Customer Reviews

Life Studies: Stories

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Susan Vreeland is fast becoming one of my favorite living authors. Her ability to draw you quickly and seamlessly into a living moment is one of the best I have come across, and I was impressed and relieved to find that the details I found the most poignant in her historical fiction sketches were the ones she gave bibliographic references for at the end of the book. In addition, I found her web sight containing the art pieces referenced in her stories at the beginning of my reading, and it greatly enhanced my overall experience:

http://www.svreeland.com/ls-paintings.html

In general, I found this book absorbing and vivid, but educated and relatively free from sentimentality. She is able to change voices well from character to character, but not so abruptly and obviously that the book loses fluidity. These chapters, each dedicated to a human life affected by a particular work of art, were saturated with reality and living detail. Really beautifully done; I was sorry to see it end.

Much like Tracy Chevalier, Vreeland dips her pen into the palette of great art in search of human drama. An apt choice, for this is a novel filled with life, an emotional canvas as rich and varied as humanity itself. Instead of the obvious, the artists themselves, Vreeland writes about their contemporaries, the people around the genius of creativity, fleshing out the lives of her chosen artists, the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, their lovers, children, neighbors and servants. These observers enjoy the most intimate knowledge of the daily struggles, the passion to create vs. the need to provide for families and how their behavior affects those around them.

Beginning in France in 1876, we are introduced to Renoir, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Modigliani. In "Winter of Abandon", Claude Monet's wife dies, his children and those of his mistress stranded in the harsh winter, understanding that the lady must reclaim her family name at the thaw of spring. Meanwhile they cling to a world isolated from reality. The days are difficult for the wet nurse of the baby of Berthe and Eugene Manet ("Cradle Song") and her own child dies while she lives with the couple. Completely unaware of the heartbreak of the servant's life, the couple fixates on their own obsessions, including Berthe's attraction to her brother-in-law, Edouard Manet. And in "Olympia's Look", Suzanne Manet, widow of Edouard, enjoys the revenge of a lifetime.

Vincent Van Gogh ("The Yellow Jacket") warns his subject, "You can ruin yourself in the night cafes", where the absinthe flows freely and muddles the senses. Walking the streets of Arles, Van Gogh stares raptly at the wonder of nature's colors. Curiously (for me), the stories I enjoyed the least were those about Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne; these have less of the emotional richness of the first stories. Yet, in the very next one, "A Flower for Ginette", the magic is back, the author's descriptions evoking images of the great paintings, made more real by the histories that surround them.

In contrast to the historical stories at the beginning, separated by an enchanting travel tale, the second half of the book consists of more contemporary tales, people who inhabit the real world and their relationships to art. These tales provide the small intimacies that transcend the years, linking genius to humanity. This author is at her most confidant when speaking in the language of the artist, shaping images into words, painting stories for her readers. "All art is a matter of reception." Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Susan Vreeland's first book, the exquisite "Girl in Hyacinth Blue," was told in a series of stories centering around one Vermeer painting. In this book she returns to the story form, this time concerning many artists instead of just one. It contains moments of real beauty and for those who love art, or grew up with artists as I did, quite real and memorable.

These are unusual stories in form and perception. Art and the artist are seen from an angle, often told from the perspective of a model or a child or a lover. It is as if you rounded a corner and bumped into Renoir's easel or noticed Cézanne across a country road talking to a friend. These artists touch you as they really lived, as rather ordinary people. The stories are sometimes as quiet as walk in the woods. But in the end you feel you have known the little boy who threw stones at Cézanne, or the tired banker who goes to a weekend gathering in Montmartre and finds, in a short conversation with the artist Renoir who lives upstairs, a new joy in his life.

Of the contemporary stories in the second half of the book, "Crayon," about a little girl and her dying artist grandfather is such a beautiful piece of writing.

This book is for any reader who would like to know what it was like to see one of these artists not as some sort of sexual athlete or superman but walking across the street quietly with his paint box in his hand.

A friend that I take art classes with recommended this book. I've really enjoyed it. It's a collection of stories that show how deeply art can affect average people in their daily life.

The main quote of the book explains well the message of these stories: "The real question is: To whom does the meaning of the art of the past properly belong? To those who can apply it to their own lives, or to a cultural hierarchy of relic specialist? - John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1977"

The author gives awesome examples of how art can touch you regardless of age, practice, education level, and culture. Some of the stories refer to renowned past artists and the inspirational effect they have on others, while others present average people opening to art.

Not a full 5-star though, as some of the stories could have taken a bit more work to get them polished at the level of a few, outstanding ones. I found the following excellent: The Yellow Jacket; Crayon, 1955; At Least Five Hundred Words, with Sincerity and Honesty.

A heart warming and inspirational book.

Life Studies is a collection of short stories about art and artists by Susan Vreeland. I've read two of the stories so far and am in the middle of the third one.

All three stories show Vreeland to be a master at work as she deftly weaves together art history, human psychology, poignant metaphors and recurring motifs together with vivid descriptions of the French landscape and people. I was delighted at the "aha!" moment in each story has where it becomes clear which beloved artwork has been, is being or will be created.

I look forward to finishing the book, but highly recommend it based on what I have read so far.

I was disappointed in this book. I purchased it after hearing Susan Vreeland review it, and while I absolutely loved the Passion of Artemisia and Girl in Hyacinth Blue, something seemed missing in this one. I felt like some of them were too long; I didn't like some the fictional aspects she gave to some of the artists and their lives. I guess I should say I'm glad I read it but it left me a little flat.

Susan Vreeland has become one of my favorite authors. In this book each of the stories brings the reader closeup to a famous artist through the eyes of someone who is in close proximity to them in their lives. Through this artistic device, as an author, Vreeland is able to give the reader extensive information about the times and specifics of the various artists' lives. I haven't finished the book yet. But I feel I am taking my time, savoring all that it has to offer. It is very insightful, although its mechanism is fiction based on well researched fact.

Susan Vreeland has said that she wants to write about the enriching and uplifting power of art and she has certainly succeeded. The seventeen stories in Life Studies explore art of the past as well as art in our own time. One of the pleasures for the reader is discovering just what well-known painting is being described - sometimes even before it has been painted and is just planned by the artist.Her writing is firmly based in research and fleshes out dryer art history we may have studied. There is a great sensitivity to the writing as Vreeland brings out the humanity of the artists and those in their lives. She has said "Each time we enter imaginatively into the life of another, it's a small step upwards in the evolution of the human race." In this collection, we are also privileged to enter into Vreeland's childhood with "Crayon, 1955" For anyone who had encouragement, as a child, to explore a new world of thinking, it is particularly poignant. A really good read.

The writing is sentimental. It is often amateurish or stilted. Still, occasional flashes of brilliance.

The state of literature currently: garbage. Put an emotional shell on a conclusion to have no conclusion, and you're a "genius" according to our esteemed literary rags and reviewers. This book has two high-quality stories, "Of These Stones" and "The Yellow Jacket," but they are more like children's stories than the great short stories of a F. Scott Fitzgerald or Flannery O'Connor. After you read those two, you may find yourself getting sleepy... the pattern repeats. The state of literature currently: garbage. This is garbage that has a few gilded peaks before lulling you into emotive but meaningless stupor.