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Portret van een dode man
by
Italië in de vroege jaren zestig. Een schilder die aan het einde van zijn leven is gekomen, denkt aan de opofferingen en verliezen die hem tot de ontoegankelijke en mysterieuze man hebben gemaakt die hij voor de buitenwereld is. Hij schildert de objecten die hem gedurende zijn hele actieve carrière obsedeerden: een groepje flessen.
Een blind meisje verzorgt niet lang daarna ...more
Een blind meisje verzorgt niet lang daarna ...more
Paperback, 321 pages
Published
March 2010
by Anthos
(first published June 4th 2009)
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Portret van een dode man
Dec 07, 2010
Kirsty Darbyshire
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
paperback
I loved this. The writing is fabulous - full of sentences that make you sit back and marvel at their ingenuity and the images that they conjure up.
The chapters of the book flip between four different viewpoints. Each is set in a different place and time stays tightly with a single character and each is very individually written with no chance of a reader muddling up the writing - the headings announcing which character was in this chapter were totally superfluous. The distinctive voices were in
...more
Before picking up Sarah Hall'sHow to Paint a Dead Man, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2009, I was only familiar with her short stories. She is an author whom I have heard an awful lot of praise for, although I must admit that I was rather disappointed by her collectionThe Beautiful Indifference. I am thrilled that I received a copy ofHow to Paint a Dead Manas a gift, however, as it proved to be one of the most beautiful novels which I had read in a long time.
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An art curator wracked with grief over the tragic death of her twin brother; an aged, dying artist of still-life bottle art; a landscape artist; and a blind florist tell their inter-connected stories in alternating chapters of this stunning, imaginative novel. Spanning several generations in Italy and the U.S. (primarily rural Florence and San Francisco), the reader is taken on a journey of ideas and transported to the inner chambers of the heart. The story contemplates the nucleus of art, the
...more
Sep 02, 2009
Kathleen Maher
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
readers who love fiction as art and do not demand a high-action plot.
Recommended to Kathleen by:
Ed Champion
Sarah Hall writes about four characters in this novel; each with her or his own section and voice. Some of them are related but their relation scarcely affects the differing narratives. The writing is lush throughout; the pace and thin plot-lines real to life; the construction a classic four-frame, one per character, with alternating narratives.
The writer's remarkably fine style fits and evokes the art of still-life painting to reveal each character's life. And their differing stories all focus ...more
The writer's remarkably fine style fits and evokes the art of still-life painting to reveal each character's life. And their differing stories all focus ...more
This was a beautifully written book. The language thrilled me, frankly, and I'm sad it's over (fortunately the author has written other books). Hall's intertwining of 4 separate stories that take place at different moments in time yet are interactive was a delight to read.
Despite the melancholic to sadness of the book, it made me want to head outside and walk in the park, in the woods, past the neighborhood school and hear the life bubbling out from the young kids gamboling there. A desire to go ...more
Despite the melancholic to sadness of the book, it made me want to head outside and walk in the park, in the woods, past the neighborhood school and hear the life bubbling out from the young kids gamboling there. A desire to go ...more
Sometimes one is privileged to read a book that is so brilliant we hope it never ends. Such is the case with 'How to Paint a Dead Man' by Sarah Hall. This is Ms. Hall's fourth book. Her second book, 'The Electric Michelangelo', was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize.
This is a book about art and artists, about life and grief. It is about "how we investigate our existence and make meaning and teach one another in small and large ways". The book is like a chorale woven of four parts, each part ...more
This is a book about art and artists, about life and grief. It is about "how we investigate our existence and make meaning and teach one another in small and large ways". The book is like a chorale woven of four parts, each part ...more
I had liked "Wolf Border" very much, although I agree with other readers that the plot lines were a bit false here and there. And, since I am a painter, I thought I might really like this book, which involves painting and art history and also has the good sense to have a set of wonderful locations. At a point roughly halfway through the book, I began to wonder why these four tales were interrupted and then sewn back together. Was there anything to be gained by telling four stories that, on a
...more
A clever concept novel in linking what seems like four disparate characters together in the story that gradually unfolds through four separate narrative strands and across two eras and countries: England and Italy, the novel deals with the eternal themes of love, loss, life and art.
However, I found that I couldn't like the grief stricken and destructive main female character (whose name escapes me) but that didn't matter as the other three were warmer and had more interesting back stories.
...more
However, I found that I couldn't like the grief stricken and destructive main female character (whose name escapes me) but that didn't matter as the other three were warmer and had more interesting back stories.
