The Crimson Portrait

by Jody Shields

Set in England during World War I, this haunting love story by the author of the bestselling "The Fig Eater" makes unforgettably real the ravages of love and war.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, World War I, War, Book Club, 20th Century

304 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

Jody Shields is the former design editor of the New York Times Magazine and a former editor at Vogue, House and Garden, and Details. She has written several screenplays and has a master's degree in art. Her prints are in various collections, including the Museum of Modern Art. She lives in New York.

Reviews

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on a true story, Catherine transforms her house into a military hospital per her late husband’s wish during WWI. It is 1915 outside London, as her house changes its status. Her servants leave her but two people, young boy and an old gardener. Once the house fills with suffering men she has a hard time coping with this. But unexpectedly she finds solace in the company of one wounded soldier.

I do not like the style of writing of this author. The story is boring. The descriptions are boring and drawn out. For example, when Dr. McCleary comes out of retirement to tend wounded soldiers at Catherine’s estate, he lacks experience in maxillofacial surgery. Then she goes on and on with her boring explanation of maxillofacial surgery or lack of experience of it. Or details of interior are quite tedious: “Stone walls and glass had cracked; steams had clouded with silt.” Her creative prose is rather annoying: “The mirrors were the lakes in the landscape of this house. (…) The mirrors (…) age (…) evidence of time’s poisonous breath. (…) Shattering noise, crisp as china breaking.”

You can as well read an encyclopedia. This is such a dreadful read.

@FB: Best Historical Fiction

[Iris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story never really went anywhere. At the abrupt ending I was left feeling like I could've just read the synopsis on the book jacket and been done with it. The story was told from the perspectives of several different characters, none of which were very interesting or well-developed. Aside from knowing that Catherine was a widow and that she was sad I never got to know her and couldn't identify with her much at all. It would've been nice to hear Julian's perspective. In summary, the premise of this book could've made for a great story, but overall it was quite disappointing.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's 1915 and Catherine finds herself like one of many women, a young widow. Heartbroken and lost, she decides to honor her late husbands wishes to allow the troops to use their beautiful, sprawling mansion as a make-shift hospital. Little does she know how much her decision will change the rest of her life.

As she watches her home become an absence of her former life, she slowly finds herself grasping for comfort in the dream of her dead husband. As she begins to take part in helping at the hospital that was formerly her home, she sees a chance at literally being able to recreate her dead husband's image in a soldier who must undergo surgeries to restore his face.

She finds herself torn between making the choice that will forever change not only her life, but the life of Julian, a young soldier who is having his face reconstructed after losing it in battle. Will she make the right choice? And will she be able to live with the choice she's made?

Deep and intricate webs of deception begin to be woven as not only Catherine deals with her decision to betray the young man his right to recreating his own face again but as Anna, the artist who creates drawings of the soldiers, feels a sense of loneliness as her own husband is off in battle. Will Anna allow her feelings for a foreign doctor take her over or will she continue to try to ignore her feelings?

Secrets kept amongst themselves, the doctors all seem to have something to hide that creates an inner turmoil within each of them. As they triumph in huge leaps in the area of reconstructive surgery, an area formerly left untouched by 'modern medicine', they suffer huge setbacks as their minds are dealt with images of horror every day as they repair young soldiers from the front.

Shields creates characters of such depth that you realize you may never complete unpeeling their layers as you find more and more out about them throughout the novel. As your heart aches for all involved, you will find yourself questioning how strong you could be in a situation similar and learn to love each and every one of the characters, despite their flaws.

An excellent story line that reads so easily you will find you've finished reading long before you're ready to close the book. With characters of such depth and reality you will continue to wonder where they went with their lives even after you close the pages. Absolutely awesome! You will want more!

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Set in England during World War I at a country estate turned into an army hospital, this novel explores some potentially riveting issues including the terrors of warfare, loss of identity and true love. Although the book is well-written, I did not care for the author's narrative style. I was not drawn into the story and found none of the characters particularly appealing.

[Cari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pre-finished review below. Only thing I have to add now that I'm done is that it didn't get any better. At the end, she is so artistic in her writing that it is actually unclear what happened to all the main characters. A disaster of a novel. I strongly recommend NOT reading this book, and I hope that Shields' other novel(s) were at least remotely less self-consciously "literary".

