The Forgery of Venus: A Novel
by Michael Gruber
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael GruberEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2009-03-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Book Reviews of The Forgery of Venus: A Novel
Book Review: The ghost writer syndrome
Summary: 2 Stars
For many years, Gruber was a ghost writer. A ghost writer needs to understand someone else, who is his client. In this book Gruber signs it with his own name, as author, yet it feels as if Gruber's one half side ghost-writes his own second half. The character Chaz Wilmot is apparently Gruber's invented customer. He ghost writes for him as he listens to his recorded compact disks. I bought the book discounted ina drugstore, - a two for one offer. I have never heard of Gruber before. However, reading a few lines, I thought this is an intriguing , well written book. Then why the book ranks relatively low on sales at Amazon.com? I venture to make my own theory: writing as a ghost writer, one worries less how the book sells, as probably the name of the customer and his agents do this function. A ghost writer only gets a fixed fee for his/her services. Yet Chaz Wilmot is an invented celebrity in the book itself, not a real one. Chaz Wilmot by himself does not generate any sales, as - for illustration sake - Michael Jackson will.
Here a is a quote: "I held my hands to my cheeks, like a version of Munch's "The Scream", How many US readers have seen the painting "The Scream" of Edward Munch? And how many looked it up on Wikipedia? Most of the people continue reading - like a word that needs no contextual definition - a novel that also talks about "insatiable" Suzanne who is like an actress who "impales herself to [Chaz's] dick". All art quotes, are hurdles for mainstream readers. Many references may be incomplete and superficial for an art connoisseur reader and Gruber placed them out of the blue, with no apparent connection to the plot. After a long paragraph 1920's Weimar Art about Dix Grosz, Christian Scad and Karl Hubbuch from Neue Schachlichkeit movement, we read: "Can we do that now?.. Probably not...And the world has not changed much, except we stick the war wounded behind the walls of hospitals [unseen].. and the rich are now thin instead of fat". Wilmot thinks "these [rich] s... will buy anything signed Wilmot. Everyone is blind now, except if it is on TV"
Well said, yet hard to read and no one remembers who is Karl Hubbuch and why the heck his name appears in Gruber's book. It shows off, maybe unintentionally, but this created a very ambiguous reader audience, formed by two groups: art connoisseurs and thriller readers. And perhaps a third group, enjoying descriptive love scenes from a seventy plus old author.
July 22, 2010: I have this book next to bed and a few evening ago I tried to read it again. My attention span fizzles off in ten minutes. The story does not keep me alert, it is really a punishment. I feel as I am in middle school, and the teacher condemns me to read Chaucer for hours, for receiving a passing mark. There is absolutely no connection between Chaucer and Gruber. I am the only culprit. I am enjoying rather eclectic books (see my reviews on Zohar), but there was no one to extract pleasure from this book. It is all my fault, I confess. My apologies to indignant admirers of the book who felt I do not justice by not making a politically correct review.
Summary of The Forgery of Venus: A Novel
An artist born outside his time, Chaz Wilmot can paint like Leonardo, Goya, Gainsborough?and he refuses to shape his talent to fit the fashion of the day. His unique abilities attract the attention of Werner Krebs, an art dealer with a dark past and shadier present, and soon Wilmot is working with a fervor he hasn't felt in years. But his creative burst is accompanied by strange interludes?memories that are not memories . . . and he begins to wonder if he is really the person he believes he is. When a previously unknown masterpiece by the Spanish painter Velázquez is discovered, the artist suddenly finds himself lost in a mirrored house of illusions?and propelled into a secret world of greed, lies . . . and murder.
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