Girl in Hyacinth Blue
Ratings8
Average rating4
15
Ratings8
Average rating4
Eight linked stories tracing the history of a painting by the 17th century Dutch artist, Vermeer. In one, he paints his daughter to pay off debts, a second story describes the loss of the ownership papers, a third takes place on the eve of its theft by the Nazis. By the author of What Love Sees.
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Historical fiction that follows the imagined path of a Vermeer painting from the brush of the painter into the hands of the Nazis. The details of the settings and characters bring to life each historical era the author delves into.
This is the first book of the year reading challenge, which is a mix between Kat's TBR-Challenge and PopSugar's reading challenge.
(I didn't have a jar so I put it in an old little tin box)
For this month, I had to read a book I was supposed to read in school/uni but didn't. I generally read all the books that I'm assigned at uni (because we don't get a lot) so I went for one of the optional books.The premise of this book was interesting. Each chapter is a sort of short story following the painting Girl in Hyacinth Blue and how the different owners get it or lose it. The book starts at the “present” and with each chapter, it goes back until the moment Vermeer painted the picture.As it usually happens with short stories, not every owner's story was engaging. I could connect with some of the owners but with others, the story seemed to drag. The language was quite accessible and the narrative covers several time periods so I could see why a teacher would pick this particular novel to study in class.All in all, it was a good book with an interesting idea for a plot but it sometimes felt like a chore to read it.
