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Summary: He has to Paint a Portrait of a Woman he Can¿t see
Review: It's 1893 and Piero Piambo makes his living painting the portraits of the wealthy. He's talented and thinks he has what it takes to be a great artist, but he needs money, so he can't resist when he's offered a small fortune to paint the Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque. But he may not, under any circumstances, see her, and he cannot ask her any questions about her appearance. She speaks to him from behind a screen for an hour a day and he must figure out what she looks like by their conversation alone, however he's not allowed to ask her what she looks like.She tells him unbelievable stories of her life from behind that screen as he sketches, spinning stories within stories as his work progresses. Then people start dying mysteriously in the city seemingly by illness, but he can't help thinking that Mrs. Charburque is somehow connected. "The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque" is a novel that will keep your imagination working overtime and one you won't soon forget. I know, because it's been a couple months since I've read it and I'm still thinking about it. This book made me laugh and it scared me a little too, plus there was that little revenge bit. I do so love a story about revenge. Reviewed by Stephanie Sane
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Summary: Jeffrey Ford is a master
Review: Jeffrey Ford is one of the few true originals working in the field of fantastic literature.
With his multilayered, clean, smooth, metaphorical prose peppered with irony and black humour his novels and short stories are a joy to read.Although less fantastical and inventive than his
Cley trilogy ( The Physiognomy, Memoranda and The Beyond ) Charbuque is probably Ford's masterpiece and like his previous works very difficult to classify.Despite some comparisons with
The Alienist by Caleb Carr, Charbuque is more of a kind of "existencial metaphysical thriller" than an historical mystery novel and should appeal readers that appreciate the works of writes like Kafka, Henry James, Gene Wolfe and Jonathan Carroll.
Don't missed it.
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Summary: Lushly written story of old NYand a painter's obsession
Review: Jeffrey Ford's new novel is The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, something of a departure from his previous novels, though it does share some of the same obsessions and tropes, and of course it features Ford's easily recognizable prose, lush and at times overheated, but enjoyable and effective for the most part. But his earlier novels were set in exotic fantasy landscapes -- this book is set in turn of the 20th Century New York -- though Ford makes it seem exotic enough! Mrs. Charbuque is a mysterious woman who engages the services of the novel's narrator, Piero Piambo, a portrait painter who wishes he could be something better. Mrs. Charbuque offers to pay him enough money to allow him to pursue his dream, but on one condition: he must attempt to paint her without ever seeing her. Much of the novel is given to Mrs. Charbuque's stories of her strange life: a father who predicted the future by reading snowflakes, an unfaithful mother, her later life telling fortunes, and her unusual relationship with her husband, who is allowed to see her no more than any other person. Piambo's struggles to paint his mysterious patron are complicated by the growing jealousy of both his lover, and of the apparently estranged Mr. Charbuque. At the same time his old friend Shenz, another portrait painter, offers to track down clues to Mrs. Charbuque's identity. And finally a mysterious plague is infesting New York: women are found bleeding to death through their eyes. The resolution is striking and oddly pulpish. The novel is great fun, mixing outlandish mysteries with sensitive philosophical speculation, and garish adventure with concerns about the character of the artist. These perhaps disparate elements in the end work together quite well: this is a quite satisfying book.
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Summary: Not really "Hitchcockian suspense"
Review: Piero Piambotto, "Piambo", is one of the most sought after portraitists in New York in the middle of the 19th century. One day he is accosted by one blind Watkin telling him that his employer wants to commission him to paint her portrait. Provided that he manages to disengage himself from his current promises at once, Watkin's employer is willing to pay Piambo three times as much as he would have earned with his other engagements. Piambo agrees and he is soon to meet the mysterious Mrs Chrabuque at her place. She appears behind a screen and explains to Piambo that he will have to paint her without ever being allowed to cast an eye on her. He will be allowed to visit Mrs Chrabuque for an hour daily and from the information she will give him, he will have to construct in his mind an image of her and paint her. If Piambo manages to capture her likeness, she is ready to double the already overwhelming money she is willing to pay him.
The idea for the plot of this novel is excellent and it would have been interesting to follow the painter's mind to see how he succeeds in actually picturing a face he is not allowed to see. Unfortunately, Piambo is soon drawn into an adventure with Shenz, a fellow artist, who persuades him to try to cheat and find a way to discover what Mrs Charbuque looks like. Then there Mrs Charbuque's long narrative about her father being a crystalogogist and his science of reading snow flakes. In the end there is so much mysticism that the topic of art and painting slides into the background as we watch Piambo being involved, as he states himself, into an "affair resembling a convoluted dream shattered by waking" which poses the question of the credibility of the whole plot.
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Summary: exceptionally well done
Review: really well worth reading. sort of a cross between caleb carr and jonathan carroll. i breezed through it in 2 days, and only wished it were longer. goes a bit off the deep end toward the end (which might have been remedied by a slighter more in-depth explanation of its ultimate revelations), but consistently entertaining, intriguing, and thought-provoking. looking forward to reading more by this author.
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Summary: Wonders and Nightmares
Review: Rich, complex, and often hilarious, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque is Ford's finest novel to date. The story is imbued with a dreamlike logic that remains utterly convincing even as it veers into some very strange territory (including a fortune teller who reads the future in excrement, a thief who picks locks with his fingernails, and a parasite that causes its victims to weep blood). Great characters, a marvelous premise, and Ford's unique imagination make this the best novel I've read so far this year.
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Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: The style of Mr. Ford's writing and the intriguing story he tells make this book an absolute pleasure to read. Although the ending was no on par with the rest of the book, I still gave this book five stars because it is so enjoyable to read.
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Summary: Ford is quite clever!
Review: This book has a nifty idea, and well imagined setting, excellent characters (I especially liked the hero's girlfriend and his opium addicted painting pal - Ford portrays them as realistic, but sympathetic and intrigueing) and a plot full of menace and mystery. What a great idea - ask a portraitist to paint the face of a woman he can never see. I don't want to give anything away - read this book, and I like the Physnigomy series even better.
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Summary: 2/3 of a good book
Review: This is almost an amazing book. The concept is intriguing, and through most of it just the enigma of Mrs. Charbuque kept me reading. I felt that the "subplot" (the mysterious disease that causes ppl to bleed from the eyes) was too sporadic and hamhandedly dealt with, and i felt the entire ending to be a bit of a tidied-up cop-out. I wish that the author had taken another 50-100 pages to flesh out the mystery-disease subplot and to wind up the story in a way that didn't feel so slam-bang. For something that purported to challenge gender and identity, it felt a bit rote.
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Summary: Excellent historical mystery
Review: This novel is for thinking people. It's haunting, poignant and beautifully written. I tried to make it last longer, but I couldn't stop reading it. If you liked John Fowles "The Magus," you will like this book.
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