy to read about a flawed female MC (Annie) that is trying to get her life back on track after getting out of a very long and not entirely healthy relationship, but the thing is that although we are told that she wants to move on, it’s only way ahead into the story that she actually does something to try to move on, and her obsession with ‘not ending up alone’ truly bothered me. She also has this love/hate relationship with her mom, a woman that Annie does not respect at all, which I though was rich because many of the things that she cannot stand in her mom were the same things that made me want to smack Annie. Annie and Jesse’s love story is so random that I don’t understand why the author bothered with it at all…I suppose that in a book called The Improbability of Love there should be some kind of love story, but we already had that!! The book is absolutely full of love for art, and there’s plenty of bittersweet love stories surrounding the picture, there was really no need for this – or if you are determined to include it, please don’t write it as a really bad case of teenage insta-lust and try to make it pass for a tru wuv story.
I know what you’re thinking, so far there’s not a lot going on for this book, but I still gave it 3 stars… as I said at the beginning I did like it, but it was mainly Memling and Rebecca’s story and relationship that kept me reading – it really would have been a much, much better book if this would have been its main focus. Then there’s of course the actual story of the picture, which was pretty good too, and there’s tons and tons of beautiful art and I absolutely love art :)
I wrote that at lunch time, when I had less than 20% of the book left, thinking that I would finish it this evening and maybe change my review if the book improved with the ending. It did not. In fact, at 85% the book takes a turn so unbelievable, so utterly ridiculous that I almost DNFed this. In the end I started to skip pages like there was no tomorrow just to see how the author was going to solve the mess. I know this is supposed to be a social critique/satire, but to me it was pompous and as I said, utterly ridiculous. I'll leave you with my favourite quote:
She is a miserable specimen. Broke, single, in her thirties - her life is a kind of prison already
(Rebecca about Annie. Btw, she's 31)