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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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

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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

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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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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

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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

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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

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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. 

Just Kids

Smith, Patti. Just Kids. New York: HarperCollins 2010. Print

First Sentences:

I was asleep when he died.

I had called the hospital to say one more good night, but he had gone under, beneath layers of morphine. I held the receiver and listened to his labored breathing through the phone, knowing I would never hear him again.

Description:

I was completely unfamiliar with Patti Smith and her art, not to mention her life with fellow artist, the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, during the turbulent 1960s. But fortunately for me and other interested readers, Smith carefully documented that fascinating world in her beautifully written memoir, Just Kids. 

In 1967, Smith moved to New York City to find work that would provide enough money to live, explore art, and mingle with the artistic energy and people of the city. Armed only with the new white waitress uniform and shoes given to her by her mother, Smith lived on the street, unable to afford a room, getting by eating old food donated by sympathetic restaurant chefs. One of her biggest joys was finding two quarters in Central Park.

I would spend that day much as I spent the next few weeks, looking for kindred souls, shelter, and most urgently, a job. 

She finally landed a cashier job at a Brentano's bookstore where one day Mapplethorpe came in and bought her favorite, secretly-coveted coveted necklace from the display case. She impulsively told this complete stranger, "Don't give it to any girl but me" and he promised he wouldn't. Sure enough, later after they had established a relationship, he actually did give it to her. 

[Robert] wasn't certain whether he was a good or bad person. Whether he was altruistic. Whether he was demonic. But he was certain of one thing. He was an artist. And for that he would never apologize.

Together, they lived in various tiny lodgings including the Chelsea Hotel, that famous refuge for struggling artists. Smith spent free hours writing poetry, songs, and sketching while Robert made and occasionally sold necklaces and collage art pieces constructed from objects scrounged from the trash. For a splurge they took a train to Coney Island, split one hot dog and a Coke, and people-watched all day. To settle problems, they went to the "bad doughnut shop...the Edward Hopper version of Dunkin' Donuts. The coffee was burnt, the doughnuts were stale, but you could count on it being open all night."

During the late Sixties, they met, discussed art and politics with, and attended performances of emerging stars like Andy Warhol, William Burroughs, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and many, many more. It was these people and the City itself that gave them energy and inspiration.

The city was a real city, shifty and sexual....The skyscrapers were beautiful. They did not seem like mere corporate shells. They were monuments to the arrogant yet philanthropic spirit of America. The character of each quadrant was invigorating and one felt the flux of its history. The old world and the emerging one served up in the brick and mortar of the artisan and the architects.

Patti Smith quietly began to perform some of her poetry and songs at local dive bars, fighting off drunks and hecklers. Meanwhile, Robert was given an old Polaroid instant camera and instantly he began to create his now-famous, often controversial, photographs. Both Smith and Mapplethorpe begin to achieve larger and larger measures of acceptance in the artistic world and some financial security. 

Just Kids portrays the hopes, frustrations, and lifestyles of a wide variety of artists  who eventually gained fame that lasts to this day. Her style reminded me of individual soap bubbles, where each paragraph was full and complete, then floated away as she moved on in the next paragraph to another episode, person, art piece, or contemplation. While that may sound disjointed, it came across as a peek into an artistic mind that feels deeply about incidents and people and is willing to share them with readers.

Smith recounted how some of her acquaintances did not make it out of the Sixties, including Jimi Hendrix who once helped Smith when she was on the street; Joplin, Morrison, her poetic idol; Tinkerbell (Warhol's model); and Mapplethorpe himself as foreshadowed in the opening sentences. The end of the book was some of Smith's strongest writing and passion for both Mapplethorpe and her own future.

I feel no sense of vindication as one of the handfuls of survivors. I would rather have seen them all succeed, catch the brass ring. As it turned out, it was I who got one of the best horses. 

A thoroughly absorbing and informative look into that era and its artistic inhabitants from one who lived it each day.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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

Young, Neil. Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream.   

