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Apr 12, 2009

Bill rated it:

Excellent debut novel about the art world in Paris before WW2 and the story of all the art looted by the Nazis, much of which was never recovered. Extremely well written, especially for a first novel.

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Apr 15, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine rated it:

In this historical novel, Houghteling explores Fascism and humanism, unrequited love, and plundered art; it's a historical fact that most of the paintings Max searches for never resurfaced. Critics couldn't help but note that Pictures contains the promises and pitfalls of a first novel. Houghteling evokes 1930s and 1940s Paris, the one-of-a-kind paintings, and the chilling complicity of art dealers in crisp, descriptive language. However, reviewers diverged on a number of points. To some, Rose -

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Oct 15, 2011

Donna rated it:

Mysteries involving art and galleries, and books about European resistance to the Nazis are both favorite subjects of mine. This book had both, with a Plus of including a real person as a character: Rose, who amazingly kept so many records of stolen art (artist, piece, whose, who took it, where it went) during the Nazi looting of treasures in Paris. Most of the characters are Jewish, so issues of losing loved ones, searching, finding or not finding information, also are part of the book. The More...

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Aug 01, 2011

Amy rated it:

In 1944-45 Paris, Max, the son of a prominent art dealer, tracks down the confiscated contents of his father's gallery. The key to the mystery is Rose Clement, who'd apprenticed with his father before the war and worked during the war at the Jeu de Paume.

Likes: the embedded history lessons. Between liberation and the end of the war, Paris was more chaotic than I'd realized. Hard to picture battles around the Grand Palais or in the Luxemburg Gardens.

Dislikes: The wr More...

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Feb 27, 2011

switterbug (Betsey) rated it:

I really wanted to love this book, to appreciate its classiness and dignity and deep appreciation of art. However, the problem is that with all its splendor of music and art, it is too expository. I am very visual when I read, and I depend on the narrative to float me along, to raise strong vivid images. It failed to do that. The cadence is choppy and before I can attempt to grasp a scene or a character, it has skittered past me. Its very lightness was ponderous.

This is a first nove More...

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Jan 04, 2011

Andres rated it:

This is a good book to me and I liked it because it was around world war 2. The genre of this book is drama/mystery. I chose the book because of the cover it seemed like the setting was going to be urban and I like those type of books. The protagonist is Max and Rose. The supporting characters are max's dad and and the family. The antagonist is the Nazi army who stole the paintings. The setting was in the countryside of France and in Paris before and after the World War 2. This book is a very in More...

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Jul 22, 2010

ICPL added it

Harvard College graduate Sara Houghteling’s wonderful debut novel provides a glimpse into the art world of Paris and the life of a Jewish family both before and after World War II. Max Berenzon wants to take over his father’s famous Paris art gallery; however, his father encourages him to study medicine while training a new assistant, Rose, to work in the gallery. Everything changes during World War II and the Nazi occupation of Paris. The family is forced into hiding and Rose works as a doub More...

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Jul 13, 2009

Joan added it

What is the loss of art, compared to the murder of millions of human beings? Perhaps little. Yet art is part of what makes us human, and the destruction and theft of art because of its associations with people of a particular ethnicity is soul murder.

During World War II, the Germans looted the great museums and the great private collections of Europe. Much of this loot has never been recovered, and, even where it has, much of it has not or cannot be restituted, because of lack of rec More...

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Jul 07, 2009

Sonya rated it:

The book is an intricately told story about the transition to adulthood of a privilaged young man from a prominent Jewish family, named Max. The story takes place during WWII in Paris. The novel is built around Max's father's famous art gallery, which represented Matisse and Picasso, and sells works by the likes of Manet, Morrisot and Vuillard.

The story follows Max's unrequitted love for an eccentric and brave young Louvre curator Rose, his relationship with his best friend Bertrand More...

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Oct 02, 2011

Linda Hali rated it:

I'm between 3.5- 4 stars. It is a good book. One review called the writing "lean", which may be why I sometimes fell asleep on this read.
There is a lack of tension or dynamics, while the story is quite tense and the dynamics historically and emotionally powerful. the writing is clean and smart. Maybe occassionally repetitive.
Fictional account of Parisian-Jewish art dealing family ( and intense relationship with father/son, and son/lover) during WW2,Nazi plundering of art a More...

