Every Picture Hides a Story

Cane, William and Gabrielle, Anna. Every Picture Hides a Story: The Secret Ways Artists Make Their Work More Seductive. London : Rowman & Littlefield 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Each year 11 million people trek to the Louvre to gawk at the Mona Lisa. Many visitors clutch guidebooks in hand describing the painting. For some, it's the experience of a lifetime, one they'll talk about with friends and family for decades.

 

Yet modern researchers say that the vast majority of people will never recognize the hidden messages in this painting. That's because those hidden messages are subliminal.  

Description:

I picked up this unexpectedly wonderful art book because I wanted to learn more about Berthe Morisot, the woman painter featured in the hisgtorical novel, The Lost Masterpiece which I had just finished reading. She was considered the first female Impressionist artist, living in the 1870s and painting alongside Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cassatt, and other revolutionaries during their earliest days when their work were so radical, the artists were completely disdained and not shown at the famous Salon exhibition in Paris. I just wanted to view some of her paintings and understand more about her life.

 

First the book itself. It is printed on heavy, glossy pages which make the accompanying paintings for each artist appear as the highest quality. Each painting is crystal clear, allowing readers to see and easily understand the subliminal messages the artist portrayed in the piece. Details rendered so clearly help readers finally understand both the background and message behind the works.  

 

Second, the book covers a wide variety of artists, including short chapters on Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Eakins, Degas, Klimt along with those artists mentioned above. And, of course, there was a section on Berthe Morisot, her life and works, and her possible relationship with Edouard Manet, the focus of The Lost Masterpiece historical novel. 

 

Third, the book is addicting. While I started out only wanting info on Morisot, I could not resist poking into the works of other favorite artists, captivated by the glossy paintings and soon engrossed in reading about the backgrounds of the artists' lives along with details about their most famous works. The authors' research into each artist is thorough and yet succinctly written to captivate readers with fascinating details without forcing them to slog through more than five pages for any artist.

 

I learned:

• The Mona Lisa's smile is fascinating because Da Vinci used scientific optics to change a viewer's impression based on what part of the painting the viewer's eyes focused on and what is seen out only of the corner of their vision;

• Several contemporary art critics considered Berthe Morisot the finest of the Impressionist artists. She created nearly 400 paintings; 

• Marie Cassatt, in contract to her reputation as a painter of domestic scenes of families, mothers with children, and other domestic scenes, was a fierce advocate for women's rights, rejected the institution of marriage, and had no family or children of her own. "I am independent! I can live alone and I love to work";

• Van Gogh based his startling use of bold colors after researching a book that proposed there is a psychological process at work in which when the viewer's eye perceives adjacent colors, it intensify the other colors, such as putting red next to green. (Also, his ear-cutting episode was a result of Van Gogh's manic personality after he several times threatened to kill his roommate Gauguin with a razor;

• Sargent's masterpiece, Madame X, scandalized the female model and her family by depicting her gown's strap as having fallen off her shoulder. Sargent eventually repainted the strap to be on her shoulder, but the damage had been done. Unable to show or sell it, Sargant kept it for himself for years.

• Klimt's father was a gold engraver, giving the artist a familiarity with this glittery material which later became an integral part of his paintings, such as The Kiss.

History after history brings these artists, their paintings, and their world vividly to life for even art novices life me. I was captivated and therefore read all the artists' chapters, learning a wonderful amount of fascinating information about works I was familiar with as well as those I knew nothing about. The accompanying glossy reproductions of these paintings made clear all the points the authors referred to.

