The Venus Fixers

Anyone who loves Italian art and cares about our shared cultural heritage needs to read Ilaria Dagnini Brey's "The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II." Italian-born journalist Brey follows first the attempt by the Italians to protect artworks in the face of oncoming war -- everything from bricking up "David" to hiding paintings in Tuscan villas -- then the valiant efforts of the "Monuments Men" to keep them safe during and after the Allied invasion. The Monuments Men were a band of artists, art historians, architects, archaeologists, archivists, etc. who served in the British and American armies and used their expertise to look after monuments and artworks in time of war. Brey focuses on those who served in Italy: we learn about Yale art professor Deane Keller, who had the artworks of western Tuscany as his responsibility, and for me a familiar name was art history professor Frederick Hartt, whose landmark "Italian Renaissance Art" textbook I knew from university but I had no idea he'd served as a Monuments Man. So too John Ward-Perkins, a prominent Romanist in his day: again, I know his work but enjoyed reading about his Italian service. As a card-carrying professional art historian, I couldn't help but feel proud as I read this book; it was like learning one's great-uncles or second cousins or whatever had been war heroes.

There are heartstopping moments in this book -- the American bombing of the Florence railyards for example, which through the skill of the pilots and the maps provided by the Monuments Men left the Duomo, Santa Maria Novella, and everything else unscathed. There are also heartrending moments: the Nazi bombardment of the Florentine bridges, the Allied bombardment of the monastery of Monte Cassino, the accidental near-destruction of the frescoes of the Camposanto in Pisa. Not being a specialist in Renaissance art, much of the story was new to me, save what I'd seen in the documentary "The Rape of Europa." Although I *knew* Michelangelo's David, Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and any number of treasures are safe now in their museum homes, Brey kept me in suspense throughout her account.

In recent years, the effects of World War II on the artistic heritage have gotten increased attention (e.g. Lynn Nicholas' book "The Rape of Europa" and the excellent documentary of the same name, plus the books of Robert Edsel, including his newest, "Monuments Men"--which I now HAVE to read). There are lessons for all in studying this time period, especially since artworks and monuments continue to be imperiled every day in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Read this book!!

Art History Reading Challenge!

The blogosphere is rife these days with 'reading challenges,' wherein bloggers commit themselves to tackling X number of books in a certain amount of time with a certain theme. The Art History Reading Challenge began in 2009 but is continuing for 2010: you can find information about it here at the Challenge blog. To participate, simply subscribe to the blog and provide a link to your own blog. Then choose a level of participation (3, 6, 9, or 12 fiction or nonfiction books about art to read) and have fun!

I've never participated in an online reading challenge before, and I admit it's kind of cheating for me to do this one. After all, it's my job to read nonfiction art history books! But my personal challenge is to remember to blog about some of them, 'cause I usually forget. I'm very excited that the subgenre of art historical fiction will be busy in 2010 and plan to make that a continued focus too. This new year we can look forward to Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves, Kathryn Wagner's Dancing for Degas, Stephanie Cowell's Claude and Camille [about Monet], and Susan Vreeland's Mr Tiffany and Clara. (If anyone knows of others, post a comment here.)

My first Challenge-oriented review will come this weekend: the promised yet delayed review of Ilaria Dagnini Brey's "The Venus Fixers." Happy Art History Reading!

Helen of Troy

I've been 'into' Greek mythology for about thirty years now (gasp! I'm old!), and I have to say, I never liked Helen of Troy much. She always struck me as the kind of person I would not like being around, and she always struck me as being enormously selfish. But reading Margaret George's "Helen of Troy" this summer has given me a different perspective into this character, and for that I have to thank Ms. George and her terrific storytelling. I hadn't read "Helen of Troy" before now because I feared it would annoy me as much as the movie "Troy" had done -- but Ms. George's keynote speech at the Historical Novel Society conference convinced me to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did!

