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Sep 19, 2011

Katie rated it:

I think the reason that this book seems to polarise opinion is because nothing much happens in it. Psychologist Robert Marlowe acquires the renowned painter Robert Oliver as his patient, and subsequently travels around meeting people who might be able to shed some light on the reasons behind Oliver's breakdown. The majority of the book comprises the memories and insights of these people told in the voice of that particular individual, and so takes place outside the narrative which is really a More...

4 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2010

Greg rated it:

I'm sorry Goodreads First Reads program. First I win a book I only entered to win to tear it apart, and then I win this book which I also didn't like. But please believe me that I didn't go into this book hating it, I had an open mind. Please take this into account and send me more books for free please!!

A whole lot of my friends here on Goodreads.com seemed to really like Kostova's first novel, The Historian (with the exception of Kasia, who seemed to feel about the same way that More...

65 comments like (90 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2011

Katie rated it:

It has been a long time since I've read a book that made me hungry for the next word, whose 400 pages (or so) flew by in an instant, and that after finishing it, I could scarcely breathe and think about anything else for the next few hours. Even the day after, I find my mind drifting to the complex plot, the inscrutable and complicated characters and mulling over the series of events, to see if there could have been any other way the story could have ended, or even begun. I decided that no More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2011

Sarah Ryburn rated it:

my goodness, this was engrossing. i heard elizabeth kostova read from the novel at lemuria earlier this month, and i have been happily giving over my lunch breaks and evenings to it ever since. a long novel, but thoroughly engrossing- that's twice i've used this word. fitting.

there were moments in the narrative when i couldn't quite shake the sense of the author's being female, a problem when the protagonist is male. then again, large passages of plot are narrated through letters wr More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2010

Brooke rated it:

The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova's sophomore effort after The Historian, is altogether a very satisfying experience from beginning to end. It's nearly 600 pages long, and luckily it uses the pages well. It doesn't lag or become dull in places; instead, it moves forward at a slow but steady pace and reveals secrets bit by bit. Kostova lays out the pieces quite clearly so that even a half-attentive reader will figure out the secrets before they're explicitly confirmed. Some reviews have suggest More...

2 comments like (15 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2009

Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it:

About 20 pages in I thought, this is crap, but I kept reading because I loved The Historian. In retrospect, I should have stopped because this book was so badly written and just such a waste of time it made the Da Vinci Code look wonderful by comparison. Every single character was an annoying pompous jackass and I hope they all die horribly.

A better, more thoughtful review as to the multitude of reasons behind my hating this book will be forthcoming. And they are legion! From glaring More...

20 comments like (22 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

Nicole rated it:

I can’t believe that the average rating on this book is only 3.41! I think because of that lowish average I went in to this book expecting a little less…but I thought this book was amazing. The whole time I was reading it, I thought, if I was to ever write a book, this is what I would want the voice to sound like. I absolutely loved her use of language, her writing style--great detail, but not overdone, beautiful character development with just enough left to the imagination. Robert was More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Turtelina rated it:

Ein Buch mit dem man Geduld haben muss. Die ersten 200 Seiten sind auesserst zaeh und langatmig. Auf Amazon hats ein Leser als langsames anruehren der Farben bezeichnet, mit der Kostova "die Schwanendiebe" zu Papier gebracht hat. Auf den Punkt gebracht. Ist man erst mal an der Einleitung vorbei, hat einen dieses Buch gefesselt und man kanns fast nicht mehr weglegen. Das sage ich als absoluter Kunstbanause die mit Malerei wirklich nichts am Hut hat! Wunderschoen geschrieben, sehr fluess More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 08, 2011

Lori rated it:

Following this book can be a little hard if you don't pay attention to the chapter headers and know WHO is doing the speaking in each chapter. The chapters not only cover present day but delve into the 1800's via letters and a few brief forays into the eyes of a painter.