 

Whether you are an art connoisseur or just someone interested in creative people and the works that made them famous, this is definitely the book for you to skim, study the paintings, or read cover to cover as I did. You won't be sorry, and it will bring you great pleasure whenever you encounter one of these famous pieces or artists again. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Shapiro, B.A. The Lost Masterpiece

Historical fiction about the life and masterpiece of Berthe Morisot, one of the original Impressionists, as well as the struggle for a modern day woman who inherits this masterpiece to hold onto it against pressures from others who claim it. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Lost Masterpiece

Shapiro, B.A. The Lost Masterpiece. Chapel Hill, NJ : Algonquin Books 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

I hate spam. Well, obviously everyone hates spam, but I hate it with an admittedly unwarranted ferocity. When I see it, my blood pressure rises, my fingers curl inward, and my jaw throbs. A bit excessive, I know....Unwanted emails and phishing texts are bad enough, but when spam hits my voicemail, my nerves migrate to the outside of my skin and I'm ready to scream. 

Description:

When Tamara Rubin repeatedly receives multiple voice messages on her phone urgently asking her to call for important news, she naturally becomes enraged and deletes them. Finally she returns the call to berate the spammer, only to find out he is a legitimate person from a legitimate organization whose purpose is to recover artworks stolen by the Nazis and reunite them with their rightful owners.

 

Tamara learns she is the inheritor of a long lost masterpiece painting by Edouard Manet. The painting had been newly-recovered from a Nazi storage location. Further research showed it had been given by Manet to Tamara's great-great-great-great-great grandmother, Berthe Morisot, a fellow Impressionist painter who was rumored to have had a love affair with him.

 

So what does one do with an inherited masterpiece worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Of course, Tamara hangs it in her modest apartment to view its engrossing scene of a picnic in the park of ordinary people laughing, playing, embracing, and generally enjoying themselves. 

 

But there are problems. An unknown cousin descended from Manet, informs Tamara that actually he is the rightful owner of the painting and has Manet's will to prove it. Tamara hires a lawyer to fight this claim and cement her own right to the painting.

 

But is it safe hanging in her apartment, without insurance, guards, proper temperature and humidity, and a host of other complications? When her cousin offers staggering amount of money to purchase the painting outright from her to avoid legal battles, how can she refuse? 

 

But the painting speaks to her. She often feels she is part of the figures depicted in the painting, especially her grandmother who is a prominent figure in the work. She even imagines her grandmother winks at her from the painting.

 

Thus begins a dual narrative, one offered by Tamara living in the current age, and one narrated by Berthe herself from the 1800s. Berthe reveal her privileged life, her struggles as a female artist, and her fellow artists and family, some of whom encourage her work while others are shocked by her profession and subject matter. She also reveals her attraction to Edouard Manet which grows daily as she paints in his studio alongside Degas, Renoir, and others attempting to create a new form of art full of color, abstract figures, and unusual settings. They were mockingly referred to as "Impressionists," a name they gradually took on as a badge of pride, and thus started a new movement away from the staid art of the time.

 

This is historical fiction, meaning the characters in Berthe's era are real, as are many of the situations depicted. Beyond that, this is a story imagined by author Shapiro, one which seems perfectly reasonable as it engulfed me the people and era of France in the late 1800s.

 

I loved the story, the creation of the masterpiece painting contracted with Tamara's fight to protect the piece. It is a totally engrossing novel on so many levels, I highly recommend it for art lovers and just anyone who loves a fight for independence and a romance or two set 150 years apart. 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Cane, William and Gabrielle, Anna. Every Picture Hides a Story: The Secret Ways Artiss Make Their Work More Seductive.

Fascinating insider research on the background and hidden messages in the works of Berte Morisot as well as Michelangelo, Raphael, Vermeer, Manet, Degas, Cassatt, Kilmt, Van Gogh, Sargant, and many others,

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 480 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

 

Strange Pictures

Uketsu. Strange Pictures. New York : HarperCollins 2022. Print.

 

First Sentences:

All right, everyone, now I'm going to show you a picture.


Description:

What a compelling opening sentence. Who could not read at least a few more lines to have a peek into that picture and why this person wants to talk about it? The simple, perfect hook for readers. 

 

I absolutely cherish any book that when, after reading the very last line, all I can think about is going back to the beginning and re-reading the whole story again. 

