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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
How amazeballs would it be to buy a painting in a secondhand shop for mere pounds and then discover it’s worth millions?!
That’s the premise that drew me to The Improbability of Love, but unfortunately pretty much everything else about the book repelled me. Rather than focusing on the artwork’s intriguing provenance and journey back to market, Hannah Rothschild overstuffed her 2015 debut novel with:
- A bajillion characters that came and went in various ranges of irrelevance.
- An alcoholic mother.
- A painting that talked (which actually worked for me but seems to have bothered some other readers).
- A culinary side plot that included near recipe-level details about a 20 course meal.
- A romance that occasionally led to random phrases about someone wanting to l-word someone’s c-word parts. (Gross!)
- Hitler.
The end result was like looking at a masterpiece mostly covered by mistinted house paint from the clearance aisle at Home Depot. 2.5 stars.
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
That’s the premise that drew me to The Improbability of Love, but unfortunately pretty much everything else about the book repelled me. Rather than focusing on the artwork’s intriguing provenance and journey back to market, Hannah Rothschild overstuffed her 2015 debut novel with:
- A bajillion characters that came and went in various ranges of irrelevance.
- An alcoholic mother.
- A painting that talked (which actually worked for me but seems to have bothered some other readers).
- A culinary side plot that included near recipe-level details about a 20 course meal.
- A romance that occasionally led to random phrases about someone wanting to l-word someone’s c-word parts. (Gross!)
- Hitler.
The end result was like looking at a masterpiece mostly covered by mistinted house paint from the clearance aisle at Home Depot. 2.5 stars.
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
"Die Launenhaftigkeit der Liebe" vereint prunkvolles Ausschweifen, menschliche Abgründe, Hingabe zur Kunst, eine abgekartete Industrie und herrlich komische Charaktere. Trotz und gerade wegen der vielen vorhandenen Perspektiven, der faszinierenden Familiengeschichten, der oft vertrauten Handlungsorte und des einnehmenden Schreibstils ein absoluter Lesegenuss. Wunderbar!
I've waited a long time to read this book and was certain I was going to love it, but I was disappointed. It's hard for me to point a finger at one particular reason. It may have been the multiple points of view, which weren't always warranted and there were too much of. It may have been the ridiculous WWII back story which was totally unbelievable. Or it may have been that most of the characters in this book are presented in a farcical, two-dimensional way, as decadent rich people that we are meant to hate on sight. All characters here are superficially and stereotypically-built. Almost none of them feel like real human beings, and few have redeeming qualities. And I'm not even going to talk about how much this writer hates fat and fat people. It's deplorable and shallow. The character of Annie is a little bit better, but the fact that she becomes such a superb chef without any prior knowledge or schooling is absurd. So are the seemingly-supernatural powers of the painting to cause love or the appreciation of love. In short, this is not a good read, and a waste of a good opportunity to know what the art world is really like from someone who has so much inside information on it. Rothschild could have given us a fuller and less superficial view of it.
Looking for a birthday present for her current lover, Annie McDee discovers an interesting painting in a junk shop. Only shortly after she find herself amidst the art scene where opposing opinions tell her that she either bought rubbish or one of the most interesting and long-searched works of art. Unsuspectingly, her finding also leads to a serious family crisis and the discovery of a well-kept secret which shakes the world not only of several individuals but also the whole art world.
Admittedly I thought – due to the title – that the novel would be a rather light love story connected to art somehow. Yet, it is the complete opposite. We find complex characters who struggle in their lives with complicated family relationships, diverging feelings of independence and duties, and who are always searching for love. In the centre are two strong female characters lacking love and acceptance from their respective parents who are shown at a crucial moment of their life where they have to decide if they take revenge for the love denied or if blood just is thicker than water. The art scene was also very well depicted, you get a clear picture of the people involved and too me it seemed very realistic and believable.
All in all, a wonderful and interesting story which I can strongly recommend to read.
Admittedly I thought – due to the title – that the novel would be a rather light love story connected to art somehow. Yet, it is the complete opposite. We find complex characters who struggle in their lives with complicated family relationships, diverging feelings of independence and duties, and who are always searching for love. In the centre are two strong female characters lacking love and acceptance from their respective parents who are shown at a crucial moment of their life where they have to decide if they take revenge for the love denied or if blood just is thicker than water. The art scene was also very well depicted, you get a clear picture of the people involved and too me it seemed very realistic and believable.