Ms. George had a lot to contend with in crafting this story. The Iliad only covers one small part of the Trojan War saga; there are many other tales woven into the mythological tradition, and unfortunately, we know about several epic poems that no longer exist. Ms. George admirably brings together all the threads of the story: she even brings in the Amazons (readers may think she made up the Amazons coming to Troy for her novel, but she did not--a now-lost epic poem called the Aithiopis detailed this episode). At the same time, she introduces enough of her own flourishes to create a cohesive tale and flesh out the narrative. The Bronze Age isn't my academic specialty, but I've read enough of the scholarship to recognize that Ms. George has read it too. She captures the spirit of the times and introduces some of the latest archaeological findings while avoiding the dreaded 'research dump.' Those who are familiar with the mythological tradition will find plenty of places to smile, appreciating the way Ms. George deftly incorporates this or that detail.

Ms. George's Helen is a complex character. The novel is told in first person, which allows the reader to engage closely with Helen and understand her choices a bit more (even if the reader does not agree with them). For Helen, her beauty is a curse, and while there is a bit of "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" here, it works with the story. The scenes of the Ilioupersis (Fall of Troy) are particularly moving.

The one quibble I have concerns Achilles. True, in the Iliad Achilles acts like an arrogant jerk, but in Ms. George's novel he is the one character who is basically two-dimensional. Also true that Helen does not have an opportunity to 'get to know' Achilles, but Ms. George changed something that troubled me, the only time in reading the entire book that I went "nooooo!" In the Iliad the so-called Ransom of Hektor scene, when king Priam visits Achilles in his tent to retrieve his son's body, is the turning point of the entire poem. It is Achilles' redemption. (In fact, it's the only episode that the movie "Troy" got close to right.) But Ms. George adds a 'postscript' of sorts to that scene -- something Achilles demands of the Trojans the morning after -- that is not in the Iliad. And I have to say, that 'postscript' spoils the character of Achilles as we know it from the Homeric tradition. Most readers might not notice or care, but it disappointed me. For all Achilles' faults, I love that guy!

That one quibble aside, I loved this book, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Greek myth and seeks a retelling that is faithful to the spirit of the original stories.

East of the Sun

Summer is the time for reading. So it was when I was small and joined the Vacation Reading Club each summer at the Woodstock (GA) Public Library -- so it is now when I am not teaching and can steal a lazy hour (or two, or three) stretched out on the sofa in the balm of Florida air conditioning. There's nothing like discovering a Wonderful Summer Book (WSB). Personally, I find myself drawn to stories set in hot climates these days: it's just too weird reading something about a cold place when it's 95 degrees out! So I was excited to learn of Julia Gregson's "East of the Sun," set in 1920s India, which already from the vivid-hued cover looked like it was going to be a WSB. First I spotted it at Target, then we got copies in our goody bags at the HNS Conference. It was fate.

And it's wonderful! "East of the Sun" follows three young British women as they make their way from England to India: Rose, the shy pretty girl hastily engaged to a soldier she barely knows and en route to be married; Tor (Victoria), the a-bit-plump, desperate-to-be-married girl happy to escape her overbearing mother; and Viva, the mysterious would-be writer with an enigmatic past, hired as their chaperone. The first part of the book takes place on the ship, where the trio meet other intriguing characters that you know will be important later in the story; the rest in India as each girl struggles to make her way in a new land. Their stories separate, come together, separate, come together, and the reader is taken to such places as Bombay, Poona, and Simla high in the mountains. While "East of the Sun" has romantic elements, it is not solely a romance story; Viva's story in particular brings more than a little mystery to the plot.

I appreciated most the careful attention to setting. At the HNS conference, "Setting as Character" was one of the panels...although the author panelists warned *against* making setting a character. I respectfully disagree. While one must be careful not to let setting overwhelm or overshadow the "real" characters, Place can be a player in its own right. "Gone With the Wind," for instance -- arguably, the city of Atlanta is very much its own character. So too in "East of the Sun," India seems to become a character as much as the three girls and similarly undergoes a form of character development. As the girls prepare for their voyage and experience their sea-crossing, we have only hearsay of India: Viva's childhood memories, Rose and Tor's imaginings what it must be like. But as the book unfolds, the reader sees more: first the India of the Raj as the British experienced it, then, slowly, the India beyond the Raj, through Viva's work in a slum orphanage. Gregson gives enough detail for us to know India as her characters do, but does not indulge in information dumps or purple prose. The way she uses setting is a superb writing lesson!