This time, I think, I will catch the subtle hints about the characters, what's about to come, and the significance of overlooked actions and words as the story slowly unravels anew before me. 

It's like watching a great movie that you re-watch again and again for the plot, the characters, the foreshadowing, and the still-surprising actions (like in Jaws when you can never really expect nor avoid jumping when the dead man's skull drops down in the hole in the sunken boat hull).

 

In Strange Pictures by Uketsu (Note: please click here to read about this mysterious Japanese YouTuber/Author sensation whose identity is unknown as he always wears a masks and black body suit when pictured), we are presented with four seemingly unrelated stories as well as nine drawings. All seem distinctly separate from each other, including the art work. 

 

But after coming across an obscure blog called Oh, No, Not Raku, two college students in Japan are captivated by the drawings in this blog and the diary entries from its author. Raku's daily postings center around his family but contain drawings by his wife. These are quick sketches which seem somehow related, but pose many puzzling questions to the college students, especially after Raku posts that his artistic wife died during childbirth of their daughter

When faced with true sorrow, people lose even the strength to shed tears.

Next we jump to a story centering on an unusual picture drawn by a pre-schooler for his mother. It depicts the boy and mother standing in front of a six-story building. The strange part of the picture is that the apartment room where they live is smudged out. Why would that be? If someone could explain this "intentional" blurring in the drawing, they might therefore understand the boy and his mama, and possibly the history of each.

 

The two other stories also involve drawings, but their plots focus on character studies, broken relationships, crimes and mysteries where the drawings might contain a valuable key. 

 

But best of all, somehow all these stories, people, and situations have a connection to each other. Slowly, ever so slowly, readers begin to unravel confusing clues, clarify relationships, and uncover overlapping timelines in this seemingly simple, yet wildly entertaining book.

 

It's one of the most unusual, gripping, and puzzling books I have ever read. Cannot wait to start it all over again in the very near future, maybe next week. Uketsu has another book out now as well, Strange Houses, so I'm definitely checking that one out as well. Highly recommended.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

Hallett, Janice. The Twyford Code.

Probably the most complex, yet completely engrossing mystery I've ever read involving the search for a children's book which might contain in its text the secret to a lost stash of money. Highest recommendation. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

Click here to browse over 470 more book recommendations by subject or title (and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

The Art Thief

Finkel, Michael. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession. New York: Knopf 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

Approaching the  museum, ready to hunt, Stephane Breitwieser clasps hands with his girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, and together they stroll to the front desk and say hello, a cute couple. Then they purchase two tickets with cash and walk in. 

It's lunchtime, stealing time, on a busy Sunday in Antwerp, Belgium, in February 1997.


Description:

The details behind true crime and the people audacious enough to attempt and often pull them off successfully is always a fascinating topic to me. In Michael Finkel's The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, we readers are presented with the almost unbelievable details of Stephane Breitwieser and his girlfriend Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus, both in their twenties, who in the late 1990s and early 2000s stole hundreds of art pieces from museums throughout Europe. They took paintings, chalices, firearms, crossbows, teapots, tapestries, figurines, coins, and even a 150 pound wooden statue. In short, they made off with anything that caught their discerning eyes.

The tools they used? A second-hand Hugo Boss overcoat, a large woman's handbag, and a Swiss army knife. That's it. Usually their grabs are right in front of guards, shielded from any security cameras, during regular museum hours full of tourists. They considered themselves artists, scornful of burglars who overpower guards (like the "savages" who committed the Gardner Museum heist) or sneak around in the dark (such as the theft of the Mona Lisa). 

[Side note: We learn from author Finkel that Pablo Picasso was the first person accused of masterminding the Mona Lisa theft since he had previously hired a thief to grab two ancient stone figures from the Louvre. The figures "had distorted faces, and Picasso kept them in his studio as templates...for the groundbreaking Les Demoisells d'Avignon."]

