Rating: 
Summary: Well written
Review: While I found this novel to be well written, I didn't become emotionally moved by it as a whole. I have a problem when novels don't give me a truly in-depth look at the characters. Because this book pretty much consisted of several short stories based around the theme of a painting, it was a hard for me to become emotionally attached to many of the characters. While I appreciate art, I wouldn't consider myself an art lover. Maybe that's why I had a hard time being attached to an inanimate object as the main character of this novel. I did like a few of the stories. The last story which focused on the creation of the painting was my favorite.
Rating: 
Summary: Gem of a Little Book
Review: Susan Vreeland and has written a small and lovely gem of a book. Through 8 vignettes, we travel through the life of a Vermeer painting. From the present day owner, we travel back to meet various owners of this painting, and the affect this painting had on all of them. The stories set in Holland were especially beautifully written and among my favorites. I also greatly enjoyed the depiction of the inspiration for the painting. A little book, but one that truly touched me.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely novel
Review: A lovely novel which traces a painting believed to be a lost masterpiece by Vermeer from its present day owner all the way back to the painting's inception and creation. Vreeland sets the novel up as a series of short stories, each about the painting's respective owners and the spiritual/emotional impact it has on each of their lives. She succeeds in letting each story flow naturally, with imagination and gentle creativity, plucking out a moment in time in the life of each owner and allowing the reader to experience fully the circumstances of their lives, the circumstances within which the painting has comes into their possession, and the direct impact the painting has within that context. It's a daring piece of writing for a relatively inexperienced author (I believe this is her second book) and, to her credit, she handles it quite well, even if some of the vignettes are stronger and more passionate than others.
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT READ
Review: Okay, I can't even explain the reason why people like this book. Basically the author sets out to show the journey of a paitnign from boring and cliched owner to boring and cliched owner... and tell you the exact meaning of life while she's at it. The only problem is this profound and deep understanding of the meaning of life which Ms. Vreeland is trying to convey to us seems to be something along the lines of "Stop and smell the roses." Oh yeah, and "Love one another" is a big theme too. Anyway, the writing is didactic and sentimental. The fruits of research seem to be to pepper the writing with weird words that you have to research to understand. All in all, it's not worth the time it takes to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Amazing!!
Review: I have never seen a Vermeer in my 21 years of existence, But now, I would love to see one and appreciate it. Appreciate art and beauty for what it really is - magnificent and large. That's what this book meant to me. In all its richness - stroking like a paint brush on the canvass of the readers' hearts - Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a winner all the way! The 8 Stories are woven around the imaginary painting of Vermeer and of love not being enough most of the time. From a father's misgivings to Vermeer's Daughter's Passions and so much more defines this 242 page, according to me masterpiece. It could have been any painter, any artist - because Ms. Vreeland's style is so unique and new that she could have given words to any painting. Any picture that speaks a thousand words, that touches the lives of so many, is sometimes so isolated and unappreciated. The girl in the picture, as the story progresses represents beautiful things for different people. It portrays poignancy heightened by the mysteries of giving and losing. Only in the end to seek the truth- beauty for what it really is!
Rating:
Summary: Art as an obsession.
Review: Susan Vreeland 's Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a most unusual novel. Positing the existence of a 36th Vermeer painting, the book explores the power that art can exert upon us to the point of obsession. The book is essentially 8 different yet interrelated short stories about the circumstances of the historical owners of the painting in question, the Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The transition between stories is accomplished through a series of interlocutory vignettes concerning the circumstances of Vermeer's life and the actual creation of the painting. Although I actually like Vermeer's work, I knew next to nothing about his personal life and found these passages quite interesting. On the whole I found the stories quite compelling as well, though there were a few that would have benefited from a bit more development and a more thorough presentation. However, on the whole I found the book quite riveting and entertaining. In the end I was left wishing the painting did in fact exist-even without knowing what it actually looked like--the cover illustration aside-I felt a bit obsessed with it myself. That Vreeland could evoke such a feeling says a lot about the quality of her book.
Rating:
Summary: Quietness and Beauty
Review: Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a quick read -- I read it in one evening -- but, though slight in words, it is dense in images of beauty, sadness, bravado, and love. Each vignette has a different character and mood, yet all of them share a quiet clarity and poignance that draw the reader deeply into the story. True, some of the chapters are better than others (the French woman's affair with the violinist was the weakest), but all are well-worth the reading. It isn't necessary to be familiar with Vermeer's work to enjoy this book, but I strongly recommend looking at his paintings if at all possible. Being familiar with Vermeer's style will make it easier to visualize the well-traveled painting in the book. I can see the painting so well in my mind's eye now that it's almost as real to me as The Milkmaid or Girl With A Pearl Earring. If only it really existed!
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but not a Vermeer
Review: Though built upon a promising premise, this collection of short tales woven around a single "lost" Vermeer painting gets off to an objectionable start that I found difficult to get over. The suggestion hinted at by the ending of the first story, that somehow the painting itself should be destroyed because it had once been stolen by a Nazi, is unconscionable. A work of art acquires no inherent guilt through the actions of those who handle it; the suggestion is all the more inappropriate given the Nazis' own penchant for destroying art. Otherwise, most of the stories in the book were originally written and published separately, and this perhaps accounts for their somewhat uneven execution. I found the two middle stories, "Morningshine" and "From the Personal Papers of Adriaan Kuypers" to be the most compelling tales in the book, each more for the personal stories they tell than any protagonism of the painting itself.
Rating:
Summary: As a Driven leaf
Review: This is an excellent portrayal of a rabbi in ancient Israel who has a crisis of faith and searches for proof of god in secular studies. It is an easy read. Many of the hero's thoughts can be applied to agnostics today. What made this rabbi's crisis so difficult was that he was one of the most esteemed rabbi's in Israel. Many of the conflicts which occur in this book can be applied to the tensions between today's secular and reformed jews and the orthodox and fundamentalist jews. It sheds some light on the reason fundamentalist jews fear and forbid secular studies among their members. They are afraid that those who study secular subjects will desert the fundamentalist movement. This notion is particularly understandable today because studies in modern secular sciences etc. are likely to defeat even the most sacred traditions among the orthodox such as keeping kosher. Students who study modern science,medicine, and technology are likely to desert the orthodox and fundamentalist movements and so sadly such studies are discouraged in favor of torah study etc. The rabbi in this tale returns to his belief in god but he is shunned because of his exploration. His situation at the end of his quest is one of horrific conflict and anguish. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone of any religion,because it is an engaging and well written story.
Rating:
Summary: What a long book!
Review: I read Girl in Hyacinth blue and I really did not enjoy it at all. first I thought it would be verey suspensful and very mysterious. but as I got into it more I realized that it was very confusing. it kept switching plots and that was so confusing. I thought that the author could of made it more simple and would have more of a surprising ending. I would reccomend this novel to someone who is a complex reader. but it had a very good plot.
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