I highly recommend "East of the Sun" for anybody's summer reading fun. Enjoy it with a chai latte by your side for extra spice. (I'm hooked on David Rio Tiger Spice Chai myself...)

More France in Fiction

It's been a while since I've made a 'good books' themed post, but I sure have been reading. Here are three recent reads worth sharing, all French-themed historicals:

*Joanne Harris, Holy Fools: I made it my business to read most of Harris' books this summer, when the only one I'd read until this year was Chocolat. I'm such a fan of her use of imagery and language -- I wasn't at all surprised to learn from her website that she has a background in both music and linguistics. Her prose has such rhythm. Holy Fools is set in 1605, on an island off the Brittany coast (her modern-set Coastliners is also set on a Breton island and shares some interesting themes with Holy Fools) at a remote convent. One of the nuns, Soeur Auguste aka Juliette, has a secret past: she was a performer in a traveling circus, and came to the convent with her daughter to escape that past. But her past finds her when her former fellow performer and nemesis, a devious character named LeMerle, appears at the convent in the guise of a priest. A game of cat-and-mouse ensues as both LeMerle and Juliette work from behind their disguises...LeMerle to create mayhem in the convent, Juliette to preserve the way of life there. A splendid read that kept me turning the pages! Fans of Harris' other books will see interesting connections, namely in the mother/daughter theme (cf. Chocolate and Girl with No Shadow), the theme of magic (ditto), and the theme of islands (cf Coastliners).

*Sandra Gulland, Mistress of the Sun: Another new-to-me author from this summer, and now I want to read the Josephine B. trilogy. Mistress of the Sun is set later in the 17th c than Holy Fools, when king Louis XIV is a young man. The heroine is Louise de la Vallière--known as Petite in the book, which erases the clumsiness of a hero named Louis and a heroine named Louise!--and the novel follows her from her childhood through her longtime life as the king's mistress. But it's not a typical "king's mistress" story. The character of Petite is endearing, and as for Louis...well, I'll leave that for readers to decide. Sandra Gulland uses imagery beautifully here -- I particularly liked the opening chapters with the horse Diablo and how those themes resonated through the rest of the book. Another very good read that kept me up late.

*Elizabeth Robards, With Violets: This book I got as an ARC from my editor at Avon--it will be appearing as an Avon-A paperback this fall. It was actually published as a hardcover by Five Star back in 2005, but I admit I had not heard of it until my editor told me about it. This one is set in 19th century France, and the narrator is the Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot. The novel centers on the period in Morisot's life from when she met Edouard Manet (one of my favorite artists) until she married, and imagines the relationship between Morisot and Manet. In 'real life' we do not know the 'truth' of their relationship, because they and their families successfully kept details secret. Naturally art historians speculate all over the place based on what we do know, and Robards is able to have fun speculating too. Based on surviving letters and other source material, the 'real life' Berthe Morisot was a rather brooding person, given to bouts of depression and self-doubt about her art and about her life. Robards tries to convey that while maintaining a romantic tone to the story. She uses a writing style that is impressionistic in itself and feels a bit like Morisot's painting style. In the author's note, Robards explains she was inspired to write the book by a trip to the Musée Marmottan in Paris, one of my favorite places to visit in the city.

I have a whole stack of other things to read, but alas, summer is ending and that means back-to-school on the 25th and less time for fun reading. (On the bright side, it also means back-to-paychecks!) I've got my eye on a number of things coming out this fall, including Elizabeth Peters' The Laughter of Dead Kings, Claude Izner's Murder on the Eiffel Tower, and Barbara Cleverly's Bright Hair About the Bone (the second in her new Laetitia Talbot archaeological mystery series). Stay tuned!

Books, Books, Books

I don't usually fill out memes (usually because I'm lazy), but Julianne has a good one over at Writing the Renaissance about reading.

*Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
My Mom's an avid reader--she even found my name in a novel!--so books were always around our house. She first started taking me to the library when I was about three. About the same age, I had a bunch of read-along-storybooks-on-tape and apparently taught myself to read partly from following along to the tape in the books.

*What are some of the books you read as a child?
A storybook called "Big Dog, Little Dog" is one I remember from when I was very little. In elementary school, I liked the Little House books, the Nancy Drew series, easy-reader biographies of famous historical people (I wonder if Julianne and I read the same Molly Pitcher book!), and the Narnia books best. And books on Greek mythology! In high school, I was very into Agatha Christie as well as historical fiction authors like Victoria Holt and Jean Plaidy. Elizabeth Peters and Phyllis Whitney are two other authors whose books I liked in high school. I was very into fantasy for a while and liked Tolkien and David Eddings.

*What is your favorite genre?
Historical fiction, although I tend to be very particular about what I read. There has to be a solid grounding in real history. I also like some mysteries, but I'm picky there too. I'll read some contemporary fiction, especially if it's set in Europe. :-) Basically whatever strikes my fancy is my favorite genre!

*Do you have a favorite novel?
Of all time, I'd say my top five (in no particular order) are Gone With the Wind, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Wuthering Heights, and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

*Where do you usually read?
Wherever! My novel-reading tends to be at night before bed on the sofa. I used to read in bed until I learned that might contribute to my insomnia.

*Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at the same time?
Only one novel at a time. But I have nonfiction going simultaneously, because I need to be reading for lecture preparation, for my scholarship, and for novel research. I could be in ancient Greece before lunch and 19th century Paris after!

*Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
Reading fiction is for relaxation, so it's a nighttime activity. I'm digging into nonfiction books all day for other things, and most times I don't read nonfiction books beginning to end. I read and take notes on the parts that are most useful for what I'm doing. Although there are exceptions, of course.

* Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out from the library?
With nonfiction, whether I buy or check-out depends on how expensive the book is and how much I plan to use it. I have about 80 or so books checked out from the university library, some of which I've literally had on my shelf since 2001 (nobody else wants them...). But I buy voraciously in nonfiction too; I've been actively acquiring for my personal research library for 20 years and have a nice art history collection, especially in ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, the medieval period, and van Gogh. I'm running out of room in my office and apartment! I used to get fiction from the library, but nowadays I buy. I seldom borrow books from people, unless it's my mom or my sister, because I don't like to lend out my own books and don't want to be a hypocrite. I'm one of those people who keeps their books near-mint: no dog-earing, no writing in the book, no highlighting, I don't even EAT around the book. It's the one thing I'm really fastidious about.

*Do you keep most of the books you buy?
Yes, because I see my books as an active and growing collection.

*If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them?
I have no children, but I have a nephew, and I've already bought him "D'Aulaire's Illustrated Book of Greek Myths," which was a childhood favorite of mine. Three other books I've bought him that he already loves (he's too little for the myths yet) are "Vincent's Colors," "Museum ABC," and "Museum 123," all published by the Met. Those books didn't exist when I was little or I would have had them too!

*What are you reading now?
I'm nearly finished with Sandra Gulland's "Mistress of the Sun" as my current fiction reading. In nonfiction, I'm updating my lectures for Roman Art class this fall, and so am reading actively in that area, and I've been reading a lot this summer about the painter Manet too.

*Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
Not really, unless a research bibliography counts. The physical stack of books is the list!

*What's next?
Elizabeth Robards' "With Violets" (my editor kindly sent me an ARC for this one, which is coming out in paperback with Avon this fall). I have Michelle Moran's "Nefertiti" and about five others in the TBR fiction stack too.

*What books would you like to reread?
I don't really reread books any more. I did when I was younger. Gone With the Wind, especially! It'd be fun to go back and reread some of my favorites from years past to see how differently I identify with them, but I'd rather read new things right now.

*Who are your favorite authors?
Since I listed my favorite novels 'of all time' up above, here are some authors whose work I've been reading consistently more recently: Elizabeth Peters (I've been reading her for over twenty years!), Susan Vreeland, Tracy Chevalier, and Joanne Harris. Among mystery authors, I like Cara Black, Donna Leon, and Steven Saylor's Roma sub Rosa series the best. Some of the newer authors I like are Elizabeth Hickey, Catherine Delors, Karen Essex, and Barbara Quick. Among the 'classics,' I like the Brontes and E.M. Forster. And many many more...it's so hard to pick favorites!