Breitwieser and girlfriend Kleinklaus averaged three heists every four weekends (when Anne-Catherine was off from work) for a decade, amassing a collection valued at over $2 billion (yes, "billion" with a "b"). But they never tried to sell even one piece of their accumulated art. Instead, they placed each piece in their attic apartment (the upstairs unit in Breitwieser's mother's house), and just admired the beauty of the art in a quiet, uncrowded environment all by themselves. No one else, maybe not even his mother, knew about their attic collection. "They lived in a treasure chest."

What were the origins of this crime spree, the motivations or psychological causes? How did they do it? Why did they pursue this behavior? And when, if ever, will they be caught? Author Finkel searches through newspaper articles, interviews, psychological reports, and courtroom transcripts to offer possible factors that brought Breitwieser to this obsession with art theft. And its a wild ride he takes us on to understand these two art thieves and to provide details of their escapades.

You cannot help but be caught up in this couple's boldness, their love of art, and their obsession to possess it and keep it secret from the world. Heist after heist unfolds in casual detail by Finkel, giving us readers an insider's view of the crimes and the minds of these two young people. It's a riveting, audacious book that is difficult to put down for the tension as well as for the descriptions of the beautiful art it presents. 

Stealing art for money, [Breitwieser] says, is disgraceful. Money can be made with far less risk. But liberating for love, he's known a long time, feels ecstatic.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Dolnick, Edward. The Rescue Artist.   

When Edward Munch's The Scream painting is stolen from the National Museum in Oslo in 1994, Scotland Yard's Art Theft Department steps in. Led by Charley Hill, the department slowly tries to track down the thieves and recover the painting. Dolnick covers this chase as well as many other art crimes Hill has investigated. Riveting.(previously reviewed here)

 

Mouth to Mouth

Wilson, Antoine. Mouth to Mouth. New York: Avid Reader 2022. Print.

First Sentences:

I sat at the gate at JFK, having red-eyed my way from Los Angeles, exhausted, minding my own business, reflecting on what I'd seen the night before, shortly after takeoff, shortly before sleep, something I'd never seen before from an airplane.


Description:

Reading Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson was a bit like overhearing a storytelling session with Shahryar, the fictional Persian king as he listened to Scheherazade tell her 1,001 tales to her little sister Dunyazad. Like Shahryar, Mouth to Mouth's unnamed narrator raptly listens to and records for us a long story told to him by a vaguely-remembered college acquaintance. 

 

The well-dressed storyteller, Jeff Cook, and the listening scruffy narrator have a chance meeting in the Los Angeles airport while waiting for their flight to New York. Over drinks and snacks in the first class lounge, Cook unravels a secret he has been carrying for years, one that completely changed his life.

 

Early one morning while walking on a California beach, he relates, Cook noticed a swimmer gesturing from the water, then not moving. He swam out to the man who was now floating face down, struggled to pull him to shore, and then, when he saw the swimmer was not breathing, administered a clumsy CPR, pushing on the swimmer's chest (breaking some ribs) and somehow blowing life back into the victim's blue lips.

 

After the swimmer is helped into an ambulance for the hospital, Cook, then a scraggly-looking figure, was ignored and forgotten by everyone at the scene. But as the swimmer was hauled off by EMTs, Cookthought he saw the victim make eye contact from the stretcher and even tried to wave to Cook with his strapped down arm. 

 

So what were Cook's next choices? Walk away as the anonymous do-good lifesaver? Or find the swimmer and introduce himself? And what did Cook really want? Recognition? Thanks? Money? He admits he was very confused until he decided to try to find the swimmer. 

He was not even sure why he was pursuing this course of action and what the consequences might be, but tracking down the swimmer became his goal. What followed after Cook found the swimmer is completely unpredictable, a wild ride of mystery, skulking around, love, art, and, of course, plenty of lies.

 

Early on, Cook had hinted to the listener that his life story was full of risky chances, missed opportunities, and decisions made that now are viewed with regret. The narrator once even asks Cook:

"If you [Cook] could zero out everything that got you here, to this moment, you really would?

