Book Review - The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Synopsis:  Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life--solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

First Line:  "Outside the village there is a fire ring, blackening the thawing snow."

Random Quote:  "When I reached my apartment in the dark, I unpacked quickly, heated a can of soup.  After the Hadley's dreary cottage - I could admit it now; I would have torn the place down in a minute and put up something with twice as many windows - my rooms were pristine, welcoming, the lamps perfectly adjusted on each painting, the linen curtains smooth from last month's dry cleaning."

Review:  I really liked The Historian so I was looking forward to this one.  What a disappointment.  I finished it because I kept hoping it would get better (or that the pompous narrator would take a bullet to the head), but it was a struggle the whole way.

The West Building of the National Gallery - Image via Wikipedia

First, it needed an editor.  This book absolutely did not need 564 pages for its story to be told; the author could have told it in 250 or so pages and had a much stronger book.

Next, the characters are awful and all appear to be the same person.  There is next to no differentiation among their voices.  The only way to tell them apart is by their names.  The narrator has to be one of the most pompous, egotistical, and unethical characters I've read in a long time and I don't think the author intended that.  Every single character in this book is self-absorbed and self-important and no one more so than the narrator.  The painter at the center of the story is the most likeable of them all, but that's because he is pretty much silent throughout the book.  I'm sure if the author had let him talk more he would've been just as annoying as the rest.  Instead we're treated to how Byronic and romantic he is as seen through the eyes of the other characters, but at least keeps his mouth shut.

Lastly, the denouement of all of this prattle (which wants to say something serious about art, but doesn't manage it), the key to the mystery is covered in about 2 pages towards the end of the book and trust me, if you blink you'll miss it.  In fact, you're going to think you missed it because it's so insignificant and trivial that it is muddied up with all the rest of it.

There are two other books that cover some of this same territory and do it well - The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles and The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Carey.  Fowles' book is great for all the ways characters look different depending on context and perspective and Carey writes better than anything I've ever read about how a painter sees the world.  Don't waste your time with this book.  Go read Fowles and Carey instead.

Reading Challenges:  Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2010, Speculative Fiction Challenge 2010, 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, 2010 Chunkster Challenge, 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge