The Swan Thieves

I have just finished reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova and it was a fantastic book - in fact I feel like I have just finished reading at least 4 books. The story involves several love stories, a couple of separate mysteries, stories in modern day time and stories from the 1800s all set in multiple locations including New York and Paris. Linking all these stories and settings is several artists and the art they either created, were influenced by or were attempting to destroy.

'Dr Andrew Marlow has a perfectly ordered life, full of devotion to his work and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned artist Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery and becomes his patient. As Oliver refuses to speak, Marlow's only clue is the beautiful, haunted woman Oliver paints obsessively, day after day. Who is she, and what strange hold does she have over this tormented genius? Desperate to help, Marlow embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver, and to a dark story at the heart of the French Impressionism - a tragedy that ripples out to touch present-day lives.'

I loved this book and all the characters and never wanted the book to end. I am now inspired to go and visit art galleries again - something I have been meaning to do for ages and am especially inspired to go and see the Rupert Bunny exhibition currently on display at the Art Gallery of SA (I'm sure I could interest a couple of you in that outing?).

I think this would be a great discussion book for any book club - it's a very easy read but a fascinating history and mystery rolled into one. (Thank you Nikki for the recommendation - would love to hear of any others you have enjoyed as well.) I have only one complaint about the book (other than it had to finish) and that is the final treatment and the subsequent results for the patient, Robert - but I don't want to spoil the ending as I'm hoping you'll all read it and tell me your thoughts.....

American Wife

American wife by Curtis Sittenfeld follows its main character, Alice Blackwell, over her first sixty-one years.  We meet her where the end of the book leaves off, as the wife of The President of the United States but then Alice takes us back with her as she re-evaluates her life and remembers all of the colourful characters that have helped mold her into what she is today.  These events and people that cause her to question whether she really is deserving of the great pleasures and successes she experiences later in life.

American Wife consists of four parts which are titled with the addresses she lives her life at.  First is her parent’s house followed a few years later by the apartment where she resides when she first meets her future husband, Charlie Blackwell.  Her third home is the beautiful, cozy and sometimes too big but not quite big enough McMansion where Charlie and Alice start to raise their daughter Ella (who at times reminded me of what little I know about Chelsea Clinton) and begin to learn about each other in a way that changes them for good but also for better.  Of course the fourth part is titled 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of The White House.  

American Wife is a work of fiction, reportedly inspired by Laura Bush and her life. The first two parts of the book I really enjoyed as a an easy page turner. The third part of the book offered a fascinating insight into a life that may resemble the life of the Bush's or people of their social standing. I found the last part of the book to be very introspective, slow and lacking in plot and direction - there were some interesting bits from Alice in this part where she claims that all she ever did was marry Charlie, it was the American public that made him president and therefore they could not hold her accountable for his decisions and actions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the characters portrayed in it, but it does make you wonder who would want to be President (or more so, married to one)? I wonder whether Michelle Obama regrets the path that they have taken and wishes for her previous life back?