He nodded

"Everything you've just told me about?"

"Without a second thought."

I was completely involved as the listener/narrator recorded Cook's long, sometimes sorrowful, often rambling tale about his past. At the end of each short chapter, I was anxious to hear more, just like Sharryar following Scheherazade's tales. What would happen next? Who else might become involved? What consequences would be faced by Cook and others in this chase after the swimmer? And how would it end? I was kept guessing until the very last sentence of the tale, a twist that makes Mouth to Mouth an even more deliciously-tempting read.

It's a quiet story, a mystery, a thriller, a love story, a series of questionable decisions, and a morality play about the pitfalls and consequences encountered in the pursuit of an all-encompassing  goal: to understand the truth about who the drowning swimmer was and Cook's ultimate role in his life.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley.   

A young man is hired to report on the activities of a wealthy man's son living in Italy. But Ripley begins to envy the son and becomes obsessed with a scheme to kill the rich son and take his place in the life of luxury.  (previously reviewed here)

 

 

The Improbability of Love

Rothschild, Hannah. The Improbability of Love. New York: Knopf 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

Though she often passed Bernoff and Son, Annie had never been tempted to explore the junk shop; there was something uninviting about the dirty window piled high with other people's flotsam and jetsam.

The decision to go through its door that Saturday morning was made on a whim: she hoped to find a gift for the man she was sleeping with but hardly knew.

Description:

Sometimes a random decision spirals a person into a significant, complicated series of activities, similar to falling down a rabbit hole. Here, in Hannah Rothschild's The Improbability of Love, Annie McDee purchases a dingy painting depicting a woman, a man, and a clown in a meadow. Nothing special about it, and it was purchased on a whim.

But the painting just may be a very valuable lost work, "The Improbability of Love," by an obscure 18th century Flemish artist currently recognized in the art world as the creator of the rococo style.

Not knowing or really caring what she might have, Annie takes the painting to a museum to compare it to other similarly-styled paintings and look for a resemblance, if any, exists to other artists. 

Her actions are noticed and she comes to the attention of various characters: Russian oligarchs, museum curators, art auction house directors, restoration experts, fabulously wealthy collectors, and many others who try to ascertain whether this painting is the real deal and how they can get their hands on it.

But above all, this is a novel of romance and passion, whether for another person, a painting, respectability, or just money itself. This passion flows out of every page in so many forms that one cannot help but share or at least sense each character's overwhelming emotions and drive for a specific desire.

What is fascinating about this story is that a few short chapters are narrated by the painting itself, filling us in on its checkered past from creation to its wide range of royal and poor owners.

I can't see too well these days: two layers of varnish and chain-smoking have left my surface more than a little murky....It's a long time since I've been admired properly. I must admit I enjoyed it....As usual I had no say over what happened next, for ever the victim of human whimsy.

So is "The Improbability of Love" a valuable painting or a clever fake? What is the future of the painting? Who will end up owning it (if it survives the turmoil for authentication and claims of ownership)? And what role will Annie, her alcoholic mother, the friendly museum guide, and various other powerful people play in the painting's next act?

So it doesn't matter if I am what I say I am or not. What matters is that you want me. You might not know you want me yet but once I have told my story, once you understand, you will all want me.

A wonderfully written story full of wildly eccentric as well as warmly normal character, including the egotistic painting itself. It is full of passion, both romantic and artistic. Throughout, there is captivating background of artists, paintings, and collecting, as well as gourmet cooking services (for those who prefer book with culinary masterpieces).

I loved this book, one I had trouble deciding whether to continue reading page after page or reluctantly put aside to savory over several days. I hope you give it a chance. It will hook you and never let go until the very last pages, my kind of writing.

All that matters is that artists keep reminding mortals about what really matters: the wonder, the glory, the madness, the importance and the improbability of love.

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

More book recommendations

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Shapiro, B.A. The Art Forger.   

