November 1, 2012

Hello 

Each month we give away books to members to read and review (or discuss). Members who choose to take part tend to receive a free book about every 3-4 months. Here are their opinions on one just published book:

The Art Forger
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Publication Date: 10/23/2012
Novel/Thriller, 368 pages

Number of reader reviews: 18
Readers' consensus:



BookBrowse Members Say
"Barbara Shapiro's book, The Art Forger finds the painting of Edgar Degas, Woman Leaving Her Bath as the main character. Ms. Shapiro picked up her pallet and came up with an enthralling story of the world of artists, paintings, greed, copying and forging that will keep her readers on the edge of their seats." - Barbara S. (Glen Ellyn, Illinois).

"The Art Forger is a very good mystery filled with fascinating facts about the art industry. It revolves around reproductions, art forgery and a missing masterpiece. The fictional story is based on a real event - the largest art heist ever in which 13 works of art from such masters as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Degas were stolen from the Gardner Museum in Boston. I loved the main character, Claire, the development of the additional characters was also well done - the obsessive collectors, devious painters and art dealers." - Karen R. (Locust Grove, VA).

"One of the main reasons one reads is to learn and in The Art Forger one learns about the world of painters, dealers, curators, forgers, and copiers. Highly recommended." - Phyllis R. (Rochester Hills, MI).

"This was a fascinating story about the science and ethics of art forgery, of fame and infamy, and the perils and joys of love. Shapiro's writing is very good, and I felt very involved with her characters... Book clubs would find much to discuss here - art history, art thefts, and ethics." - Andrea S. (Lafayette, IN).

"So many things to engage any reader. The book is an entire package." - Barbara H. (Richmond, IN).

"This book came to me as I was plodding through a tedious library book. How great to go from barely-getting-through-it to a book that I almost couldn't put down! On a side note - I am now looking at paintings in galleries and museums in a completely different light. The wet on wet technique of modern artists vs. the wet on dry of previous generations; the luminescent quality of oils - I will never look at a Degas the same way again!" - Kenan R. (Liberty, MO).

These are 6 of the 18 reviews for this book. Read all the reviews in full

Buy at Amazon

Below is part of BookBrowse's review of It's Fine By Me. Read the review in full here


Hardcover (Oct 2012), 208 pages.

Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN 9781555976262


BookBrowse Rating:
Critics' Consensus:

Review:
In an interview in The Economist (Jan 2012), Per Petterson notes that, "... [W]e cannot know each other. You could call that loneliness, or you could call it character; making us who we are, being different from one another, which is a good thing." In his novel It's Fine by Me, Petterson uses this shared-yet-unique loneliness as the foundation for characters who are so vulnerable, so real, so beautifully complex, you ache for them.

This slim novel, originally published as Det er greit for meg (1992) and translated into English by Don Bartlett, revolves around the teenage years of Audun Sletten, a young man who - to put it mildly -has had a rough go in life. His largely absent father (though not absent enough) is an abusive alcoholic whose presence looms in the shadows of Oslo. His younger brother is dead - died in a reckless car accident, his sister chooses to move in with a suspicious James Dean wannabe, and his mother - too exhausted by her own grief to overcome Audun's resistance to her parenting - is content to turn up her opera music and leave him be.

Set throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the novel opens as Audun, a snarky and insecure 13-year-old, faces his first day at the Veitvet School - an event for which he refuses to remove his sunglasses, not even in class. He and his mother have recently moved to Oslo to escape his father - a man the memory of whom keeps Audun looking over his shoulder. From there, the story jumps around in time, visiting different distinct memories in Audun's young life. Some memories are traumatic, some tender and poignant, others simply are. As the novel progresses, readers start to piece together Audun's life story - his motivations, the reasons for his insecurities and odd behaviors, how his loneliness varies from the loneliness of those around him. He's a relatable character - he's a teenager after all, caught somewhere between wanting to be cared for and being a powerful adult. For example, upon meeting his sister Kari's boyfriend, Audun thinks: I am sure he beats her, but I have never seen anything, and Kari does not say a word. If ever I catch him I'll beat him up. That won't cost me much I have been training for years. With my newspaper money I bought a bench and weights. Luckily though, he has Arvid (see Beyond the Book), a true friend who - despite their inevitable differences - makes the loneliness more bearable.

