Orchard

Rating:
Summary: A Distortion of Wyeth
Review: Watson is indeed a fine prose writer, but if you are thinking of reading this book to get some insight into Andrew Wyeth and his magnificent work you would be better off sticking with the great Meryman biography. It seems that Watson has taken events in Wyeth's life and thrown them into a distortion machine with results that are at times laughable. If this was meant to be a novel about Wyeth's life,which I was led to believe by a newspaper article, it has failed, for it is, sadly, a crude, mixed-up caracature which does no honor to this great artist. However, if it is just a story about an artist and his models you are looking for, you might find Chevalier's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" to your taste. Sorry, Mr. Watson, you write extremely well, but as a fan of Andrew Wyeth who has read every book in existence on his life, I wish I had skipped this one.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: When I saw that many readers had given this book only three stars, I had to write. I loved it. Beautiful but simple writing, interesting time shifts, deeply understood characters... The writer who said the woman was a wimp should remember that this book took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s in a rural area, and that the woman was an immigrant. The descriptions of the artist's works were also wonderful. I highly recommend this book and intend to check out Watson's other novels.

Rating:
Summary: page turner, but predictable
Review: While the three protagonists of Watson't latest novel are beautifully drawn out and characterized in prose at times like poetry, there is also no doubt what paths they will follow from the beginning of the book. The novel could have had a greater impact had Watson taken these somehow familiar characters in new and unexpected directions. However, this book is still lovely to curl up with and those avid readers/art historians out there, like myself, will appreciate Watson's obvious knowledge of studio art techniques. If you enjoy this book, you should REALLY love some good Anita Shreve books...see my other reviews!