A young woman artist agrees to copy a famous painting reportedly stolen from a museum. But on closer inspection, she notices that this painting itself may be a forgery, and the original who knows where? Solid, strong characters and intriguing story. (previously reviewed here)

 

Letters From Father Christmas

Tolkien, J.R.R. Letters From Father Christmas. New York: Houghton Mifflin 1976. Print.

First Sentences:

Christmas House, North Pole

22nd December 1920

 

Dear John,

 

I heard you ask daddy what I was like and where I lived. I have drawn me and my house for you...I am just off now for Oxford with my bundle of toys -- some for you. Hope I shall arrive in time; the snow is very thick at the North Pole tonight. Your loving Father Christmas 

Description:

There is no book more delightful in so many ways than J.R.R. Tolkein's Letters from Father Christmas. These are hand-written letters, complete with water-color illustrations, from Santa (J.R.R. Tolkein) to Tolkein's three children, starting when John, the eldest, was three years old in 1920. Letters from Father Christmas compiles twenty years of these simple, heartfelt notes about Santa and his beautiful, often disaster-prone life in the North Pole.

 

 

Here we can read about the latest antics of Santa's mischievious Chief Assistant, the North Polar Bear, as well as descriptions of various other characters like the Red Gnome, Snow-elves, Cave Bears, and many more. Of course, Santa writes about his own life and the unexpected challenges he faced over the past year, such as when the North Polar Bear got into Santa's basement and accidently set off all the fireworks used for the Northern Lights. Or when the North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole, broke it, and fell through Santa roof, ruining many children's presents.

These letters were lovingly selected and presented by Baille Tolkein, the wife of Tolkein's third son, Christopher. She includes samples of the envelopes, stamps, and marginalia comments from the Polar Bear on Santa's original notes. 

The quality and colors of the water color pictures and letters are exquisite, while the impish writing style of Santa himself makes this small book a perfect companion for a reading session with any youngster, or just to savor by yourself alone by the fire. Tolkein truly makes the magic of Santa and his polar world come to life. 

 

You won't be sorry you picked up this imaginative, artistic collection from the mind of J.R.R. Tolkein. Of course, it earns my Highest Recommendation.

 

 

 Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Rylant, Cynthis. Henry and Mudge and a Very Merry Christmas.   

If you are looking for a book to read to and look at wonderful illustrations with very young children, or let them read alone when a bit older, I highly recommend the "Henry and Mudge" books. This series focuses on the adventures of a ordinary young boy and his huge, drooling, lazy afraid-of-thunder dog, whimsically written and illustrated. The stories are highly familiar scenarios to most kids, from tree houses to visiting relatives and building forts in the snow. Delightful for adults and children alike, a rare quality.

 

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet

Larsen, Reif. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet New York: Penguin 2009. Print

First Sentences:

The phone call came late one August afternoon as my older sister Gracie and I sat out on the back porch shucking the sweet corn into the big tin buckets.

The buckets were still peppered with little teeth-marks from this past spring, when Verywell, our ranch hound, became depresed and turned to eating metal.

Description:

How can I explain the marvelous characters, setting, actions and illustrations of Reif Larsen's debut novel, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet? It's impossible to fully describe the genius mind and illustrations of its narrator, T.S. Spivet, a twelve-year-old map-maker extrordinaire. I can only offer examples which hopefully will hint at and temp you into the adventures and intricacy of this wonderful book.

Tecumseh Sparrow (T.S.) Spivet is no ordinary maker of topographical drawings of land, oceans, cities. No, he is an acute observer of the world and its patterns and behaviors. Spivet draws intricate diagrams of actions (e.g., the motions of his father drinking whiskey), objects (the history of the family phone cord), actions (the internal mechinations of how his parents met at a square dance), senses (separate freight train noises combine into a leasing sandwich of sound), emotions (The McAwesome Trident of Desire as demonstrated by McDonald's), and yes, even geography (the Yuma Bat Field #2 showing the location of Spivet's last will and testament). These and so many more are included in the margins of almost every page in the book, along with T.S.'s insightful captions. All from a young boy living on an isolated ranch in Montana.

