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The Muse

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The Muse by Jessie Burton nicely flips the stereotypes with a female artist and male source of inspiration. Yes, yes, I know. The mystery is predictable. And yes, I guessed the mysterious character’s identity pretty early on. But so what? I feel it’s wrong to think of this book as a mystery. It’s not about solving the puzzle; it’s about so much else.

A thrilling painting with a mysterious provenance connects two bold young women, one in Civil War Spain, the other in mid-1960s England.And, why did she have to be a Trinidadian? There is seriously no reason, beyond trying too hard to insert a "poc" into your book. I wish Trinidad or at least its culture were somehow involved in the story. Odelle might have been a born Londoner of Caribbean descent to the same effect. She could have been a Caucasian or a Martian for all the good it had done. There is writing an ethnically diverse cast of characters, and there is being a Disney PC machine. The House of Fortune, a sequel to The Miniaturist, was published in 2022. [17] Works [ edit ] Adult novels Part of the novel is set in Spain, in the 30s, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of an art dealer, works in secret. Her paintings are fraudulently sold in London as the creation of a handsome young Spaniard named Isaac with whom Olive is in love. A parallel narrative belongs to Odelle, a West Indian writer in 60s London whose stories are submitted anonymously for publication. “I became interested in how ego, personality and identity are tied into not only the creation of a work but its commodification – the cult of the artist – and how people will attach extra value to a work because a particular person has painted it when, had they no idea who had created it, they would not pay as much.” Burton studied at Lady Margaret School, [4] Brasenose College, Oxford, and the Central School of Speech and Drama. [5]

Suddenly, my thoughts were enormous in that tiny flat, because there was nobody to hear them and make them manageable, nobody cajoling me or supporting me, or holding out their arms for a hug."but olive's no slouch - a "fizzing girl," with "a plaintive, open face" who paints arresting canvases, and allows another to take the credit. i didn't always understand the decisions she made, but at least she gets to make declarations like, It was always easier to admire someone with a talent, and pity was the path to indifference, and the scene in which that line occurs is probably my favorite in the whole book. it's a perfectly rendered revelation/disappointment moment for olive where she realizes that confidence is not an indication of talent, and men, accustomed to praise and success, were maybe strutting a confidence they hadn't actually earned. earlier in the book, she gets another great long rant, which i'm totally gonna quote because it's golden:

Rhodes, Emily (5 October 2019). "Jessie Burton's The Confession is, frankly, a bit heavy-handed". The Spectator . Retrieved 3 January 2020. Set in Calvinist Amsterdam, it follows a new bride in a strange country and the miniaturist who foreshadowed her life with his creations. So, so true, and that’s something many artists struggle with. If someone doesn’t like your work, it doesn’t mean they think you’re a terrible person, but at times this is difficult to believe. As for the title of the book, who or what is the muse? It seemed to me that the term is used generically here. Yes, there are specific characters from whom the creatives draw inspiration, but some characters with no apparent artistic gift are moved by other people in the story as well. Also, among the nine muses of classical mythology, there is not a muse for painting, which suggests a broader view of the image. You have this light, and when it switches on I don’t think you even realize what it does.There are several pieces of romantic interest here, but not at all too much, and they are important to the story. this is just everything - the rhythm of the sentences, the vividness of the description, her depiction of workplace integration as startled british politeness without rancor that still manages to reference the bitter aftertaste of colonialism's legacy. it kills me.

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I am totally in awe of Jessie Burton’s talent as a writer. Her scope, both geographic and historical, is extraordinary, and her prose is rich and sensuous. I cannot imagine the amount of research she must have put into this, her second novel, The Muse, but then again her first, The Miniaturist, set in 17th century Amsterdam, was a similar historical triumph. It sold over a million copies. While The Muse was a novel about the creative drive of painters, The Confession is a meditation on fiction and the compulsion to invent alternative realities. Not only does Constance spend much time theorising on the mechanics of her craft, her helpmeet “Laura Brown” is also an act of pure self-invention. From the outset the reader is made aware that “Laura” is really Rose Simmons, the baby abandoned by Elise, who has worked her way into Constance’s confidence in the hope of extracting information from the last person to have seen her mother alive.

The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in southern Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come artist and revolutionary Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa, who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family, with explosive and devastating consequences . . . As it turned out it just took way too long to flesh out details and as the story progresses and connections are made between the two characters and times, it felt a bit like a soap opera. 3 stars which for me means that I liked it but didn't find it to be one that will be memorable.

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Kellaway, Kate (26 June 2016). "Jessie Burton: 'Success can be as fracturing to your self as failure' ". The Observer . Retrieved 26 December 2017. I pressed on beyond half-way but then gave up. First DNF in a while. In truth, I thought it was simply dreadful. Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam’s most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed – perhaps this will set their fortunes straight. Raised in poverty, these illegitimate children of the local landowner revel in exploiting this wealthy Anglo-Austrian family. Insinuating themselves into the Schloss’s lives, Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents with devastating consequences that will echo into the decades to come.

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