It's the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris - broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiance, George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost everything, she creates a new identity, a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby, and sets out to recover her father's art collection, prove her innocence - and exact revenge on George.
When the eccentric and wealthy American art collector Edwin Bradley offers Vivienne the perfect job, she is soon caught up in the Parisian world of post-Impressionists and expatriates - including Gertrude Stein and Henri Matisse, with whom Vivienne becomes romantically entwined. As she travels between Paris and Philadelphia, where Bradley is building an art museum, her life becomes even more complicated - George returns with unclear motives and then Vivienne is arrested for Bradley's murder.
The bestselling author of The Art Forger and The Muralist has made the art history novel her own. In The Collector's Apprentice, B. A. Shapiro gives us an unforgettable tale about the lengths to which people will go for their obsession, whether it be art, money, love, or vengeance.
The heroine who charms everyone without being the least bit charming— check.
Major historical figures inserting themselves into the narrative— check. (Matisse is her lover! Gertrude Stein is her BFF!)
Epistolary interludes to add mystery where there is none— check.
Cliché dialogue— check.
Jarring anachronisms— check.
Botching the real-life story— check, check, check.
This book has it all! George is the only remotely interesting person and even he is the worst. If I had read one more page I would have started ripping out pages. But I didn’t, and thus it can go back to the library intact.
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15 April, 2019:
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