Great autobiography of Neil Young in his own rambling, opinionated, lyrical words. Introduces his experiences and changes with music and the artists of the Sixties and later years.

LIttle Fires Everywhere

Ng, Celeste. Little Fires Everywhere. New York: Penguin 2017. Print.

First Sentences:

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children,had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

Description:

Celeste Ng can really write as evidenced by Everything I Never Told You, her gripping debut novel of family relationships, hidden lives, sadness, and passion. Her newest novel, Little Fires Everywhere, only adds to her reputation for understanding human nature and the dynamics behind interesting characters facing difficult decisions that have far-ranging implications.

It is a book that simply absorbs you into the quiet lives of the upper middle class community of Shaker Heights. 

All up and down the street the houses looked like any others -- but inside them were people who might be happy, or taking refuge, or steeling themselves to go out into the world, searching for something better. So many lives she would never know about, unfolding behind those doors.

The story is off and running with an opening scene that brings the Richardson family and residents of the neighborhood out of their homes to watch a fire completely engulf the home of Bill and Elena Richardson and their four children, Trip, Lexi, Moody, and Izzy. The family and neighbors seem to calmly accept that the fire was set by the angry, 14-year-old Izzy, but she is nowhere to be found.

Ng then recounts the backstory leading up to the fire, beginning with the mysterious Mia Warren, a photographer/artist, and her teenage daughter, Pearl, who rent a small house from the Richardsons. Mia and Pearl lead lives of vagabonds, traveling from city to city, stopping only when Mia feels inspiration for a new photographic image. In each city Mia finds employment that pays for rent and food, yet gives her time to work nights on her art. When a project is complete (six months or less), her photos are sent to a gallery in New York, and Mia and Pearl drive off, looking for new inspiration in another town. 

But Mia has recently promised Pearl that Shaker Heights will be where they will settle permanently. Mia is engrossed in a new project, so Pearl if free to make friends with the wealthy Richardson family. With them she experiences a new world of luxury and ease. But Pearl also faces conflicting passions and life decisions with the Richardson teens and parents.

All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It easily went out of control. It scaled walls and jumped over trenches....Better to control that spark and pass it carefully from one generation to the next, like an Olympic torch. ....Carefully controlled. Domesticated. Happy in captivity. The key...was to avoid conflagration.

Then we meet Shaker Heights residents Mark and Linda McCullough, a couple who adopt a child abandoned on the steps of a local firehouse. They have the wealth and love to offer a perfect home for the child. But issues arise when the birth mother, Bebe, turns up with a change of heart concerning the baby.

Mia becomes the touchstone for individuals wishing to share secrets, get advice, or just find a quiet solace from looming decisions. But little is known about Mia's past, a situation that bothers Elena Richardson enough to poke around into Mia's early life and turn over stones regarding some of the decisions Mia made that shaped her current life.

The problem with rules...was that they implied a right way and a wrong way to do things. When, in fact, most of the time there were simply ways, not of them quite wrong or quite right, and nothing to tell you for sure which side of the line you stood on.

That's enough, no more hints. I can't give anything away of this compelling book and its everyday characters whose worlds are shaken. I loved each character, the writing, and especially the unexpected, highly satisfying ending. Not many stories wrap up with the same quality and bang as they begin. Highest recommendation.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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

Kingsolver, Barbara. Pigs in Heaven  

Engrossing, challenging novel of Turtle and Taylor Greer, a Native American child and her adoptive mother, challenged in court to return the child to her tribe to gain a cultural upbringing. 

Gaige, Amity. Schroder: A Novel  

A man on a spontaneous whim, decided to kidnap his young daughter and take her on a road trip without her mother's knowledge or permission. He intends her no harm, but merely wants to be with her for some time. But what are the implications of his actions as the day turns into a week, into several weeks, into ...? Beautifully and passionately written. (previously reviewed here)