by Michael Gruber
I began judging "The Forgery of Venus" by the cover featuring an over the shoulder view of a reclining nude and the assertion that Michael Gruber is "a New York Times best-selling author". Despite keeping up with the best seller lists, I could not recall seeing Michael Gruber's name on them. On the back cover, USA Today was quoted as finding the author's previous novel, "The Book of Air and Shadows", "breathlessly engaging" and "brilliant". I am not easily mislead by puffery in liner notes, but the nude lounging above the the book's title intrigued me.
When I opened the pages to read, verses from a Robert Conquest poem that preceded the beginning of the narrative, "...art grows brilliant in the light it sheds, Direct or not, on the inhabitants of our imagination and our beds." By the time I had read the last page of Michael Gruber's story, I had not only an appreciation of his imagination, but his ability to control with the unusual skill of a writer gifted with a range of amazing knowledge a complex tale of an artist besotted by his art and drugs.
The reader is introduced to a group of students at Columbia University, but the focus is soon shifted to just one of the group, Chaz Wilmot, the son of a famous illustrator, who has inherited genius and the misfortunes that fame visits on a family. Years after graduation, the narrator of the opening chapters is attending the unveiling of a newly discovered painting attributed to the great Spanish painter, Diego Velasquez, when a wild eyed Chaz Wilmot corners him claiming to have forged the painting. He vanishes into the crowd after handing the narrator a CD jewel box, and it is the content of this CD that comprises the story of "The Forgery of Venus" that follows.
A fantastic connection between madness induced by the drug Salvonorin A, and art experienced at the level of genius is developed with time travel flashbacks by Gruber. Chaz Wilmot and Diego Velesquez become inseparable. The hallucinatory passages are made convincing by Gruber's descriptive ability obviously well informed by concrete knowledge, and every aspect of creating a work of art is supported by fascinating details of the technique of easel painting.
If you enjoy having a writer share his erudition while entertaining with a story that travels the art centers of the world in company with the sophisticated; all the while treating with the eternal question of what is real, you will certainly enjoy reading "The Forgery of Venus".
When I opened the pages to read, verses from a Robert Conquest poem that preceded the beginning of the narrative, "...art grows brilliant in the light it sheds, Direct or not, on the inhabitants of our imagination and our beds." By the time I had read the last page of Michael Gruber's story, I had not only an appreciation of his imagination, but his ability to control with the unusual skill of a writer gifted with a range of amazing knowledge a complex tale of an artist besotted by his art and drugs.
The reader is introduced to a group of students at Columbia University, but the focus is soon shifted to just one of the group, Chaz Wilmot, the son of a famous illustrator, who has inherited genius and the misfortunes that fame visits on a family. Years after graduation, the narrator of the opening chapters is attending the unveiling of a newly discovered painting attributed to the great Spanish painter, Diego Velasquez, when a wild eyed Chaz Wilmot corners him claiming to have forged the painting. He vanishes into the crowd after handing the narrator a CD jewel box, and it is the content of this CD that comprises the story of "The Forgery of Venus" that follows.
A fantastic connection between madness induced by the drug Salvonorin A, and art experienced at the level of genius is developed with time travel flashbacks by Gruber. Chaz Wilmot and Diego Velesquez become inseparable. The hallucinatory passages are made convincing by Gruber's descriptive ability obviously well informed by concrete knowledge, and every aspect of creating a work of art is supported by fascinating details of the technique of easel painting.
If you enjoy having a writer share his erudition while entertaining with a story that travels the art centers of the world in company with the sophisticated; all the while treating with the eternal question of what is real, you will certainly enjoy reading "The Forgery of Venus".
Reviewed by Don Mac Brown
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