Stealing Athena

Many novels these days are set in the Roman Empire, but hardly any in Classical Athens. Art of fifth-century BC Athens is my academic specialty and the locus of my scholarship, so I was excited to hear about Karen Essex's new novel "Stealing Athena," which explores the lives of two women important to the story of the Parthenon sculptures: Aspasia, mistress of Perikles, the Athenian strategos credited with commissioning the monuments of the Classical Akropolis, and Mary Nisbet, wife of Lord Elgin, the man who oversaw the removal of many of the sculptures to Britain in the early 19th century. Just finished reading it, and I LOVED it!! The novel sweeps back and forth between Aspasia in the 5th c BC and Mary in the 19th c AD; although of course I enjoyed the parts set in ancient Athens, I actually was most caught up in Mary's story. The author's descriptions of Ottoman Constantinople in particular are sensory and evocative. The novel certainly gets one thinking about women's roles in the two time periods: how they were treated under the law, how they were expected to behave, etc. And of course (more on this in a second), one also gets to thinking about the so-called Elgin Marbles and the debate that still surrounds them.

I have to give Karen Essex two thumbs up on her research. She stays mostly true to the history and departs from it only to enhance the narrative. (Although I feel compelled to say Pheidias was *not* an architect. I know she made him the architectural mastermind of the Akropolis to enhance his role in the story, but Iktinos, Kallikrates, and Mnesikles deserve 100% credit.) Even the pickiest of classicists will be pleased how fact and fiction work together and will find occasion to smile at bits they recognize. She has a partial bibliography on her website (see link at left): of the books she lists, I recommend Jeffrey Hurwit's excellent "The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles" (available in hardcover and paperback from Cambridge Univ Press) for anyone wanting a good introduction to the Akropolis monuments, and I'd add to Essex's list the superb "The Parthenon Frieze" by my colleague Jenifer Neils, also available in hardcover and paperback from Cambridge UP. My own CUP book, "Music and Image in Classical Athens" (might as well plug myself!), has a short discussion of the representation of musicians on the Parthenon frieze, as well as discussion of the musical contests Essex briefly mentions in her novel.

Essex's book appears at a very appropriate time, for the new Acropolis Museum is nearly completed. Anyone who visited the old Acropolis Museum knows how cramped it was, very unpleasant to visit, and the new museum promises to be wonderful. Its construction re-awakens the question of the "Elgin Marbles," since one of the arguments against returning the sculptures to Greece was a lack of space. It does not erase the thorny legal issues surrounding the Greeks' desire for repatriation, but the museum takes the debate to a whole new level. Essex's novel has the potential to raise awareness of the issues among new audiences; although she does not tackle the legality question head-on, a reader can move from this novel to reading about the debate with a good background of Elgin's role (and Mary Nisbet's, more crucial than was traditionally acknowledged). The blog Elginism is a good place to keep track of the latest developments (the bloggers are pro-repatriation). It will be interesting to see how things unfold...

France in Fiction

I enjoy reading novels set in places I like visiting. If something takes place in France, Italy, or Greece in particular, I'll be pulling it off the shelf to take a look. It seems lately I've been reading many French-themed, France-set books, and two I've read recently are worth sharing. As it happens, both feature heroines caught in an atmosphere of war, one the French Revolution, the other Occupied France during World War II.

