This was a great story – a combination of historical fiction, time-traveling fantasy, and a psychological portrait of a depressed and dejected man who is in an unfulfilling career. As a marginally successful painter for commercial art and magazine ads, Chaz Wilmot nonetheless recognizes that he produces “shit” for the masses and that his talent is underutilized. A medical drug study becomes a means for Chaz to find direction for his talent. That direction is to attempt to produce a “missing work” by the old Spanish master Diego Velazquez, under the sponsorship of a powerful art-forgery syndicate. The book has a central character who is so hugely flawed that he gains the reader’s sympathy from the first pages. There are wonderful passages that interweave the rich, creative lives of 17th century European master artists with the high-tech, ruthless world of 20th century European master art-forgers. I enjoyed every page of this book. I've liked all of Michael Gruber's novels. Chaz is a potentially wonderful artist if he'd only allow himself to do the paintings he's capable if doing instead of ads and magazine covers. Then because of a "creativity" drug he finds himself temporarily becoming the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. Is this sci fi? Is this fantasy? Or is Chaz genuinely crazy? Gruber's writing immediately sucks me in and I can't wait to find out what is going to happen. What was great with this book was Gruber carefully describes several famous paintings. So I pulled each one up on my iPad and examined it to see what he was talking about. This added a lot to the book, especially when I noticed that one of the incredible paintings from the 1600s Velazquez's Las Meninas, was used as inspiration by Picasso and Dali. They each painted their own bizarre spins on the masterpiece. (this has nothing to do with the book. It was just something I enjoyed doing.)
Do You like book Forgery Of Venus (2008)?
Started it, got bored real quick, returned it to the library.
—dudley67
Fabulous read. Learned so much about art history.
—suzie
Excellent read. Engrossing, interesting, and fun!
—IDKmyBFFJill