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Feb 15, 2010

KarenC rated it:

With a positive review in Bookmarks and the title of one of my favorite classical music pieces I couldn't resist this book when I saw it at the library. I'm glad I picked it up. I enjoyed the writing style used by the Ms. Houghteling. The tone echoed what I would expect for the period of the novel. It was a pleasant read.

I did find the young Max self-absorbed with a certain lack of concern for those around him. This is not a book that focused on surviving World War II in France, only on specifi

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May 27, 2010

Camille rated it:

Narrator has a good French accent. Not sure what I think about the book. Subject is very interesting so far. WWII, stolen art.

There were many things I liked about this book. Houghteling did a great job of selling the setting to me. I could smell the Gauloise cigsand the Parisian quai, and the French countryside.

Ultimately, despite the fascinating subject matter, I decided the characters I wanted to know the most about were only seen through the narrator, Max. I wanted More...

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May 11, 2010

Sage rated it:

i absolutely loved the first half of this book. the first three-fourths, really. it evoked a place (paris) and an era (pre-wwii europe) in such way that i felt i was there. it even revealed a world to me--the world of art dealers and their artists. houghteling is an excellent descriptive writer and her attention to the paintings of the middle of the 20th century is breathtaking. her research about nazi art looting was also evident and she was great at showing the tricky position of those More...

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Mar 27, 2010

Kathy rated it:

While I enjoyed the idea of Pictures at an Exhibition, the actual story felt a little unfinished to me. In occupied France during World War II, hundreds of thousands works of art were looted by the Nazis, a great many of which were never recovered. In Pictures at an Exhibition, Max Berenzon, the son of a prominent art dealer, makes it his quest to recover his father's lost collection. There were many great characters and wonderful settings in the story, but for some reason, it didn't seem to More...

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Oct 12, 2010

Angie rated it:

A work of high literary value and interest, Houghteling's novel recounts the dizzing years of the life of the son of a Parisian art dealer, a lucky man whose only curse is to be Jewish and be born at just the right moment to experience, as a young man, the evils of the German Occupation. Worth a read just for the setting, the book's biggest strength is the author's seemingly photographic memory of famous paintings, which crop up in imagery and as actual objects in the tale. The book's only do More...

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Dec 01, 2009

Curriec rated it:

I enjoyed this book a lot; I enjoyed the main story, which was good, but I was really fascinated by the story behind the story, that of the great works of art that disappeared from private collections all over Europe during WWII, stolen by the Nazis and others. The main story was of a fictional Jewish art dealer in Paris and his wife and son. They managed to hide out the war and survive the deportations, but lost everything, their collections, their business, and their fortune. The author, Sa More...

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Jun 27, 2010

Nancy rated it:

There must be something in the air: the publishing houses are releasing a glut of WW2 "literary" novels and, a large percentage of them highlight Nazi atrocities. The particular orientation of this book---the artworks looted by the Germans---is a troubling and fascinating legacy of the period.

I looked forward to reading Houghteling's story about a young man's obsessive quest to recover his family's treasures and the book is well-researched and well-paced, but I felt it los More...

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Apr 11, 2009

Meredith rated it:

While I did enjoy Ms. Houghteling's prose, the plot has several large gaps. I felt she glazed over the French Jewish people's experiences during and after German-occupied Paris during World war II to focus soley on how the Nazis raided Paris' art collections, both public and private, and the problems that arose trying to restore those stolen art works.

Certainly poignant, I still wanted more information and interaction between the central characters the author created. She sets up the More...

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Jan 26, 2012

Janellyn51 rated it:

I enjoyed this book. Lost artworks of course can't compare to the loss of life incurred during WWll, or any war for that matter...whether it was jews or soldiers or just plain people. As an artist, and an artist whose taste runs to abstract expressionism...including degenerate art...the loss of so many of these works is just heart breaking. I can only imagine how much it would mess you up to lose not only every thing you own, but singular works of art. You can buy a new chair, or table...but to More...

