Doubting Thomas: A Novel about Caravaggio [Paperback]

Atle Naess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

Centering on 1606, when the artist killed a man in a duel and was forced to flee into exile, the narrative mixes history and biographical data into a lush fiction with the suspense of a mystery novel""-Publishers Weekly. ""Naess's novel retrieves Caravaggio from the dust of history-while avoiding the pitfalls of idolatry and caricature-in his brilliant, provocative, often comical, and ultimately generous novel. He gives this familiar story an urgent and contemporary terror in which we recognize the terrors and assassinations that continue to haunt our culture today""-Rain Taxi. ""A nicely textured tale.""-Kirkus Reviews

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Caravaggio has become an icon for the paradoxical connection between the sacred and the profane found in his work. A seventeenth-century painter of daring authenticity, he is also remembered for his reckless behavior and violent temper, which led to his killing a man under circumstances that remain mysterious. Norwegian writer Naess, intrigued by the dark rumors that cling to Caravaggio like shadows and by the true nature of holiness, draws on historical documents to create a set of hypnotic first-person narratives that add up to a Rashomon-like multiplicity of perspectives. Innocenzo Promontorio, the most loquacious and most fictionalized witness, is a young man who models for and parties with Caravaggio. Innocenzo also studies astronomy, which, like Caravaggio's unprecedented realism, was considered a dangerous quest for truth in a time of tyrannical church rule. Each subsequent witness--including the proud and mettlesome prostitute, Phyllida, Caravaggio's model for the Virgin Mary; the painter's hypocritical priest brother; and several fellow artists--relates self-serving theories about the murder in clever monologues that ponder truth, justice, and faith. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Norwegian --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0720611512
• ISBN-13: 978-0720611519
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intellectual, cultural tour de force -ending blew me away!, November 15, 2001

By 

martha woodworth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doubting Thomas: A Novel About Caravaggio (Hardcover)

This is a great book for artists, specifically passionate,
cutting-edge artists who loathe the mundane. And it's a
wonderful 'detective' story, with surprise endings. Yes, that's
a plural - it delivers one-two-three K.O.'s right up to the
very end...don't miss the final "Editor's Note," either. I love
a literary roller coaster ride, and this book is one of those, with, as mentioned, a Big Finish.

The book made me want to jump on a plane to Rome,
as well. My mouth watered, thinking of all those
gorgeous Caravaggios I haven't seen. Or at least I'll go
searcing for a "complete works of..." art book with full color repros.

Where has Atl Naess been all my life? Plan to read more, if
I can get my hands on his work.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Who-Done-It for the Discerning Reader, September 17, 2001

By 

Tina M. Durham (Mesa, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doubting Thomas: A Novel About Caravaggio (Hardcover)

Atle Naess tells the fictionalized story of painter Michel Angelo Merisi da Caravaggio (known to us today simply as Caravaggio) using the device of a contemporary cleric's investigation into the events that led up to Caravaggio's exile from Rome: whoring, brawling, and finally a verbal argument that ends in another man's death. Different witnesses give their versions of the painter and his shocking exploits, such as attacking a waiter who serves him improperly cooked asparagus or sitting with a dying prostitute so that he can use her agony as a model for The Death of the Virgin. Finally, we discover the surprising details of Caravaggios own death.

Naess, in his "Concluding Unscholarly Comment by the Editor," says:

"I began work on this publication in search of a certain clarity. It was, of course, my interest in the art, ideas and social history of the seventeenth century that prompted it, but if I may be permitted a remark of a private nature: I was driven also by personal need.
"It was the need to describe and comprehend holiness. This could also be expressed as the wise to reconstruct this lost power, which we no longer understand and which thus causes large areas of our history to have become incomprehensible to us" (154, 155).

Doubting Thomas makes perfectly clear our human shortcomings, our inability to attain holiness, but I'm not any clearer, really, about what holiness is. I see that it is NOT collecting sensually appealing, gorgeous artworks that are ostensibly religious in nature; nor it is about the competition of high-ranking churchmen to possess the greatest collection of such art. Caravaggio paints works which inspire some to deep religious feeling, yet utterly fails in his human relationships to attain Christian ideals of self-control, forgiveness, and love. He uses everyone around him as pawns to his art, rejects his family, and sleeps with his models, who are generally prostitutes (but are sometimes young boys). In its quest to comprehend holiness, this novel may serve only to prove in the end that, as the prophet said, "There is none holy, no, not one."

And yet, on the fringes of our perception, there is something pure and holy, something that shines through Caravaggio's art and all the confusion that surrounds our lives. It would be difficult to formulate a simple "theme statement" about this novel after a single reading, as high school teachers often ask students to do, yet Naess does seem to suggest that, as flawed as human beings are, we may be able to create something that points toward the infinite glory of God.

Doubting Thomas was deservedly a best seller in Europe, and I read it with great attention and interest. Nevertheless, I did not I enjoy it in the way one enjoys a simple who-done-it. Doubting Thomas left me disturbed, raising more questions than it answered. I would recommend this thought-provoking book to readers looking for a post-modern, historical detective novel.

4.0 out of 5 stars it's possibly for certain, June 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Doubting Thomas: A Novel about Caravaggio (Paperback)

Engaging, quick read in the form of a mystery that tackles some weighty philosophical-religious issues and the timely (and timeless) matter of the need for certainty in a world that refuses to offer any. Proponents of using character witnesses at trials won't be too happy, but E. Loftus fans will howl at this one.