The Painting

Rating:
Summary: A story of how love can heal and liberate a soul
Review: Hayashi has feared fire ever since fire took the lives of his family and permanently disfigured his feet. A talented potter who was raised by Buddhist monks, he is a part of the new Japanese government, even though his heart isn't completely into it. He keeps the now-illegal Buddhist shrine on his property open, even though someone set fire to his teahouse, possibly as a warning. Similarly, he can't make out what's going on in the mind of his beautiful young wife, Ayoshi.

Ayoshi is dreamy, sometimes spending hours upon hours painting things she rarely lets him see. She feels a great distance between herself and the man the matchmaker married her to. Though she feels bad about it, she resents his deformity, the fact that she has to massage his feet while soaking them in ice water to calm their pain. She cannot find space for him in her heart --- it is too full with the desire to paint the world she sees, especially the memories of her beautiful lover, who she misses deeply. When she paints the first painting, the passion of her muse pours perfectly out into the paper, capturing a moment of lust and profound love and joy. She cannot let her husband see this work, so she wraps it around one of the pots he has sold and is sending to France.

In France, Jorgen is the one who discovers the painting. Once a solider hired from his homeland of Denmark to fight in the place of a rich Frenchman, the loss of his leg has forced him to leave the army he feels so much at home in. He happened to be billeted in the hospital next to a young man whose sister, Natalia, visited constantly, and, in return for a small act of kindness on Jorgen's part, she has convinced her other brother to hire him to sort and unpack things in his warehouse. She also convinces him to help her learn how to shoot and be a real solider, for Natalia's one desire is to be a truly good person, a hero, someone who, along with the other women who are training to become soldiers, fights for her homeland.

The painting is, in many ways, the pivotal event of the story. It is love and desire melted and pressed to paper, a form of release for a trapped young woman, a tool for healing for a similarly trapped man. Every time he looks at the painting, Jorgen sees something new; it is not that the painting is magic (though beauty and the capturing of a perfect moment has a magic all its own), but that Jorgen changes. As he transforms, falling in love with the almost saintly Natalia, he becomes a better person and is able to see different things. Natalia also changes as she faces loss and sees the realities of war. The way she and her fellow female soldiers are treated isn't what she expected, but strangely enough, she still finds a sort of liberation. Ayoshi and Hayashi also change; Hayashi's struggles to understand and try to find a common place with his wife are heartbreaking, as are Ayoshi's attempts to find herself.

THE PAINTING is extremely well written. Nina Schuyler uses imagery to create subtle connections in the text. For instance, Hayashi, Ayoshi and a visitor see an owl. What each sees defines them perfectly. Hayashi sees, poetically, a slice of moonlight. Sato, who travels the world, sees an adventurer. Ayoshi says that none of them are right --- that the owl (she) is lost.

Schuyler also captures the heart of a city under siege. The Prussians are closing in on Paris, and the author brings us a picture of a place filled both with desperation and optimism, stripped of its facade. Pierre, the man who Jorgen works for, is only happy when he's squeezing the last penny from his clients, Jorgen himself runs minor cons to make money, and we see the realities --- the insides of the hospitals, the funerals, the doubts and the desperation that everyone feels as they prepare to defend their homes against a vastly impressive force.

Contrasting love against hopelessness --- a floundering marriage, a war --- THE PAINTING shows how love can heal and liberate the soul.

--- Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, sensitive and thoughtful novel
Review: I am impressed that this is the author's debut novel - as it reads as though written by a master storyteller of the highest level. The story itself is original and emotionally moving.
The author not only uncovered the worlds of 19th century Paris and Japan, but she gracefully uncovered the spirit of these cultures caught in historical change through the insight and thoughts of these wonderful, sensitive characters, who themselves undergo spiritual change.

Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY EXQUISITE
Review: I'm not the type to write reviews, but I am the kind to recommend books, and I highly recommend this novel! It's rare when a writer combines beautiful sentences with compelling story, but Schuyler manages to do it. There are times I just had to pause on a beautiful sentence and let it sit there in my mind. And yet, there was the pull of the story-- actually two intertwined stories-- that are woven together through the themes of beauty, art, longing, desire.

In one story line- the Japanese-- desire begets beauty; in the France story line, beauty begets desire. Both stories, as I said, pull you in.

Color is also throughout the novel, and sensual details. Schuyler is quite adept at writing scenes that are so well imagined, so abundant with precise detail that you, too, as a reader slip easily into the late 19th century.





Rating:
Summary: A TRULY BEAUTIFUL BOOK
Review: If you appreciate style and poetic language, this book is for you. But "The Painting" is more than that-it's also a good story, actually two good stories. With is parallel plot lines-one in Japan and the other in Paris, France, the book takes us into the lives of Ayoshi, a Japanese painter and Jorgen, a Danish soldier injured in the Franco Prussian war. The characters are skillfully rendered and the language is sensual and lush.