A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected. To do this right is very difficult.

While these examples may sound frivilous, make no mistake: T.S. Spivet is a very serious person. The phone call he receives in the opening pages of the book is from The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., announcing that he has won the prestigious Baird Award, along with a job at The Smithsonian. He is asked to travel to Washington D.C. to receive the prize in a formal ceremony and then give a speech to a roomful of scientists regarding his drawings used by the Smithsonian in their exhibits.

The problem? The Smithsonian doesn't know he is only twelve years old. They assume when Spivet talks over the phone to them about his school, that he is referring to a prestigious teaching post at some important higher-level institution, not his middle school. Also, Spivet's parents do not know of his relationship with The Smithsonian, the prize, or the travel requirement. His father is a weathered cowboy who is right at home doing manly things around their sprawling ranch, while his mother pursues her own biological study to discover an illusive species of beetle which may not even exist.

What to do? Of course, after much careful packing and no actual planning regarding transportation, Sopivet hops a freight train for Washington D.C. two thousand miles away with just a suitcase filled with his drawing instruments and some energy bars.  

During the journey, Spivet has time to reflect on his life, his family, the world passing by, and his future life among scientists at The Smithsonian. As his mind roves, he draws fantastic sketches with explanations of various things, people, or actions from his past, present travels, and his possible future. These are the most gloriously fun, informative, and artístic footnotes you will ever read.

This is so much more than just a simple travel story. Spivet reflects and pieces together fragments (and, of course, maps) about his life on a ranch with disconnected parents, an older sister who is into pop music, the sudden death of his younger brother (in which Spivet seems to have played a role), and a family genealogy of women scientists living in the isolated region of Montana. Each influences his travel and future plans, what he can make of them.

I won't reveal any more about Spivet and his journey so as not to spoil any part of the joy I hope you experience reading this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's moved onto my all-time favorite list and will be re-read by me many times to immerse myself into this brilliant, curious mind and world.

Mediocrity is a fungus of the mind. We must constantly rally against it -- it will try to creep into all that we do, but we must not let it.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet  

Not sure if Hatchet is exactly like T.S. Spivit, but both do focus on pre-teen narrators on an unknown journey full of obstacles they must face with their wits, bravery, and humor. Hatchet  relates how one boy survives a plane crash deep in the Canadian forests and must try to figure out how to survive. Even if these books aren't too similar, I can't miss an opportunity to get people to read Hatchet, too. It's the best. Highly recommended.

In Sunlight or in Shadow

Block, Lawrence, ed.. In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper. New York: Pegasus 2016. Printp

First Sentences:

Bosch didn't know how people in this place could stand it.

It felt like the wind off the lake was freezing his eyeballs in their sockets.

      [from Nighthawks by Michael Connelly] 

Description:

So you think you want to be a short story writer? Here's a quick check on your potential. Take a painting, any painting, and write an interesting story that incorporates the painting's scene and people. Not as easy as it might sound, but it can be done, and done very well by skilled authors.

This was the challenging concept behind editor Lawrence Block's collection of short stories, In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper. He asked seventeen of his writer friends to select a painting from Edward Hopper and write a short story to flesh out their interpretation of the action and people depicted in the painting. He got enthusiastic responses from such luminaries as Stephen King, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, and Joyce Carrol Oates, Gale Levin (an international authority on Edward Hopper), as well as several writers I had never heard of, but plan to read more of their writing very soon.

