The Swan Thieves
Posted on January 24th, 2010
From Buy Cheap Book Online > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Psychological & Suspense
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The Swan Thieves: A Novel
By Elizabeth Kostova
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Kostova’s masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. THE SWAN THIEVES
Customer Reviews:
Past Lives / Enduring Love
Robert Oliver, a distinguished, yet troubled painter, has attacked a painting at the National Gallery of Art–an action which has landed him in a mental institution under the care of psychiatrist, Andrew Marlowe. Marlowe, an art enthusiast and painter himself, becomes deeply fascinated with his patient and the history behind Robert Oliver’s strange behavior. As he attempts to heal his patient, the doctor is met with obstinence and silence; Oliver will not share his story. Determined to find answers, Marlowe not only becomes involved in his patient’s life and relationships, but also with the life of Beatrice de Cleval, and her mentor, artist Olivier Vignot, forbidden lovers from the 19th century. Who is Robert Oliver and what is his passionate connection to the painting and the two lovers? Why is Robert so obsessed with the love letters between Olivier Vignot and Beatrice? Why does he cling to them and read them over and over? Is it mental illness, or something else? This book kept me guessing, right up to the finale. It left me pondering the concept of past lives and loves. I felt a hint of Somewhere In Time, and wanted to believe.
Kostova brings, once again, something wonderful to the written page–something that will enthrall readers from start to finish. It is well-written, multi-layered, containing all the elements of a great story: desire, passion, obsession, forbidden love, mystery, historical romance, and the determination of the human spirit. It is an extraordinary book that I believe, not only mystery lovers will like, but artists and lovers of art will enjoy, as well. I found it to be an elegant, tender, highly psychological read, with insight into the world of art and the human condition.
“We are never really alert to our destinies, are we?”
The central figure of Kostova’s impressive novel is a gifted artist, Robert Oliver, who is arrested when he attacks a painting hanging in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, “Leda”. In the painting a mortal woman is ravished by Zeus in the form of a swan, a theme that is woven through the novel, a mystery begun in the days of the French Impressionists. Thus does the author join the stories of two centuries, the late 19th and 20th, the characters as entwined as their paths through life. When psychiatrist Andrew Marlow accepts Robert Oliver as a patient in Goldengrove, the larger-than-life, enigmatic painter utters only a few sentences before he refuses to speak at all. Both intrigued and frustrated, Marlow makes it his particular mission to learn what has brought this talented man to this state, discovering along the way not only the circumstances of the heartbreaking world of genius but the limitations of his calling.
Kostova succeeds on so many levels in this layered, passionate novel, a study of human failings and the price of true art, from Oliver’s own painful journey to the women who have known and loved him, as well as a female artist of great promise, a contemporary of the Impressionists, Beatrice de Cleval, and her mentor, artist Olivier Vignot. From one century to another, Kostova explores the unique and tortuous landscape of the dedicated artist, the power and beauty of creativity and the emotional devastation in its wake. She allows the reader to fall in love with an unattainable genius on an impossible quest, to feel the pain of a wife who isn’t enough and a lover who cannot keep what she does not own. Then there is Beatrice de Cleval, one of the few women to be embraced by the great Salon of Paris and the inspiration for her powerful last painting, a seminal work that contains the heart of the mystery.
From one century to another, Kostova never loses focus, her characters beautifully rendered, their hopes and flaws, dreams and failures. A great love story fuels a mystery in 1877 that reaches into the 20th century and the world of an artist consumed by his particular obsession. From the windswept coast in Normandy to the predawn hours as Oliver paints furiously in his attic, the smell of turpentine is pungent, the pain of creativity tactile. Blending Impressionist France with more modern day Washington, DC, this is a sweeping novel of love and its costs, of artistic genius and its demands, a grand tale that is both revelatory and shocking, where spirit escapes the boundaries of daily life. Luan Gaines/2010.
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Tags: American Cities, Andrew Marlowe, Art Enthusiast, Elizabeth Kostova, Enduring Love, French Impressionism, Gallery Of Art, Human Hope, Love Letters, Marlow, Mental Institution, National Gallery, National Gallery Of Art, New Novel, Ordered Life, Psychiatrist, Renowned Painter, Robert Oliver, Strange Behavior, Two Lovers
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