Pictures at an Exhibition [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Jeu de Paume, Madame de La Porte des Vaux, Monsieur Bickart (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Julia Glass Reviews Pictures at an Exhibition

Julia Glass is the author of Three Junes, which won the National Book Award in 2002, The Whole World Over, and I See You Everywhere, published in 2008. Learn more about Julia Glass in the Julia Glass Store, and read her guest review of Sara Houghteling's Pictures at an Exhibition:

I read a lot of debut fiction, in part because editors often seek my endorsement for these books, but also because one of my greatest pleasures as a reader is the discovery of a fresh voice. Sarah Houghteling’s voice is fresh indeed, yet it is also remarkably mature. Pictures at an Exhibition is at once an authoritative historical novel, a family saga, a labyrinthine love story, and a sumptuous meditation on the purpose and value of material beauty when war threatens the very fiber of civilization.

In constructing her true-to-life story about Jewish art collectors before and after World War II, Houghteling made a clever and sophisticated choice. Through the eyes of her narrator, Max Berenzon--an impetuous young man who yearns to fill the shoes of his elegant father, not just an art dealer but a patron to the likes of Picasso and Matisse--she begins by showing us high-society Paris of 1939, a place of such prosperity and worldliness that those who occupy it can hardly believe it will be vulnerable to the palpable winds of political change. Yet as we readers know from our 21st-century perch, this world will soon and swiftly fall apart. (Those who savor irony will think of our own society a year ago now.) And then, in a bold fictional move, Houghteling bypasses the events of the war itself, vaulting us forward to the time of reckoning: for Max, for his father, and for the shell-shocked survivors of a divided France--among them Rose, a talented art connoisseur who attracts yet mystifies Max. In order to help safeguard her country’s artistic legacy, did she collaborate with the Nazis?

Max’s twin obsessions with repossessing his father’s plundered art collection and understanding this elusive woman provide the momentum for a story that is suspenseful, moving, illuminating, and ultimately satisfying. It solves a captivating mystery while showing us yet again how our lives, regardless of our private fortunes, will bend to the forces of history.--Julia Glass

(Photo © Peter Ross)

From Publishers Weekly

A young French-Jewish man obsesses about taking over his fathers fine art dealership before WWII, and tries to locate its lost canvases in the wars aftermath in Houghtelings ambitious and satisfying debut novel. Halfhearted medical student Max Berenzon tries to impress upon his father, Daniel, that he should inherit the business, and spends the rest of his energy wooing Rose, the gallery assistant. But the war soon makes talk of the future a moot point, and the Berenzons survive the war in a cellar in the south of France. When father and son return to Paris, their gallery is empty, looted by the Nazis. In dirty postwar Paris, Max chases both the missing art and Rose, and though both his targets remain elusive and the gaping hole left by the roundup of French Jews is impossible to close, Max does shed light on his own familys secret tragedy. Houghteling dazzlingly recreates the horrors of war, and its the small, smart details—a painting that was a sentimental family treasure turning up years later in an ordinary gallery; an offhanded anti-Semitic remark in a cafe—that make one uncommon familys suffering all the more powerful. (Jan.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; Reprint edition (February 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307266850
• ISBN-13: 978-0307266859
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #51,208 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Subject, Not A Fun Read, February 16, 2009

By	CFH "chillnhill" (Blue Ridge Summit, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

"Pictures at an Exhibition Pictures at an Exhibition" is Sara Houghteling's debut novel. Set in France just before, during and after World War II, the plot follows Max Berenzon as he attempts to recover his family's lost art work, which was looted by the Nazis.

No plot spoilers from me. This story was well researched, both in the art and war history, but some how failed to reach it's full potential. There are several sub-plots running through the book that never get fully explored, at least as deeply as I would have liked.

This book will likely be appreciated more by fans of historical fiction and, perhaps art lovers, but it really didn't draw me in.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pictures at an Exhibition: A Study in Black and Grey, February 1, 2009

By	D. Joubert (Tennessee Valley) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sara Houghteling successfully recreates the Paris art world of World War II in "Pictures at an Exhibition." As seen through the eyes and perceptions of Max Berenzon, the son of a successful gallery owner, it is a grim, gray world. The story seems to work on two levels: the Berenzon family, their lack of emotional communication, their family secrets, and the role of art in their lives - and then the larger picture - Paris under the Occupation and the fate of its Jews. It is the second aspect that is the most compelling.

Max's personal story is so understated, so emotionless, that it was difficult for this reader to be too involved. Briefly, Max is a son unsure of his father's love; he is pursuing a medical degree when he'd rather work in his father's gallery; he is in love with his father's assistant and possible mistress Rose; he is unfocused and seems to careen blindly through life. Then, Paris is occupied by the Germans and the Jewish Berenzons go into hiding. Those war years aren't the focus of the story, so it picks up again when the Berenzon pere and fil return to find the gallery an empty shell and their paintings gone. Max's search for the missing works gives the reader a view of just how difficult it was for those whose possessions had been `liberated' to reclaim them. But it is the depiction of postwar Paris that is more compelling.

Far more interesting than Max's story is the recounting of the art works themselves: the lengths the French went to protect these valuable possessions and the greed that flouishes even today as the descendants of the rightful owners are unable to claim their possessions. The recounting of the secret transport of 'The Wreck of the Medusa' and the 'Victory of Samothrace' were, for me, the highpoints of the novel.

The strong points of `Pictures at an Exhibition' are the author's prose style and the fascinating story of the `missing' art works. However, the human side of the story is far less riveting.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's a good editor when you need one?, July 25, 2009

By	womnwrtr (VA) - See all my reviews

I don't want to diminish the powerful story told in this novel, but as I read it, I kept wondering, "Where's the editor?" The editor of this book should be shame faced for slacking on their duties. I say this for several reasons. It first struck me at the abrupt transition when, at the turn of the page, in a few short paragraphs, it is four years later, the family has been in exile in southern France, escaping the Nazis. Alright, I told myself. This is like a play with only one set. The set is Paris. That explains the brief stint given to four transformative years. But the nagging concern about editorial misfeasance grew the more I read. The story is embedded with references to streets in Paris, events, and battles in World War that are frustrating to a reader who does not know their world war history or hasn't had the benefit of wandering the streets of Paris for a few years. Events that are supposedly monumental and the stuff of life time nostalgia (e.g sticky fingers and the gap-toothed girl) skip so quickly through the text that the claim of life long impact seems extravagant. Oh, yes, and there is the manufactured happy ending that materializes so abruptly, leaving one to suspect that the author and editor had already set their sights on the next adventure. This is a well written novel with an engrossing story and likable character. I just wish that publishers were still in the business of paying editors to thoroughly polish a final work.