The Brutal Art
by Jesse Kellerman
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 163)
A young art dealer is introduced to the mysterious artwork of an artist who has just as mysteriously disappeared. He becomes obsessed with the artist and is determined to find him, or at the very least find out about him. The story is the story of his quest. It takes us down a winding path that turns out to be a very interesting circle. GOOD READ!
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It's almost a detective novel and Kellerman makes a point of letting you know he knows that. It often zigs where other authors would zag. His writing is fluid, there's rarely a sentence out of place. His characters speak in natural ways. Looking forward to the next one.
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Read in September, 2008
It was really good. I haven't ever read any of the Kellerman's work, but I do find it facinating that husband, wife and son are all, not just successful novelist, but good novelist. I picked this one up because it centered around an art dealer who finds an apartment full of abandoned drawings that leads to a 50 year old murder mystery. I enjoyed it.
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Read in May, 2008
This book is a bit different. An art dealer is given some art found in boxes left in an apartment where the owner never came back. There are thousands of drawings, ....all connected to each other and creating scenes that turn out to be related to a number of children's deaths. I liked the story somewhat, until the end. The ending seemed somewhat weak; the author himself seemed to imply this in the last chapter.
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When I returned this today, two of the librarians corralled me and wanted to know "if he's as good as his parents." Poor Jesse. I said that he's way better than his mother (they nodded like, well, DUH, that's not hard) and at least as good as his father, if not better. This was a fine mystery with a great historical backstory, and I'd especially recommend it to anyone interested in the art world.
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Read in May, 2008
This is a mulitlayered mystery. A trove of bizarre drawings ends up in the hands of a New York City art dealer, thousands on ink on cheap paper sheets, all numbered and fitting together. But on sheet #1 are the faces of 5 murdered young boys. Murders unsolved for many years. The artist has disappeared. Is he the murderer? And what is his connection to the art dealer and his family?
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Read in May, 2008
I've tried and tried to warm up to either one of the other Kellermans with no success. But with this Kellerman, I hit pay dirt. Jesse Kellerman can flat tell a story. In this one well crafted novel there are about 78 different stories and they are all wonderful. I enjoyed this enormously and now get to go back and read his other two plus look forward, I sure hope, to many more.
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This is the 2nd one of Jesse Kellerman's I've read and it was infinitely better than the first one, which I think was Trouble. I thought the story tied itself up a little too neatly at the end, but I enjoyed the interludes that shaped the backstory. I would still definitely read more by him, but I'm glad I got it from the library and didn't buy it.
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