The Art of Vanishing
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Description
“This wildly inventive, deeply moving novel blurs the line between art and those who behold it.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name
Something magical is happening inside this museum. . . .
Jean’s life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Modigliani. But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life.
Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean’s painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness, and gazing admiringly at the masterpieces above. The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse—is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her most profound secrets? Did he just move?
In an extraordinary twist of fate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean’s painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of the First World War. She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery’s other paintings come to life—glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs—which they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only outside visitor, alone in possession of this gift.
But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they’ve hardly dared to dream of. Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?
Book Information
Posts
Loved the concept, hated the execution.
I picked up this book because I love art and was honestly still stuck in my love for Claire Obscure Expedition 33, and that book screamed at me that it could fill a void. Well, in the end, I had to force myself to finish it. The leads lacked chemistry. The progression of the relationship is a little too fast for me. Coupled with the fact that the story didn't really flow naturally, it made for a very forceful read. Claire's POV didn't really do much for the story most times except drag along the points that drove me nuts anyway. And it made us hear the twist before Jean, so that we have to hear it again when she tells him. The stakes were a little too low, almost the entire book, until the end. For a book that wants to tell a story about a woman who can step into paintings, we spend little time with the actual art. It felt less of an important detail and more a reason for a scene change. My biggest pet peeve was the scene jumps in the middle of a paragraph. Especially in Claire's POV. She would start speaking about one thing and suddenly about something in the past and go right back to the present in the same block of text. SPOILERS: Maybe I forgot between one part or another, but introduction a daughter in the middle of the book while she had no role before feels like a bad decision. I had the thought that she's just there to tether Claire into the real world and make her want to stay. Same with the "ex partner coming back" plot line. It did absolutely lead nowhere and just padded the book with a tiny bit of hope that got squashed pretty fast. The journal felt out of place and kind of forced just to have something at the end. When Claire stole it after the robbery, I had to close the book and take a deep breath. Not even the reasoning could get me to like this whole thing. The whole separation because of Covid felt more like padding and to make it more dramatic. I read another book with Covid as a secondary setting, and that one worked way better.
Description
“This wildly inventive, deeply moving novel blurs the line between art and those who behold it.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name
Something magical is happening inside this museum. . . .
Jean’s life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Modigliani. But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life.
Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean’s painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness, and gazing admiringly at the masterpieces above. The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse—is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her most profound secrets? Did he just move?
In an extraordinary twist of fate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean’s painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of the First World War. She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery’s other paintings come to life—glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs—which they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only outside visitor, alone in possession of this gift.
But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they’ve hardly dared to dream of. Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?
Book Information
Posts
Loved the concept, hated the execution.
I picked up this book because I love art and was honestly still stuck in my love for Claire Obscure Expedition 33, and that book screamed at me that it could fill a void. Well, in the end, I had to force myself to finish it. The leads lacked chemistry. The progression of the relationship is a little too fast for me. Coupled with the fact that the story didn't really flow naturally, it made for a very forceful read. Claire's POV didn't really do much for the story most times except drag along the points that drove me nuts anyway. And it made us hear the twist before Jean, so that we have to hear it again when she tells him. The stakes were a little too low, almost the entire book, until the end. For a book that wants to tell a story about a woman who can step into paintings, we spend little time with the actual art. It felt less of an important detail and more a reason for a scene change. My biggest pet peeve was the scene jumps in the middle of a paragraph. Especially in Claire's POV. She would start speaking about one thing and suddenly about something in the past and go right back to the present in the same block of text. SPOILERS: Maybe I forgot between one part or another, but introduction a daughter in the middle of the book while she had no role before feels like a bad decision. I had the thought that she's just there to tether Claire into the real world and make her want to stay. Same with the "ex partner coming back" plot line. It did absolutely lead nowhere and just padded the book with a tiny bit of hope that got squashed pretty fast. The journal felt out of place and kind of forced just to have something at the end. When Claire stole it after the robbery, I had to close the book and take a deep breath. Not even the reasoning could get me to like this whole thing. The whole separation because of Covid felt more like padding and to make it more dramatic. I read another book with Covid as a secondary setting, and that one worked way better.