...more
Just superb; have a full review on FBC, while a minireview here:
After learning about How to Paint a Dead Man in the Booker Longlist, its cover and blurb attracted me so I bought it on publication day here in the US last week and I read it soon after, this being a novel that once you immerse in you cannot leave and read anything else, at least fiction, once it ends you are sad that it did so and want more, so you have to reread it at least once...
"How to Paint a Dead Man" is a deceptively short ...more
After learning about How to Paint a Dead Man in the Booker Longlist, its cover and blurb attracted me so I bought it on publication day here in the US last week and I read it soon after, this being a novel that once you immerse in you cannot leave and read anything else, at least fiction, once it ends you are sad that it did so and want more, so you have to reread it at least once...
"How to Paint a Dead Man" is a deceptively short ...more
Jan 08, 2012
Victoria (Eve's Alexandria)
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
re-reading
As good as I remember from my first reading and in parts much much better. I don't think it's a perfect book, but I feel as though Sarah Hall has the capacity to produce a more perfect book and will some day. There are moments of such visionary beauty in her prose; I was transfixed and cried at the end for the second time. I can't wait to discuss it with my book group. They dislike this at their peril. We shall be discussing surrounded by the still life paintings of nineteenth century York
...more
This book was so sharply sad that I had to read it in little bursts for fear it might overwhelm me. Like having a stitch, and not quite being able to breathe deeply for the pain. Flawless prose, with a haunting understanding of the human heart.
Ultimately just too allusive and overwritten -- a huge disappointment after Daughters of the North. The Italian scenes especially seemed trite, overly mystified, and just didn't ring true. The English characters were much stronger, but she left you wanting more ... with less writerly flourishes.
Feb 18, 2012
Jennifer
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Cait, Miss GP, Heather
Recommended to Jennifer by:
June
Shelves:
owned,
2012-books
Hall is bold and brave in her storytelling. It seems nothing is off-limits. Some moments might make you squirm in your seat with as raw emotions, feelings and actions are explored and acted upon.
Something about this just didn’t land with me. I didn’t quite connect with the characters or the prose. I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from reading this, and I’ll read more Sarah Hall, but for whatever reason, this just didn’t do it for me.
Technically, I think this was well done. The four voices with their interconnected stories are distinct, and written in first, second and third person. Second person can be tiresome, but here I thought it was just right for a grieving twin, slowly ripping apart. I ...more
Technically, I think this was well done. The four voices with their interconnected stories are distinct, and written in first, second and third person. Second person can be tiresome, but here I thought it was just right for a grieving twin, slowly ripping apart. I ...more
beautiful. ending(s) a little bit too neat for my taste, but otherwise a wonderful read.
I had a hard time getting into the 4 different perspectives here since we don't spend a lot of pages with any of them in the beginning, at least, and I didn't really feel connected to anyone's "voice" but Peter's.
This novel bummed me out. Having recently read Hall's amazing new story collection and hearing great things from friends about her longer works, I was prepared to find another treasure in How to Paint a Dead Man. Where her sweeping, uniform passages work well in short form, I began to really find them daunting about midway through Dead Man. The novel offers first, second, and close third perspectives on four interconnected characters' lives. Though Hall's fantastic facility with naturalism and
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I struggled with the last two books I read, so I really needed a book that would absorb me. Scanning the shelf of "waiting to be read" books I saw this. The author's name looked familiar and when I realised she had written The Electric Michaelangelo I thought this was a good bet.
I was completely absorbed, read it over the Bank Holiday weekend and it has left me with lots to think about.
It brings together four different stories over a period of about 40 years, all involving artists in one way of ...more
I was completely absorbed, read it over the Bank Holiday weekend and it has left me with lots to think about.
It brings together four different stories over a period of about 40 years, all involving artists in one way of ...more
I read this because it's about art and was highly recommended by Nina Sankovitch http://www.readallday.org/
Four characters whose lives interconnect relate their stories in four separate voices. An elderly artist in Italy, a young blind girl, also in Italy, a landscape artist in England, and an art curator in England who is mourning the death of her twin brother. The stories are very moving and there is some majestic prose.
But the novel lost power for me in the scattershot jumping around between ...more
Four characters whose lives interconnect relate their stories in four separate voices. An elderly artist in Italy, a young blind girl, also in Italy, a landscape artist in England, and an art curator in England who is mourning the death of her twin brother. The stories are very moving and there is some majestic prose.
But the novel lost power for me in the scattershot jumping around between ...more
This is an unusual book. Four individual stories told chapter by chapter, each chapter – not each story - following from the next. For forty pages, I thought it was unbearably pretentious but then the story within the stories began to unfold – you begin to see the tenuous threads that connect one to another. These threads are very slight, sometimes just a single word or sentence within the whole story that suddenly clues you in to why X connects to Y and informs and influences Z.
