The Collectors Apprentice

The Collector’s Apprentice by B. A. Shapiro     352 pages

I thoroughly enjoyed B. A. Shapiro’s novel “The Muralist.” The plot and characters stuck with me for a long time. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. Shapiro is back with another art-centered novel, “The Collectors Apprentice.” It’s not as good as “The Muralist,” but it’s still a good read. The basis for this novel was inspired by Albert Barnes who created the collection currently housed by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. 

The story takes place between 1922 and 1929. In the Belgium countryside during 1922, nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens has been banished from her home after he fiancé, George, pulled a conducted a major Ponzi scheme on her family which costs them millions in stolen art.

Paulein goes to Paris, but she is alone and broke. She must reinvent herself, and she does so by taking the name Vivienne Gregsby. She manages the connected with the art world, but her biggest fear is that someone will recognize her as Paulien. Her family had been big collectors. She and her father had planned to open a museum. Her main goal is to return her father’s art collection

Now rubbing elbows with the art-elite, Vivienne must be careful not to appear as knowledgeable as she is. One of the artists whom she becomes friends with is Henri Matisse and the two become romantically involved. One of the people she meets is an eccentric and wealthy American art collector, Edwin Bradley.

Edwin, inspired by the newly-created Vivienne, hires her to help him gobble up as much art as he can---paintings, sculptures, drawings—and take them to Philadelphia where he is building his post-Impressionist museum. In a twist of fate, Edwin now owns the seven paintings that Vivienne is desperate to retrieve.

Then George, who now goes by Benjamin, is trying to get back into Paulein/Vivienne’s life so that he can swindle Edwin.

Winding through the plot are chapters simply labeled “The Trial” and are in an all-italics font. This serves to create that dueling timeline that is plot’s structure. It took a while, but eventually I figured out that Paulein/Vivienne is on trial for Edwin’s murder!

The book went into a little too much, for my taste, about studying art, its lines, shapes, colors, etc. It also went a little too much in Matisse’s life, which I’m not sure if it is fiction or fact.

Therefore, “The Collector’s Apprentice” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world

2 a.m. at the Cat's Pajamas

2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino    261 pages

This is one of the times that two things went wrong. First I wanted to read this book based solely on its title. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Second, I kept reading and reading, expecting/hoping that it would get better and end up being a wonderful read. Well, I was wrong on both counts.

According to the book jacket, this is the story of nine-year-old Madeleine who has a great jazz voice and knows it. She practices every day and desperately wants to sing at a jazz club, especially once she learns that her recently departed mother worked at the Cat’s Pajamas.  That I’m not really sure about because it was vaguely alluded to in the story.

The story is also about two other lost souls: Sarina Greene who hope to meet an old high school crush at a dinner party and Lorca, the Cat’s Pajama’s owner learns that if he can’t come with $30,000, the club will shut.

I found the story hard to follow.  All three---Madeleine, Sarina, and Lorca---vie for role as the central character. I was never really able to care about any of them, but I must admit felt more for Madeleine than the others, she’s the reason I kept on reading. I did like that the chapter headings were times and that the story takes place on Christmas Eve Eve. That was well done. The book also lacks tension.

 I give 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas 2 out of 5 stars.

 I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.