A Recent (and Fun!) Read: The Art Forger by BA Shapiro

A year and a half ago I read The Forger's Spell by Edward Dolnick. I'd just visited Atlanta's High Museum of Art's Dutch painters exhibit. I loved the exhibit, and the highlight was seeing the real "Girl with a Pearl Earring" as the last painting in the exhibit. I had built the book up and was so excited to read it, but was disappointed.

The Forger's Spell was a let down. Only a few parts interested me as a person who enjoys art but can only draw stick figures (my recent visit to a BYOB and paint-your-own-canvas thing produced a piece I'm not sure is worth hanging in my house).

Fast forward to this summer. I borrowed The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro from a friend, and this book has made up for the other in a sense. The book begins 25 years after the robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston (right about now). A talented painter named Claire has been trying to make it as an artist and win back a good reputation after accusations of a forging a painting a few years before. To earn money to supplement her own original works, Claire is paid to paint copies of famous paintings sold as fakes online by a large retailer. When she's approached by a trusted friend from the art world with a secret project with a large paycheck, Claire struggles to make a decision that's ethical and true to herself.

While I'd still be interested to read an interesting nonfiction book about the underground world of forging the works of famous artists, and the theft at the Gardner Museum, I enjoyed this book. The Art Forger was fun fiction, and was just the right amount of art for a person like me with good pacing and a character I could understand.

It's an interesting time to be reading a book like The Art Forger, as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the U.S. Department of Justice have just released new information on the heist this month. The two men who stole some of the world's most valuable paintings are now confirmed dead, though their names haven't been released. Now the investigation to locate those paintings continues.

Here's hoping they catch the thief and someone writes a good book about how they got away with it.

Book Review: Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen

Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen

Published by: Gallery Books

Published on: October 1, 2013

Page Count: 336

Genre: Historical fiction, mystery

My Reading Format: ARC provided by Netgalley

Available Formats: Hardcover, Kindle and Audible editions

My Review:

I have to confess I haven't read much Poe. I have the general feel of how his writing is and know some of his biographical highlights. I'd heard that he married his much younger cousin, so it intrigued me when I came across this historical fiction book about a love triangle (or square really) involving Edgar Allan Poe.

The narrator is Poe's "other" woman, the narrator Frances Osgood, herself a writer, and the whole book is written from her perspective. Instead of getting the wife's side of the story, we hear of Poe's dark moods and flighty, sickly wife from Frances' perspective, which really made the book interesting.

Frances has been abandoned by her husband Samuel and is struggling to make a living as a writer to support their two daughters. The three have moved in with friends the Bartletts at their New York City home. Poe's reputation, of course, has preceded him, and Frances is intrigued by him even before they meet. What begins as friendly conversations between two writers turns into an attraction that Frances and Poe seem to have no control over. Frances' path keeps crossing with Poe's and they are soon trying hard to hide the undeniable chemistry between them. In the same circle of friends, many of whom are writers and artists, the two keep attending the same parties. Before long Poe is leaving his wife and mother-in-law at home regularly to meet Frances at friends' gatherings.

John and Eliza Bartlett support Frances in her writing but disapprove of her relationship with Poe. This is all complicated by the fact that Poe is married to a cousin ten years his junior who is frail and sickly, but desires a friendship with Frances, and John Bartlett and Poe have a professional relationship. As Frances and Poe fall more deeply in love with each other, Poe's wife Virginia is growing increasingly ill but still demands Frances' friendship, even when she appears to have caught on to her husband's relationship. 

 

There is an abrupt resolution to the storyline, something that was a big jarring to me as a reader. While I realize this sort of thing happens in mysteries, the story got resolved much quicker and neater than I anticipated. There were, however, a couple things that I didn't see coming, and I enjoyed the surprise.   

Besides the creepy feeling (in a good way!) some of the characters gave me, my other favorite part of this book was the narrator's point of view. I haven't read too many books where the narrator is the "other" woman. I loved seeing her side of things as she grew increasingly powerless to resist Poe's charms and tried to maintain a friendship with Poe's wife Virginia. It was such a strange balance to strike that I couldn't put the book down. 

Four out of five stars

If you liked Mrs. Poe, you’ll like Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, and Z by Therese Anne Fowler (but all of these are from the wife's perspective).

Book Review: The Storycatcher by Ann Hite

The Storycatcher by Ann Hite

Published by: Gallery Books

Published on: September 10, 2013

Page Count: 352

Genre: Southern fiction

My Reading Format: ARC provided by NetGalley

Available Formats: Paperback, Kindle, Audible and audiobook CD editions

My Review:

Ann Hite has woven the voices of several female narrators together in a spooky, don't-turn-your-back-for-one-second tale about the past, the people in it and how it can all come back to haunt. The stories of several women, alive and dead, are steeped in mystery. Pastor Dobbins' wife and daughter, Lydia and Faith, respectively, live on Black Mountain, North Carolina, with their servant Amanda and her children Will and Shelly. The women and their teenaged children steer clear of Pastor Dobbins whenever they can - his temper is fierce and he's hiding something. Nearby is Miss Maude, an older woman who is teaching Faith and Shelly how to garden. When the ghost of a woman who died in childbirth five years before shows up, Pastor Dobbins starts acting even more squirrelly and the women in his household and employ are on edge, particularly after Will makes a hasty departure without saying goodbye. Will ends up in coastal Georgia serendipitously finding family member Ada Lee who has some stories of her own. The ghost has a story to tell too, and she can do it most easily by inhabiting Faith's body to communicate, warning the women about what might be coming their way. Shelly and Faith, who have for years tried to stay out of each other's way, find their stories intertwining in a way they never thought possible. The tensions between Pastor Dobbins and the women continue to build and something has to give, and does.

I enjoyed Hite's ability to create so many distinct voices - it must have been difficult to keep it all straight in her head while writing. There were times though that I had difficulty remembering which voices were living women and which were the spirits. I'd find myself having to flip back and forth more times than I would have liked to keep it straight. For this reason alone, I'd recommend a physical copy of this book rather than the Kindle or audio versions. Still, I very much enjoyed seeing how all of the characters' stories played out and how difficult situations resolved themselves by the end of the novel. There were times where as the reader, I knew more than the characters, so I could tell what they were probably about to walk into. This didn't spoil it for me though. It was fun to see if my predictions were correct and how characters handled sticky situations or the delivery of bad news. The characters are memorable and resilient. I'd like to reread it one more time to soak them all in.

Three and a half out of five stars

If you liked this book, you’ll like Flannery O'Connor (for the voices she gives her characters), The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and Nightwoods by Charles Frazier (western North Carolina mountain setting and more good characters).