The real gift of this novel is Petterson's careful, simple prose. Each word feels mindfully selected and therefore carries a special weight. Rather than giving explanations for his characters' feelings or spelling out why they act in certain ways, Petterson keeps these details quiet, and simply shows their all-too-human reactions to life. By doing so, he places more responsibility on the reader to work through, understand, and experience the characters' emotions, which makes for a truly wonderful, if at times heartbreaking, visceral read.

Petterson's descriptions of Norway are carefully wrought - both beautiful and quiet - and readers feel how the setting shapes Audun's personality. In The Economist Petterson explains, "I take great joy in writing about [nature]. It is something I have taken with me from my childhood; the body exposed to the threat of the physical world and at the same time being at home in it." Admittedly, at times the unfamiliar names of places in Norway were a little distracting, but overall they didn't detract from the story.

It's Fine by Me is a fine novel, not overly weighed down by the reality of its characters, written with care, detail, and a respect for the delicacy of trust and what it means to be vulnerable. Petterson is able to communicate the complexity of deep emotions in few words - a gift that will leave readers in a quiet, contemplative space after reading his work and will probably inspire a second reading. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Elena Spagnolie

Above is part of BookBrowse's review of It's Fine By Me. Read the review and backstory in full here

Read-Alikes:
Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky
Nothing by Janne Teller
The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano


 

At BookBrowse, we don't just review books, we go 'beyond the book' to explore interesting aspects relating to the story.

Here is a recent "Beyond the Book" feature for The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro, published by Algonquin Books in late October.




Sometimes, I think, we are under the magical assumption that a writer has an idea, writes a story, then an editor at a publishing house acquires it, and it is published. Four clean, clear steps in a straight forward-moving line.

Sigh. Maybe I should revise that we to an I.

I am a fiction writer. And my process is - well - kind of different from the one above. I get an idea for a story. But then I write part of it, get stuck, cut half of it, write it again, give it to a critique partner to read, take her extensive notes, cut half of it again, then revise what is left. I repeat this part of the process until the story is done. Then my agent sends it out to an editor. I get a rejection. Then another editor, and I get another rejection. I repeat this until the story is sold, or put in a drawer. And if it is sold, then it has to go through the whole process of getting published...

It took B. A. Shapiro eight years to get The Art Forger published. She had already written and sold five novels at that point, but still, she could not find an editor who could and would acquire it. As she says in an interview with Jan Brogan on the blog Jungle Writers Red: "The support of my family and my friends as well as a driving desire to tell stories [kept me going during this dry spell.] It wasn't easy...after five published novels I wrote four more that couldn't find a home. I was thinking about a career change when The Art Forger was acquired by Algonquin Books after many, many rejections by other publishers. I immediately bagged the change idea and started writing a new novel. As far as advice goes, all I can say is that sometimes - not always - but sometimes when you want something badly enough, it can happen. You've just got to get your butt into the chair so that you're there when it strikes."

For Shapiro, the reason editors didn't buy the book was because they couldn't easily categorize it. Many of them loved it, many of them thought it was well-written and well-paced and an interesting story, but they just didn't know where it would neatly fit in their list of books.

The reasons for novels getting rejected are varied, of course. Some are rejected because, as The Art Forger was, they aren't easily placed inside a specific genre. Some are rejected because their form or subject matter is too challenging for the times. Some are simply rejected because they are too similar to another book on an editor's list, or they are not a style of book that the publishing house leans toward, or, of course, they need one (or two or three!) more goes at revision.

By Tamara Smith

Above is part of BookBrowse's backstory to The Art Forger. Read the review and backstory in full here