Life Studies

Rating:
Summary: ORDINARY LIVES AFFECTED BY GREAT ART
Review:
With "Girl Hyacinth Blue" and "The Passion of Artemisia" author Susan Vreeland has done much to resurrect the reading public's interest in the lives of great artists. In this intriguing collection of stories her focus is again on art, but rather than relating an artist's life she comes to her subject from a different angle - the secondary characters who were part of the artist's lives and how art can affect ordinary people, both positively and negatively.

Fans of van Gogh well know that one of his favorite models was the son of the postman in Arles. This relationship offers Vreeland the opportunity to give readers a view of the young lad's personal life and how he is reacting to the world around him at this stage in his life. We find a gardener employed by Monet emotionally shattered when the artist destroys his Water Lily paintings.

The use of the physical and emotional investment of ordinary people in the lives of the great Impressionists and Postimpressionists adds a rich texture to the idea of what art can mean.

Film, stage and television actress Karen White reads these stories with lyricism and depth of understanding. Those who heard her on the audio version of Vreeland's "The Forest Lover" know they're in for another treat.

- Gail Cooke