In a nutshell, a famous painter loses his grip on reality and becomes completely enamored and in love with a woman who paints in the 1800's. All he can paint is variations of her face. A psychiatrist (who also happen More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 21, 2011

Robin rated it:

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

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 27, 2011

Aguess rated it:

This book was entertaining, and gorgeously written - maybe too gorgeously written. I felt some of the descriptions were so drawn out that they made me loose the thread of the narrative. I also felt that although it was supposed to be written in different voices, they aren't distinct enough to be truly compelling. And Kostova gave too much away at the beginning -the mystery surrounding the painting and Robert and Marlowe 's fates seemed so inevitable. Definitely a good read, but not a great o More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2010

Susan rated it:

There were things I enjoyed in this novel including some of the writing with its descriptions of art, although, all in all, it was much about nothing. It took too long for the parallel stories to merge and to be connected, and by the time it was done, I was fed up and just wanted to be done with it. I would probably not recommend it to my friends.

12 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2010

Jamie added it

While there's undoubtedly a shortage of literary fiction in the world today and I feel compelled to give credit where credit is due--this book paled in comparison to the MASTERPIECE that was The Historian. Those crisp suits, the dark forests, the jet setting and travel by boats. It was so TIMELESS, so elegant and effective, beautifully written by what could only be a thoroughly intelligent woman who LOVES books and thrives on a good story.

The Historian was a modern (ish) Rebecca. More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2010

Drew rated it:

I just finished reading "The Swan Thieves" by Elizabeth Kostova, whose debut novel, "The Historian" was a runaway bestseller. In fact, "The Historian" was the first debut novel to hit #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list. While "The Swan Thieves" will undoubtedly finds its way to this and other bestseller lists, my feeling is that it will quickly find its way off those same lists.[return][return]"The Swan Thieves" is primarily the story of t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2012

A.groves rated it:

I read this book because I very much enjoyed Kostova's first book, The Historian. This book was ok, and strangely compelling, but I don't think it was as strong as her first.

I don't know why exactly I kept reading this book -- in fact there were many times when I wondered why I was continuing on in it because I was frustrated by the overwhelming length and sleepy pace of it. But I did finish it.

The story-line/mystery was "ok." It was somewhat interesting, b More...

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Dec 26, 2011

Racheal rated it:

I could not finish this book, which is sad since I loved the Historian so much. I have two main complaints which made it impossible for me to finish the book, the first of which is the incredibly slow pacing and general banality of the narrative. I don't mind a lot of description as long as it's interesting, but have you ever read something where it feels like the author has expounded on every possible thing they could have and yet they didn't say anything of any actual importance? Like if they More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Book 59 of 50 this year turned out to be The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. I remembered enjoying The Historian but not so much I wanted to purchase this particular book, so I checked it out from the library. The premise involves a mystery surrounding a painting and the disturbed artist who attempted to attack it. It's told in varying viewpoints by the shrink, the artist's wife, the artist's mistress and a painter in the 1800s.

There was probably not a single twist I didn't predict, More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Carol rated it:

In some ways, a complex book with characters speaking according to the chapter headings. This book takes skill to compose yet becomes laborious due to its length and depth of detail. I know there are meanings and connections I missed, so this is an excellent book for group discussion in my case.
I make these conclusions based upon the evidence that I wanted to keep reading and moved through the text quickly, all the while saying, let's go, get on with the revelations of mysteries.
More...

0 comments like

Oct 30, 2011

Eliza rated it:

This is not that great. Not even as good as The Historian - which was also an overrated novel. In this book, the writer spent most of her time on characters in modern day who are not sympathetic. In the case of one main character, his problems are not even believable. On the other hand, she occasionally runs back in time to show us some people from the past who are really interesting and have real interesting problems. She spends much less time with these people. Too bad. She sacrificed a More...

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Oct 30, 2011

Lindsey rated it:

I had to much expectation for this book and was just highly disappointed. I also think I gave her to much credit for her last and more well known novel The Historian. Her writing style is very much the same in this newer novel. Although personally I believe the author could have cut this book in half and it have been much more enjoyable. She spends too much time describing inconsequential scenery that have no benefit to the story line. The reader's attention wanders, gets distracted or uninteres More...