The first chronologically is Catherine Delors' "Mistress of the Revolution." I should have known better than to start this one right before finals week (which was last week), because I had to keep putting it down when I wanted to keep picking it up! This is Catherine's debut novel, but you'd never guess it. The story--told as first-person memoir--follows aristocrat Gabrielle de Montserrat from her small town in Auvergne (a region I've decided I must visit) to Paris and the court of Versailles on the eve of the Revolution, and finally through the Revolution itself. Without giving away too much of the plot, sufficient to say Gabrielle meets and falls in love with the "unsuitable" Pierre-André Coffinhal but is forced by her family to marry a brutish fellow aristocrat. (This sounds like it will be cliché, but in Catherine's hands, it's not.) Will Gabrielle free herself from her husband's clutches and find Pierre-André again? Will she survive the Revolution when others of her class fall? Read the book and find out! Readers interested in history will appreciate Catherine's attention to detail, and the story itself is gripping. Catherine, by the way, has an excellent website and a very interesting blog that I read regularly (see links at left). Her next book, "For the King," is just beginning publication production.

Second chronologically, set in modern-day but looking back to World War II, is Joanne Harris' "Five Quarters of the Orange." I read Harris' "Girl with No Shadow" a little while ago and loved it, and decided to investigate her other books. This one features Framboise Dartigen, an older woman who has come back to the village where she grew up (Les Laveuses) after years of more or less self-imposed exile. But she is in disguise, not revealing her true identity to the villagers. Why? Because of tragic events that happened during the German occupation involving her family. The novel develops parallel stories between Framboise's reminiscences of when she was nine years old and her contemporary life in Les Laveuses, trying desperately to keep her past a secret. Harris has such a gift for imagery that her writing is a pleasure to read. She also has a gift for keeping the reader engaged, offering just enough clues in each chapter to make one eager to read the next.

It's an interesting coincidence that both these authors drew on family experiences in writing their books. Catherine Delors is French, descended from aristocrats, and this helped inspire "Mistress of the Revolution" (see her website for more). Joanne Harris is half British, half French, and "Five Quarters of the Orange" was partly inspired by her grandfather's stories of living in Occupied France.

A New Vicky Bliss Novel!

Ok, so I'm a little slow to hear about this, but Elizabeth Peters -- whose books I've been reading for *years and years* -- has a new installment of her Vicky Bliss series coming out in August: "The Laughter of Kings." Sassy museum curator Vicky Bliss is one of my favorite fictional sleuths, her smooth art-thief lover John Smythe a favorite hero, and it's been a whole 14 years since the last book ("Night Train to Memphis"). That's cause for celebration.

The Girl With No Shadow

I rearranged my reading queue this past week to jump immediately into Joanne Harris' newest, "The Girl with No Shadow," the long-awaited sequel to her celebrated "Chocolat." Finished it last night, and I have to say, it's excellent. Harris has tremendous descriptive power in her writing, uses imagery so well, that this modern fairy tale following the continued adventures of Vianne Rocher keeps one turning the pages. It's four years since Lansquenet, and Vianne and her daughters (yes, daughters plural) are now living above a chocolaterie in Montmartre, in Paris. They meet a mysterious stranger, Zozie de l'Alba, and then .... ! The book moves between the first-person perspectives of Vianne, her elder daughter Anouk, and Zozie. You have to read a couple of sentences at each chapter's beginning to realize who's 'speaking,' but considering that shifting identities (literal and figurative) form a large part of the plot, the technique works well.

The Montmartre setting also works well, since this particular neighborhood has its share of shifting identities: it's Paris, yet not Paris; it's one place in the daytime, another at night; a touristy hangout around the Place du Tertre and the Sacré-Coeur, a quiet village further west. Harris captures the distinctive nature of Montmartre and the quirkiness of its inhabitants.

For anyone visiting Paris who wants to get to know Montmartre better, I recommend a walking tour with Paris Walks. Ten Euros and you get an hour and a half of the Montmartre backstreets, a knowledgable guide, and a lot of entertaining history. The tour avoids the touristy spots and focuses on the little-known corners. Of course, Vincent and Theo's building at 54 Rue Lepic is part of the walk (can't go inside their apartment though, somebody lives there), and you'll hear about Montmartre's other artsy alumni, from Toulouse-Lautrec to Renoir to Picasso to Modigliani. I've taken that tour twice and learned a lot both times. Paris Walks runs many other walking tours around town; check out their website at www.paris-walks.com.

Read This Book!