All in all, a wonderful and interesting story which I can strongly recommend to read.
It is not often that I give a book 5 stars without blinking. I am often caught between "what if the next book is better?" I had no trouble dishing out my 5 stars with this book. I was entranced the entire time I was reading. My only regret was that I didn't read it on my iPad so I could research all the paintings and the books and history mentioned..... I often found myself wondering if these people really existed and who they were and .... Well, you know. It would just take so long to go and look it up. Maybe that's why it took me so long to read this book.
This was my first Hannah Rothschild book but it won't be the last. I am, as soon as I'm done with this review, going to put her other books on hold in my library and I am probably going to buy this one for my own personal library. The book at everything, intrigue, love and romance, murder and in the midst of it all there were lessons in art history and art. The quotes were awesome, and we all know how I'm a sucker for a good quote.
I thought the chapters from the painting's perspective were funny and interesting and always insightful. Almost like an old woman who has been around the block a few times and can tell millions of stories and know what is about to happen before it happens.
I can't say enough good things about this book.
This was my first Hannah Rothschild book but it won't be the last. I am, as soon as I'm done with this review, going to put her other books on hold in my library and I am probably going to buy this one for my own personal library. The book at everything, intrigue, love and romance, murder and in the midst of it all there were lessons in art history and art. The quotes were awesome, and we all know how I'm a sucker for a good quote.
I thought the chapters from the painting's perspective were funny and interesting and always insightful. Almost like an old woman who has been around the block a few times and can tell millions of stories and know what is about to happen before it happens.
I can't say enough good things about this book.
Could have been a 5 stars but that ending UGH
This started off as a great book for me. The first I've ever listened too on audiobook. I also read along as I listened. I found the first 3\4 of the book intriguing, engaging and I was hooked. But the last quarter kind of dragged and took away from the whole experience for me. It suddenly took an unexpected direction that I don't think it needed. That last storyline just disturbed all the pleasure I had from reading the story.
**********spoiler alerts*************
Spoiler discussion here******
Rebecca setting Annie up! And that whole debacle! I was so thrown. Here I thought we were getting closer and closer to the auction and nope we get conspiracy and cover up and I just really did not enjoy this twist. I feel it was unneeded. And it took me out of the reading experience and out of the story as I sat there wondering why in the world the author chose this direction. Not every story needs some dramatic twist at the end. Anyway that turned my otherwise 5 star rating down to 3 stars.
This started off as a great book for me. The first I've ever listened too on audiobook. I also read along as I listened. I found the first 3\4 of the book intriguing, engaging and I was hooked. But the last quarter kind of dragged and took away from the whole experience for me. It suddenly took an unexpected direction that I don't think it needed. That last storyline just disturbed all the pleasure I had from reading the story.
**********spoiler alerts*************
Spoiler discussion here******
Rebecca setting Annie up! And that whole debacle! I was so thrown. Here I thought we were getting closer and closer to the auction and nope we get conspiracy and cover up and I just really did not enjoy this twist. I feel it was unneeded. And it took me out of the reading experience and out of the story as I sat there wondering why in the world the author chose this direction. Not every story needs some dramatic twist at the end. Anyway that turned my otherwise 5 star rating down to 3 stars.
I read this book in day. It's clever, unusual, and engaging, with a vibrant cast of characters. It moved me to sympathy for people whom I would never have imagined myself relating to, and I enjoyed the depiction of the Winkleman family as written by a Rothschild.
It also inspired me to cook a lot of fancy food, and to book a trip to Rome to revisit the Carravagios.
My only real criticisms would be that there were a few unanswered questions in Annie's back story and I felt it ended a little too quickly.
Also, the author's conception of what it's like to be poor in the UK, and London especially are comically divorced from reality. Some of the descriptions sounded as though they were inspired by 19th century fiction than by interactions with actual, living people. £5,000 was more than a woman working in London in circa 2014 could imagine? Really? Her stint in India in her backstory would have cost her that much alone.
It also inspired me to cook a lot of fancy food, and to book a trip to Rome to revisit the Carravagios.
My only real criticisms would be that there were a few unanswered questions in Annie's back story and I felt it ended a little too quickly.
Also, the author's conception of what it's like to be poor in the UK, and London especially are comically divorced from reality. Some of the descriptions sounded as though they were inspired by 19th century fiction than by interactions with actual, living people. £5,000 was more than a woman working in London in circa 2014 could imagine? Really? Her stint in India in her backstory would have cost her that much alone.