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Apr 04, 2011

Sherri aka SDMomChef rated it:

This book had so much promise, but I just couldn't finish it. The note at the end of the book about the sources she used for her story was actually quite interesting. It is unfortunate that the story just didn't work. The story is supposed to be a mystery - a family loses their paintings during WWII and the son is on a quest to locate the paintings, and a woman that he fell in love with before he left Paris. The woman was a curator at the Louvre during WWII (the true part of the story that More...

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Nov 22, 2011

Joanmom rated it:

Okay, so I'm a historian and prefer my history and fiction separated. Some authors mix them very well - Erik Larson especially comes to mind. This is a first novel so I'll be forgiving and say she made a good effort. Other reviewers have more eloquent critiques about the plodding writing and confusing characterizations. I was impressed that she based one of her characters, Rose, on a real person and even used some of the real person's lists in the book, but I would have preferred to know this More...

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May 20, 2009

Charlaralotte rated it:

A good read, though ended just when it could have really begun to go somewhere. The info about the real woman that the story is based on sounded fascinating, and I wished that the book had many more chapters about her involvement in the art dealings with the Nazis and with the French after the war.

The main character was not as interesting as her (he's smart but so oblivious about people around him that he is frustrating), so I understand why the book ended when it did, but I think we More...

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Jul 02, 2009

Cynthia rated it:

Wow, if only all novels were this good. Intelligent, informative, compulsively readable, moving without being painfully so. I highly recommend this book. I was glad that I had just finished reading Thomas Hoving's Master Pieces, and so had some idea what the paintings described in the book look like; it's not essential but if you don't know much about art it's not a bad idea to have a Survey of Great Western Art type book available. Or i guess you can look the pictures up on the internet. A re More...

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Oct 23, 2011

Gwen rated it:

I could not put this book down. I have read some of the books that appear in the bibliography, and that may have helped, but the story was fascinating and functioned on many levels: a father-son story, a putative romance, the collaboration of the Vichy government with Nazis, the systematic looting of private art collections during the second world war, the pain of families and friend disappeared (and ultimately dead) during the war, and the goodness and clear morals that guide some people even i More...

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Oct 06, 2010

Sue rated it:

Max Berenzon, the son of Jewish art-dealer Daniel Berenzon grows up in Paris in the years leading up to WWII. While Daniel will talk about the paintings with Max and quiz him on what paintings were displayed during various shows, Max is not allowed to enter the art dealer business. During WWII, the family is forced into hiding. When they return to Paris after the war, Daniel's extensive collection is all lost to the looters. Max is determined to recover his father's collection and goes on More...

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May 11, 2009

Patricia rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Oct 09, 2011

Anne rated it:

Cool setting and story. However I agree with some of my fellow readers that the characters aren't as sharply conceived and portrayed as they could be. I credit the writer with throwing a group of disparate characters together at a chaotic time. They do have meaningful relationships, but not that I will remember deep into the future. I did enjoy how the book made me curious to look up historical information about the French Resistance and art. It's a pleasure to start this book and a little tedio More...

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Jun 07, 2010

Kasa rated it:

"Why worry about (the paintings) out there? You'll have a museum of the mind." So why is ownership of a work of art so important, important enough to demand frenzied bidding at auctions and astronomical values. For Max, the narrator of this book, it is the significance to his family of a painting by Manet that spearheads decades of postwar searching. The infamous looting of art treasures by the Nazis is an issue that remains unresolved. Family members whose lives as they knew the More...

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May 19, 2009

Christine rated it:

Max Berenzon is the son of an art dealer father and a clasical pianist mother. Coming of age during WWII in Paris is difficult at best, but Max takes on the additional task of trying to recover Nazi confiscated art belonging to his family. This book touches on many sensitive subjects surrounding Nazi occupation, but does focus on the thousands of priceless art works lost to the world, possibly forever. It caught my attention because the two art pieces in Max's quest are a Morisot and a Manet ... More...

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Jun 06, 2009

Allyson rated it:

I really wanted to like this book much more than I did. The subject matter and even some of the writing is incredible, but it seemed so flat @ times and also uneven. As if she wrote it in different moods, or else without a cohesive outline, or something. The ideas behind it and how she chose to present the story was very interesting, but it needed more guidance, more depth, more story, more something.
I am almost tempted to reread it at a later date to see if my disappointment once forgo More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

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