It's nice when you find a book that not only gets you thinking, but practically smacks you upside the head. Last night I finished "The God of Spring" by Australian author Arabella Edge -- I thought I'd read every art-themed novel out there, but somehow I missed this one when it came out last year in hardback. It was just released in paperback. The subject is Theodore Gericault's sublime painting "The Raft of the Medusa" (today in the Louvre), and if you know anything about that painting, you know Edge had a lot to work with.

The structure is fantastically done: after beginning with a dissatisfied, discontented Gericault (overwhelmed by a love affair), the novel proceeds in parallel stories between Gericault's creation of the painting and survivors' narratives of what happened to those shipwrecked on the raft. Just when you're waiting breathlessly for Gericault's next move or the survivors' next ordeal, Edge zooms you to the other of the parallel stories. Guaranteed to keep you reading. Gericault, and the reader, descend deeper and deeper into the Medusa tragedy, Gericault to the point of obsession. Warning: there are parts not for the squeamish, and if you already know the painting's story, you can guess what those are.

Edge's research is good, and her prose skillfully avoids melodrama or fussy-ness. I teach "The Raft of the Medusa" every year in survey (we just did it, in fact), I've stood in front of that painting any number of times in the Louvre, and yet when I finished the novel, I felt I had gotten to know the painting and the artist in a whole new way. This book deserves attention and it deserves to be read!

Venice On My Mind

It's a nice feeling when you find a book so engrossing that it makes you stay up late, read it over breakfast, and put it down with a satisfied sigh when you're done. This week's bedtime-breakfast book was Sarah Dunant's "In the Company of the Courtesan," which for some mysterious reason I had not read earlier. Fantastico! Several things about the book stood out to me: 1) the authenticity/sincerity of the narrator's voice. What a challenge, to assume the persona of a 16th-century male dwarf who business-partners with a courtesan, and Dunant pulls it off. All it takes is one badly chosen word to make an author's first-person voice falter, but Dunant doesn't falter once. Her Bucino lives, breathes, and speaks with utter believability. 2) the power of place. Dunant evokes Venice beautifully while avoiding clichés. The reader feels and smells the city. 3) Dunant's gift of description. Again, evocative, and lyrical too. There's a real rhythm to her words.

I enjoyed "The Birth of Venus" when I read it a while back, but I think I prefer "Courtesan." Venice is certainly getting its share of attention in the historical-fiction world these days: in the fall I read Barbara Quick's "Vivaldi's Virgins," which I greatly enjoyed, and on my list (when will I have time to read all the books on my long list??) is Christi Phillips' "The Rossetti Letter." Apparently Rosalind Laker's "The Venetian Mask," which I have a vague memory of reading a long time ago, is coming back into print soon. Viva la Venezia!

North of Ithaka

I'm a sucker for travel memoirs, and right now I'm reading Eleni N. Gage's North of Ithaka, which has been on my list for a while. It is superb. Gage is the granddaughter of the Eleni Gage memorialized in Nicholas Gage's book Eleni, who had been executed during the years of Greek civil war following World War II. Eleni the granddaughter returned to Lia, the Epirote village in northwestern Greece where her family lived, and rebuilt the family home, which had fallen into neglect. In so doing she sought to reconnect with her personal identity as a Greek-American as well as reclaim her family's past.

Gage's ancestral connection to Lia keeps North of Ithaka from being just another expat-builds-house-in-foreign-country book. The memoir reads like her personal odyssey, filled with everyday situations (and blunders, told with terrific humor) while keeping an eye to the big picture. Particularly interesting are Gage's observations on village customs and rituals. Her degree is in anthropology and folklore, and it shows. I've spent time in Greece, but mostly in Athens, so I feel like I'm learning a lot about the region known as Epiros and the way of life there. Gage's writing is fresh and a pleasure to read--a highly recommended book.

I'm Looking Forward to Reading...

Good-lookin' books coming out in the next few months! I'm especially looking forward to--
*Cara Black, Murder in the Rue de Paradis (March): The eighth in Black's sassy, smart Aimee Leduc series, set in Paris. This series keeps getting better and better, and I'm excited to read the next installment.

