A lively and well-narrated tale that will appeal to Bruegel fans and may awaken newcomers to an interest in his work.
Pictures at an exhibition, sort of, as mathematician and SF writer Rucker (Spaceland, p. 778, etc.) tells the life of the great Flemish painter.
A true lowlander, born in Holland and raised in Antwerp, Bruegel traveled extensively throughout Europe in pursuit of training and work. Here, we follow his story from 1552 to 1569, in 16 chapters that organize themselves around 16 of the master’s best-known paintings. Thus, in “Mountain Landscape,” the painter and his faithful friend and colleague Martin De Vos have finished their apprenticeships and are traveling to Italy to seek their fortune as artists—though Bruegel has to spend the proceeds of his first sale to rescue Martin from a jealous husband. In Rome (“Tower of Babel”), Martin is at once enchanted and nauseated by the city’s beauty and venality. He has the good fortune to make friends with Abraham Ortelius, a fellow lowlander who helps him establish his reputation by introducing him to prominent Roman churchmen. After several years in Italy, Bruegel returns to Antwerp, where he spends the remainder of his life. Antwerp is quiet and backward compared to Rome, but even there Bruegel has to contend with politics at every stage of the game, currying favor with one prince or another to secure commissions and patronage—and taking his revenge as best he can when he’s thwarted. When Cardinal Granvelle, the Archbishop of Antwerp, discovers that Bruegel has made a drawing of Satan in his likeness, he nearly has the painter thrown into jail and has his servant (an American Indian named Williblad Cheroo) seduce Bruegel’s fiancée, Anja. Eventually, however, Bruegel is able to establish himself well enough that he can marry Anja, settle down to family life, and continue painting (“The Magpie on the Gallows”) right up to his death.
A lively and well-narrated tale that will appeal to Bruegel fans and may awaken newcomers to an interest in his work.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-765-30403-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002
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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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