A steadily thoughtful exploration of artistry, loyalty and choice.
Basson’s debut novel, a work of historical fiction, tells a poignant story of saving works of art from destruction and of salvation through art.
Gabriele “Ella” Münter, a real-life student of “Professor K” at the progressive Phalanx School in Germany in 1902, absorbs her mentor’s avant-garde theories about art. “The truest art should be like music,” he declares: “completely abstract,” with “no picture at all.” Professor K is Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian painter who, in the early 20th century, was one of the first proponents of abstraction in art. Ella, young and self-conscious but talented, falls in love with her professor, and a romantic relationship forms between them—one founded on attraction, admiration, volatility and artistic philosophy. With other artists, they found the influential Der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider) group, and they travel frequently in an attempt to depict different cultural spheres on canvas. “[F]reeing art from its bonds is our mission,” Kandinsky declares. Hardship, whether pertaining to internal stability or external world events, follows them. When the Nazi Party comes into power in Germany, expressionistic artworks are deemed “threats to German culture”; Ella is forced to make a decision that is both deeply personal and historically consequential. Her dilemma, her struggles and her creativity form the basis of a quietly stunning true story. Although the relationship between Ella and Kandinsky doesn’t lack for tempestuousness, it avoids the prurience of a clichéd, passionate romance between artists, and it’s similarly disinterested in the fireworks of a raucous art-heist narrative. In fact, other than intermittent descriptions of Münter’s paintings—presumably taken from a catalog or wall plaques adjacent to her works in museums—Basson’s novel is straight narrative; there are no stylistic experiments to mirror her subjects, but that directness and lack of pretense don’t make the novel simple. Rather, it’s an evocative study of artistic beliefs and the creative minds that form them. In particular, Basson offers a rare appreciation of Münter, who, despite creating works with mastery of color and form, hasn’t received the same attention as her better-regarded companion.
A steadily thoughtful exploration of artistry, loyalty and choice.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9911496-0-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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