A thoughtful, well-written, and well-developed novel about the art world that’s an exuberant, satisfying read.
In this mystery/thriller set in New York City, an art restoration consultant stumbles upon clues pointing to his grandfather’s possible association with World War II looting.
Once a Navy intelligence officer, 40ish Julian Peale finds a new job after recovering from shrapnel fire: he works at Medici Studios, a specialized laboratory for art restoration and research. As a restorer, Peale is still an apprentice, but his background in the Navy suits him for other tasks requiring more discretion, such as tracking down smugglers and forgeries. After a sting operation aimed at Russian smugglers goes awry, Peale follows clues to art fairs and auctions. But the trail becomes confusing, riddled with schemes from several fronts. John Saville runs an artists’ collective of young people happy to make some money through such shenanigans as forging works for the Russian market through their Russian landlord and art dealer, who is allied with London art world power couple Simon and Sonja Wilde. Their high-stakes plans rely on one of Saville’s mischief-makers, performance artist Dadaman, who takes his love for pranks a little too far, contributing to the knot Peale seeks to untangle. More important, Peale’s investigation uncovers information about his grandfather’s work as one of the Monuments Men in World War II, who were charged with restoring looted European art. In the process, Peale begins to find himself as a painter. The narrative offers reflections on anarchy, performance, appropriation, and creativity. Writer, editor, journalist, and artist Witham (Piero’s Light, 2014, etc.) provides a fast-paced mystery that’s bolstered by excellent characterizations, a deft back story, and insider knowledge of today’s art world: celebrities conceiving works while others make them; investors barely knowing what they’re buying; and the players hoping to make money or build reputations. Witham shows with admirable lucidity the Wild West nature of the art market, “home to the most unregulated flow of money on the planet after drugs and arms.” Readers also get a glimpse into Peale’s artistic process as he confronts the blank canvas and plays with colors, shapes, and ideas—an approach that provides an alluring contrast to the book’s joke’s-on-you prank artists. Underscored by Peale’s desire to redeem his grandfather’s memory, the narrative has some emotional urgency to go with its cleverness.
A thoughtful, well-written, and well-developed novel about the art world that’s an exuberant, satisfying read.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4808-2434-8
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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