1 comment like

Oct 04, 2011

Angela rated it:

I gave Elizabeth Kostova a second shot, after the letdown of The Historian. The reason for this is the plot of her second novel, The Swan Thieves,. It's a mystery centred around art and artists - a topic I love. I also needed something I wasn't too attached to to read on the plane/train/beach while overseas.
The Swan Thieves is a much more accomplished novel, although Kostova falls into some of her old traps (but not as disastrously as The Historian):
1. not enough difference in charac More...

0 comments like

Sep 25, 2011

Христо rated it:

“Крадци на лебеди” краде сърца
http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/04/blog...

За тази анотация ще отнеса дюдюкания, но ще го преживея. “Крадци на лебеди” на Елизабет Костова е книга за любов и изкуство и е вредна за мъжките очи. Но аз я харесах.

Действието е центрирано около гениалния художник Робърт Оливър, който е нападнал картина с нож в една галерия и заради тази си простъпка е затворен в психиатрична клиника. Лекуващият го лекар Андрю Марлоу (също и художник) е More...

0 comments like

Aug 25, 2011

Charissa rated it:

I actually listened to this as an audio book, probably to the detriment of my enjoyment of the novel. Kostova has a fine eye for detail--17 discs worth, which I think translates to over 500 pages. The majority of this novel is spent in story-telling flashbacks by multiple characters, who relate their relationships with Robert Oliver, a painter who seems to have reached an obsessive peak, to psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe. There is a second thread revolving around letters from a French woman to her More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Joni rated it:

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

0 comments like

Aug 07, 2011

Pat rated it:

Elizabeth Kostova accomplishes something in The Swan Thieves that no one whose review I've read has mentioned: a true feeling of what it is to be an artist, both young and struggling or older and proficient..she helps those of us who are "wannabee' painters see thru the eyes of a real painter...the importance of light, shadow, a flicker of color added, the emotion tendered in a few brush stokes.She also summons the living presence of the Impressionist movement with a vividness that reminds More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 03, 2011

Loretta rated it:

Big fat meh on this one. I was listening to the audio book on a long trip, and that is probably the only reason I actually finished it. It did not get interesting until the last fifth or so, largely because of the constant irrelevant digressions. The story and the mystery could have - should have - been compelling; but we meandered so far into the backgrounds and stories of the characters who were not Robert Oliver that I forgot why I cared, sometimes.

As I said, towards the end when More...

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Jul 18, 2011

Sherri rated it:

Kostova tells an interesting story from the point of view of several different characters in The Swan Thieves. Marlow is a psychiatrist who is on a quest to to find out why his famous patient Robert Oliver tried to slash a painting in the National Art Gallery and now won't speak to anyone in the hospital where Marlow works. Oliver did speak initially on the first day but only to tell Marlow that he could speak with his ex-wife or even with Mary. Other than that, he never spoke a word again un More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 18, 2011

Jo rated it:

If readers pick up this book, hoping for a story similar to "The Historian," they will be disappointed. Personally, I am disappointed by the number of readers criticizing this book for such reasons. In "The Swan Thieves," Kostova steps away from 'another person's' story and builds a mesmerizing foundation of mystery and breath-taking narrative(s) for her readers.

The story is a number of character developments amidst an intricate storyline, one filled with histor More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2011

Sophia rated it:

The Swan Thieves is an interesting but not entirely successful study of perspective. After talented artist Robert Oliver tries to stab a painting at the National Gallery of Art, he remains resolutely silent in psychiatric care. His psychiatrist, Andrew Marlow—a painter himself—has not nothing to go on except a packets of nineteenth century French letters and gathering history from collateral sources. Although there is much to enjoy about the subject matter (beautiful art, a charismatic and hands More...

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Jun 19, 2011

Murphy's rated it:

from Murphy's Library

This books is about art, but it’s an artwork too.

The Swan Thieves begins as psychiatrist Andrew Marlow tries to undercover the reasons that lead painter Robert Oliver to close off to the world. Robert tried to attack an artwork on National Gallery, and every treatment the doctors tried has failed. Robert doesn’t speak, just lives in silence.

When paint and brush are handed to him, the same imagine comes out of his hands over and over: a woman wit More...

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