Here's some samples of their plots and a link for you to view the painting:

• Surveillance of a woman by a Los Angeles detective in the icy cold of Chicago. [from Nighthawks]

• A woman finds the person who gave her up for adoption and then goes to work for her anonymously as a hospice nurse [from The Story of Caroline]

• A house with a door that opens only onto the sea, with rooms that keep adding themselves to the house, and a chef who might be a descendant from Atlantis. [from Rooms By the Sea]

• A couple who casually hold people hostage in a closet in their quiet apartment while they coolly empty out the victim's bank accounts [from The Music Room]

• A painting that serves as a code for a Russian nuclear scientist. [from The Incident of 10 November]

Each story is so different, so well-written, and so clever in its incorporation of the painting's elements. I highly recommend the collection for the writing and the beauty of seeing so many of Hopper's somber, emotional paintings.

By the way, editor Block has carried this author/painting theme in several other collections, including From Sea to Stormy Sea with stories about seventeen American paintings, and Alive in Shape and Color using as the basis for background any painting from cave art to modern abstracts. I know what I'll be reading over the next few months.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Block, Lawrence. From Sea to Stormy Sea   

Block collects seventeen stories with American art as the inspiration, from artists including Winslow Homer, Grant Wood, Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol and fourteen more.

Block, Lawrence. Alive in Shape and Color  

Short story writers in this collection, including Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Connelly, and Stephen King, are allowed to choose any visual art piece as the basis for a new story. Wonderful.

The Museum of Modern Love

Rose, Heather. The Museum of Modern Love. Chapel Hill: Algonquin 2018. Print

First Sentences:

He was not my first musician, Arky Levin.

Nor my least successful. Mostly by his age potential is squandered or realized. But this is not a story of potential. It is a story of convergence....It is something that, once set in motion, will have an unknown effect. 

Description:

I know virtually nothing about performance art and artists, but that ignorance on my part is taken care of by Heather Rose in her newest novel, The Museum of Modern Love.

Based on an actual MoMA performance by the artist Marina Abramovic in 2010, author Rose imagines the minds and relationships of individuals experiencing a performance art piece. In the Abramovic performance, she sits along at a large table with an empty chair across from her. The public is invited to, one at a time, silently sit across from her and stare into her eyes for as long as they desire, then make way for the next person. Abromovic returns their look without a change in her expression, barely blinking, never talking. 

In the novel, Arky Levin, a composer undergoing an unexpected separation from his wife, stumbles into the Abramovic MoMO exhibit and is transfixed. He returns daily, studying the artist and the people who observe her in the art piece. Gradually, he even meets a few of them and we learn their stories, as well as the background of the artist. What Arky and the other public viewers experience tries to explain the goals and power of this style of art and its effect on their own lives and minds.

Pain is the stone that art sharpens itself on time after time.

Of course, there is the question of whether Arky or his new acquaintances will ever have the strength to sit down at the table across from Abramovic. If they do, what will they experience? They all have observed people leave their time at the table with Abramovic in tears, visibly shaken, although nothing has happened that anyone can see. Theories from the viewers abound about the artist herself: How can she sit so still without any reaction? How does she eat or control bodily functions during the hours sitting at the table? Why is she doing this piece? What does she hope to accomplish in this performance and with her other pieces (such as her months-long walk over half the length of the Great Wall of China just to meet her partner and break up with him)?

As I write this, it sounds like a very slow, uninteresting novel. But actually it is an oddly compelling narrative and insight into the minds and relationships of ordinary people, and how they (and the artist) react to a performance art piece over 70 days. Author Rose provides discussions about art, artists, and personal lives that show this static art performance to be full of life, expectation, goals, disappointments, and change. As a bonus, this book also offers the most interesting description I have ever read: a stream-of-consciousness narration from a person in a coma regarding what it feels like to be so attached and unattached to the world. 

I really enjoyed this off-beat novel for its quietly defined characters and their struggles with relationships and loneliness. Through their stories, I also was able to learn something about the purpose and power of performance art.

Even after all this time, the sun never says, "You owe me." Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole world. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Carey, Edward. Observatory Mansions.   

Another oddball book about a performance artist, this one who acts as a living statue and poses in public areas with people who want to take their photo with him. He also steals inconsequential, yet personally important items from people for his museum in the basement of his ancient home which also houses a variety of equally odd characters.