The Talented Miss Farwell

The Talented Miss Farwell by Emily Gray Tedrowe   352 pages

Two hours south of Chicago is the small town of Pierson, Illinois. Becky Farwell is a quiet, single woman who is the town’s treasurer and accountant.  She knows the books by heart. She is always able to find some money by juggling the books to fund whatever project the town needs funding. Her one outlet is art, and soon she begins collecting it.

However, Becky doesn’t want to be quiet intelligent Becky. She wants to be sophisticated, well versed in the art of conversation, especially art. So she re-invents herself, going by the name Reba Farwell.  She has a different wardrobe and a completely differently personality than Becky.

Becky/Reba becomes obsessed with collecting art and making as much money as she can. She is tired of struggling in her small farming community and trying to run the family farm-equipment business. The problem is, Becky/Reba needs money to feed her new obsession.  She begins siphoning money from Pierson’s different account.

This goes on for years. She buys and sells art all the while replacing what she has “borrowed” from Pierson. However, at one point, she is almost three million dollars behind returning the money.

Readers don’t have to be accountants to understand what Becky is doing, nor do they have to know art to understand Reba’s mania. This heist thriller had me on the edge of my seat for most of it.

 The Talented Miss Farwell receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

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