Rating: 
Summary: Very good, but overdone.
Review: Martin Clay, a philosopher turned art expert, believes he has identified a lost Brueghel masterpiece, and suffers misadventures in trying to acquire it, �on the cheap�. He must contend with the caddish owner of the painting and also the skepticism of his wife, even more of an art expert than he. The book is intended as a satirical, farcical comedy, and the physical comedy aspects work. There is a great deal of art criticism in the book, focusing on the putative cultural, historical, and personal context of the painting, and its symbolism. I, possibly naively, took this as mostly serious, and found it wonderful, and highly educational, not just in the specifics, but in illuminating the attraction and value of this type of art criticism. The book does a splendid job in portraying a marriage between 2 loving people, Martin and his wife, stressed by Martin�s unshared obsession. I would have enjoyed the book more if Martin had fewer hoops to go through, and if some of his calculations and plans weren�t so absurd. I also found the art discussions to be overdone at times.
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