The Last Mona Lisa, Jonathan Santlofer’s retelling of the August 21, 1911, theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louve, is ingenious. Art theft, forgery,
The Girl You Left Behind – Jojo Moyes’ novel of the portrait of a French artist’s wife and the war that intervened, separating by death
Tracing Time, Childs brings the rock art of the Colorado Plateau Canyon country into a rich and moving focus. I have read most, if not
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, Camille Laurens’ intense and personal narrative study of Edgar Degas’s famous sculpture of a young ballet dancer. When I finished reading
BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN Intergenerational narratives have always appealed to me, so I thoroughly enjoyed Diane Chamberlain’s novel, Big Lies in a Small
MAN WITH A SEAGULL ON HIS HEAD The day is June 12, 1976. It is Ray Eccles’ 40th birthday. On that early Saturday morning, he
A PIECE OF THE WORLD Any review of Christina Baker Kline’s novel, A Piece of the World, must begin with Andrew Wyeth’s masterpiece, “Christina’s World.”
VINCENT AND THEO: THE VAN GOGH BROTHERS Deborah Heiligman has written an extraordinarily creative biography. Not only does Vincent and Theo portray the van Gogh
HEADLONG Not only is Michael Frayn’s novel, Headlong, an artful narrative about artistic theft; it’s also an intelligent and provocative primer on the life and
I always admire novels with innovative structural designs, like The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, written by Dominic Smith. Moving back and forth between
SAN FRANCISCO, A MAP OF PERCEPTIONS Andrea Ponsi’s San Francisco: A Map of Perceptions is a small, lovely gem – or, perhaps, a handful of
Countless late nineteenth-century French novels, paintings and sculptures grew out of a powerful philosophy often called scientific determinism or literary naturalism. Writing of the artistic
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet Once again I’m going to review a novel written about historic figures, one that fictionalizes the characters and
“We were archaeologists in our own tomb,” observes Sara Houghteling’s narrator when he and his father come home to Paris in August, 1944. Paris itself
Inspector Armand Gamache has now retired, but I can only hope that this is not his last detecting adventure. He has entertained and beguiled me
THE MAKING OF SOME LIKE IT HOT Billy Wilder’s 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot is listed as No. 14 of the hundred greatest movies and
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