The style is ...more
The style is ...more
I really enjoyed ... or is that appreciated ... this book. The interweaving of the lives of four people associated with painting over two countries and several decades is achieved very cleverly with some wonderful description. I especially loved the part where Susan discovered her twin brother had been killed: the evocation of grief has rarely been done better. I also liked the chapters about Annette whose coming to terms with blindness was also described vividly and convincingly [though I was
...more
Aug 06, 2009
Kasa Cotugno
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
loc-europe-uk
There are four disparate strands to this muscular rope of a book, apart at the beginning but ultimately woven together to create a story that promotes the importance of art in life. Each strand is set in a different time, written in a different style, the author challenging the reader to make the connections and draw their own conclusions. There is Suze's story, told in the second person, which is the most compelling, seemingly the centerpiece of the narrative. The story of her father, Peter, is
...more
Visual artists in fiction rarely convince, so, for bravery alone, I was applauding Sarah Hall from the outset. How To Paint A Dead Man comprises four loosely connected stories, each featuring a different artist as protagonist, one clearly modelled on Giorgio Morandi. Hall writes from deep inside her character's psyches, the prose full-blooded yet pensive, her subject the powers and pains of the creative process. Distinct voices narrate each section, and a timescale of half a century is covered,
...more
After reading this book, I am sticking to a new reading philosophy. Read at least 100 pages of a book before I decide to drop it. Starting off, I found this one quite confusing. 4 different narrators, who don't seem to be connected at all. Some in the past, some present, different narratative techniques (third, first, etc). I just couldnt keep track and really thought this was just a book too deep for me! I'm happy to report that at about page 80, everything clicked. It is beautifully written
...more
Having read The Electric Michelangelo, and falling utterly in love with Sarah Hall's style, I have been waiting unpatiently for this book to be returend to the library. I got the book yesterday, but didn't have time to read more than the first chapter - and now I can't wait to get home and continue it. So far - very good!
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Now, more than a month later, I have temporarily given up on this book. I never made it past the first 50 pages, feeling bored and somewhat disappointed. I'll probably ...more
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Now, more than a month later, I have temporarily given up on this book. I never made it past the first 50 pages, feeling bored and somewhat disappointed. I'll probably ...more
This novel follows four different narrative strands which are cleverly woven together. Though I acknowledge that this is very well written and that a lot of the prose contains some beautiful images, I just didn't fall in love with it. I was interested in how they were connected and enjoyed letting that aspect unravel but there were several points where I thought if I never finished it I wouldn't really mind. Don't get me wrong, it was a good book, just for me, not a great one. A good holiday
...more
I am not alone in thinking that although the writing was "painterly" and very beautiful this book had too many flaws for our book group to give it more than three stars. This is the average as some wanted to give it 2.5 and one (she who nominated the book 3.5). Yes the writing was evocative and painted vignettes however the structure of the book, became to confusing and at times feeling contrived with the links between stories. The biggest disappointment or flaw was the ending, it left me
...more
I tried to hate this book. It started out slowly; the plot lines were confusing. By the end, I loved it. It's a strange book. But it infused itself into me. I noticed this especially throughout Annette's story. By the end of her sections, I was seeing the world with her disrupted and dying eyesight. This book is so well-written. Needs to be read again. The connections between characters take time, but are perfectly rendered.
I enjoyed the way the how the characters were interwoven with each other. Though I felt the Italian characters were written more romantically than the British characters. It's almost like going for a vacation and romantiscing the vacation despite it's flaws. The British characters were written with more flaws and scrutinized under harsh microscope.
Overall it's an okay book.
Overall it's an okay book.
I wasn't really in the mood for this book.
Sarah Hall's writing is beautiful. Really beautiful.
I just wasn't in the mood.
No dialog, just 4 stories loosely linked.
Then the end of the book came and it left me empty.
I must have missed something.
Sarah Hall's writing is beautiful. Really beautiful.
I just wasn't in the mood.
No dialog, just 4 stories loosely linked.
Then the end of the book came and it left me empty.
I must have missed something.
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Sarah Hall took a degree in English and Art History at Aberystwyth University, and began to take writing seriously from the age of twenty, first as a poet, several of her poems appearing in poetry magazines, then as a fiction-writer. She took an M Litt in Creative Writing at St Andrew's University and stayed on ...more
Sarah Hall took a degree in English and Art History at Aberystwyth University, and began to take writing seriously from the age of twenty, first as a poet, several of her poems appearing in poetry magazines, then as a fiction-writer. She took an M Litt in Creative Writing at St Andrew's University and stayed on ...more
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