*Donna Leon, The Girl of His Dreams (May): The latest Commissario Brunetti mystery, set in Venice. You'd think Leon would start running out of ideas by now, but she hasn't. The last one, Suffer the Little Children, was the best yet, and the new one promises to be terrific too.

*Sandra Gulland, Mistress of the Sun (June): I usually shy away from the royal-mistress novels (there are SO MANY of them and, well, some are rather silly) but this one is about Louise de la Valliere, mistress of Louis XIV, and that's worth checking out. Gulland wrote a trilogy about Josephine Bonaparte which I haven't read, but I may check those out too if I like Mistress of the Sun.

*Karen Essex, Stealing Athena (June): I am ridiculously excited about this one. What a great concept: a parallel story of Aspasia, mistress of Athenian general and supervisor of the Akropolis building program, Perikles, and of Mary Nisbet, wife of the now-infamous Lord Elgin who orchestrated the removal of many of the Parthenon sculptures to Britain. I haven't read Essex's Kleopatra books but I enjoyed her Leonardo's Swans. Her website already has up a bibliography for Stealing Athena (now there's an author after my own heart--three cheers for bibliographies) and it's got the things it should for a book revolving around the Parthenon sculptures.

And on the van Gogh front...
Ann Galbally, A Remarkable Friendship: Vincent van Gogh and John Peter Russell (June): This is the first book to focus exclusively on the friendship between these two artists and so promises to be informative.

The Blood of Flowers

I recently finished reading Anita Amirrezvani's debut novel, The Blood of Flowers and just loved it. The heroine is a young girl in 17th century Iran, whose father dies and leaves their family in dire straits. She and her mother move to the capital at Isfahan to join relatives, where the main character learns about love while pursuing her dreams in the art of carpet making. Amirrezvani's descriptions of Isfahan make the sights and smells of the city come to life, and her descriptions of carpet-knotting make one appreciate all the more the intricacy of the beautiful carpets surviving today. The heroine is spirited but not anachronistic; the plot is engaging and swift-moving. A definite recommend.

Gods Behaving Badly

If you have even the slightest interest in Greek mythology, zip over to Amazon and grab Marie Phillips' debut novel, "Gods Behaving Badly." I finished reading it last night, and thought it one of the most original and quirky novels I've read in a long time. The concept is fantastic: what if the Olympian gods were still around today? Phillips' gods live in a squalid house in London and have jobs appropriate to their functions. Apollo is an aspiring television psychic, Artemis a dog-walker, Aphrodite a phone-sex operator, Dionysos a clubowner and DJ, etc. Unbeknownst to everyone, the gods still have say-so over the world's affairs, although their powers are waning. Mayhem ensues when a pair of unsuspecting mortals enters their lives. The writing style is as quirky as the story, and I love how Phillips has translated the 'personalities' of the gods into modern terms. (Except that Apollo has always been my favorite, and he's a bit of an arse in her book--well, he could be an arse in Ovid too.) I chuckled aloud more than once. I'll be telling my Classical Mythology class this semester about it, for certain!

Good Books of 2007

I've read a lot of books this year--fun books, not counting books for work or research. Most of them I've read before bedtimes, in a desperate attempt to keep that little hamster in my head from spinning his wheel all night. Here are my favorites, some published in 2007, others published earlier but took me a while to get to them (no particular order).

Nancy Horan, "Loving Frank"--Wow. This one's a real page-turner, even if you already know Mamah Cheney's fate.
Susan Vreeland, "Luncheon of the Boating Party"--I love Impressionist painting and Paris, so I was going to love this book.
Tracy Chevalier, "The Lady and the Unicorn"--Imaginative and richly told.
Elizabeth Hickey, "The Wayward Muse"--I'm a Rossetti fan from way back. Hickey does him justice.
Katharine Davis, "Capturing Paris"--Beautiful writing and an atmospheric story.
Barbara Quick, "Vivaldi's Virgins"--Made me want to go back to Venice...subito!
Donna Leon, "Suffer the Little Children"--This may be the best of Leon's Inspector Brunetti series.
Cara Black, "Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis"--And this may be the best of Cara Black's Aimée Leduc series.

Hope 2008 brings more good reading!