Publishers Weekly must be on crack; let me tell you what weaves these story lines together; the search for beauty, the effect of art, love, desire, the search for a home. I can go on and on. And the main characters are anything but brittle-Ayoshi finally buries the memories of her former lover; Jorgen moves from a state of inertness to a state of wonder and ultimately love.

When I googled this book, I found this from Library Journal: "Every so often you start a novel that you can't put down; Schuyler's debut is such a book. The book has everything--believable and interesting characters, fascinating social commentary, and a lively pace." I couldn't agree more. I'm recommending this book to all my friends!


Rating:
Summary: This novel is like a beautiful dream.
Review: It is quite rare that I pick up a book and literally can't put it down, but that's how I felt after the first few pages of The Painting. The writing has the enchanting lilt of lyrical poetry, and the story draws you in and won't let you go. I loved the characters in this book, even those who weren't altogether lovable, and I found myself thinking about them long after I read the final page. Step into this story and you'll find that whatever is happening in your "real world" disappears. You'll be carried along in The Painting's soothing current of words, images, and ideas. All in all, this is a wonderful book. I can't wait to read more work by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably Amazing
Review: Miss Schuyler's attention to detail and expansive knowledge on both France and Japan are utterly amazing. The way she draws in the reader with her detailed descriptions of characters and their heavy emotions made this book a top priority in my life until it was finished. I began to consider the characters in the book as people in my life, frequently catching myself thinking about them and how they would react to certain situations I was going through. I have ordered copies for my boss and family members, and cannot stop raving about it to all. Buy this book as if it is the last good thing you'll ever do for yourself.
Katarina Kincaid

Rating:
Summary: great new discovery
Review: This first novel by Nina Schuyler really hits the mark. Her simultaneous stories occur in 1870, in Japan and Paris, both places on the cusp of huge historical changes, changes that are referred to almost elliptically. A young Japanese woman is unhappily married to an older merchant and embarks on an affair with a self-contained Buddhist monk. She escapes her unhappiness through the affair, and through her painting. (One of the great aspects of the novel is the sympathetic portrayal of all the main characters, including the woman's aloof husband). The young wife uses one of her canvases to wrap her husband's pottery, which is being sent to France. A cynical young man wounded in the Franco-Prussian war comes across the evocative painting, which eventually has a healing affect on his spirit. It sounds like a cumbersome story, but it works really well. The heroine loses herself in the flow of her painting, and I felt similarly pulled along by the author's poetic and sensuous sensibility. In this way--the evocative sensuality--I felt Schuyler similar to Marilynne Robinson in her wonderful book, Housekeeping. They're two very different books, but seem to be drawn from the same well. The book jacket says Schuyler is a new author, but Amazon mentions other non-fiction books on unemployment and multimedia business--is this the same person who wrote the painting? Weird.

Rating:
Summary: you will love this book. Read it!
Review: This is a wonderful book, and I'm not the type who raves about books. But The Painting, with its lyrical, poetic prose, and layered themes took my breath away. Two story lines interweave in a fascinating way: it's late 19th century and Japan has just opened to the West and the Franco Prussian war is raging in Paris. In a town outside of Tokyo Ayoshi escapes the confines of her arranged marriage by painting memories of her lover. She secretly wraps the painting around a ceramic pot that's bound for Europe. In France, Jorgen, an injured soldier, works as a clerk in an import-export shop and opens the box from Japan. He discovers the brilliant watercolor of two lovers under a plum tree.

But, that's enough of the plot-I don't want to tell you what happens. I want you to read the book.

The book explores themes of love, desire and the fascinating question: what is the purpose of beauty? What is the purpose of art? The language should be savored. From the first page, I knew this author cared about language, the crafting of a sentence, the fresh use of words and images. But it isn't just language; the parallel stories are both compelling. The Painting will stay with you for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: This is simply the best book I've read all year. From the first line, "My name is Hayashi and I am someone who should have died a long time ago," I was into the story. What can I say? The writing is exquisite, the storytelling compelling. Here's a sample of some of the writing: "He is full of attention, sensing the tip of her shoulder foward, finding her hair, brushing long strands behind her ear. His scalp tingles to the touch. The way her lips part halfway, he tastes her moistness. The hairs on his arms stand up, alarmed. He feels altogether changed and different. All the time he has been meditating to dissolve the self, and here, with one kiss on rose-colored lips, he has disappeared competely into her."

Or here, "The night lifted its curtain to another scorching morning, heavy with the scent of fairy bell lilies below the northern window. A blue dragonfly darted through the door, buzzed round and round my head."

I could go on and on-- beauty on almost every page.



Rating:
Summary: A terrific book!
Review: What an interesting time period! I've always had a fascination wtih Japan and Schuyler explores one of the most interesting times for this country-- the late 19th century when Japan opens to the West. It's also a fascinating time for Europe, especially France and Germany engaged in the Franco Prussian War and Schuyler dips into that time for her story as well.

This book is so well written; I love an author who cares for language, who has a style that feels fresh, makes you see things another way; and at the same time, I felt like I learned a lot-- I'm recommending this book to all my friends!