I haven't finished this book yet, but want to record my current impression so I don't forget it - the prose is posed. That is to say, I feel as if Shields is trying incredibly hard to make me FEEL the art of this story and in the process all I feel is that she's trying to push me into emotion and interest rather than carrying me into them effortlessly. The book is in art about a woman who is making portraits of wounded men, in part about a widow, in part about doctors attempting to excel at their craft of repairing the unrepairable - all set during the first world war. It all sounds a recipe for an epic story. If only the author wasn't also so convinced that she's forcing it into a stylized "portrait" that feels very contrived to me. I'm going to finish it, but my verdict is 2 stars at this point.

[Sara Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

WWI, as in any war, has many layers and facets that history has written down somewhere, and forgotten where they placed them. This story is one part of the War that many probably didn't know existed and the author intricately paints a picture of one place and time during the War that was overlooked.

The book was part educational, part research and the rest was a canvas of beautiful colors painted onto a sepia portrait.

I loved the question in the book that delves deep into our souls that asks "... if we cannot express our emotions because we have no facial features, do we in fact feel those emotions..." If our faces are taken from us, how do we identify with the world and how do we identify within ourselves?

It was haunting, beautiful, painful and informative of a time forgotten that should be remembered and learned from.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simply put, I was just bored by this book. The characters weren't interesting enough. The story progressed painfully slowly, and it ultimately fell flat. I kept hoping it would get more colorful and I would feel some emotion for these people...but that moment never came. Don't waste your time on this one.

[Carla Nayland]

Billed as a literary thriller in the jacket copy, this may be literary but I did not find it thrilling. Disappointing narrative with no discernible plot, set in a military hospital in the First World War.
Review: http://www.carlanayland.org/reviews/c...

[cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

a book club selection disliked by all.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so boring I didn't even finish it. The characters were poorly developed and I never quite understood the heroine's motivation for her actions.

[Gabriel Tanguay Ortega · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I’ve now read all three of Jodi Shields’ novels and enjoy her ability to conjure a vivid, heady atmosphere. Her writing is subtle but descriptive, sensual, but occasionally imprecise. Her novels are stylishly rendered historical fever dreams as is “The Crimson Portrait” in every way.

I can definitely say people shouldn’t read this novel for “plot” but for its atmospheric psychological intrigue. I thought there was some great writing about skin, medicine, identity, and there were really interesting allusions to art, mythology, music, opera, and philosophy. I was intrigued to find the characters Anna Coleman and Varazstad Kazanjian were historical figures.

While I found some characters flat and their motives unclear, the reading experience was a decadent treat with its gorgeous prose and imagery and the vibe it conjures; fascinating and peculiar.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh, this book was awful. I thought the premise was really interesting. This woman's husband dies and, according to the jacket cover, she has to decide if she wants to remake another man in her husbands image. Well, the jacket cover was probably the best part of the whole book. The characters were mind-numbingly boring and underexplored, the story didn't go anywhere, and I didn't really sympathize with anyone except McCleary, who was not developed to my satisfaction. I have never read anything by Jody Shields and I don't intend to pick up any of her books in the future.

[Trogyllium · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good summer read. Amazing character development and details about facial muscles and other medical stuff. I really like this author. The end kind of bugged me though. It wasn't conclusive enough for me. Also, some of the characters' interactions with each other were so awkward!! Over all, I thought it was a fun read, especially if you like romance, or war-time eras.

[Kw · Rating 4 out of 5]

An outstanding novel set in early WWI, with detailed attention to the early days of craniofacial reconstructive surgery. A fascinating look at the attempts by the surgeons, artists, and craftsmen to reconstruct faces shattered by war.

[LRCA14 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish, barely started,

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

I understand why people call this book boring and say nothing happens in it, but the writing is so beautifully lyrical that I can’t be mad at it. The characters didn’t particularly get me to care about them, but the book is poetry, and I had trouble finding it in myself to be mad at the characters when the writing was just so lovely.

As for why I didn’t give it a higher rating...the story is slow. It’s not boring, but it’s slow burn at its purest. Reading it feels like getting caught in a foggy summer haze that’s filtered to where you can only see it in a certain color scheme. Whether or not that simile makes sense, I felt that way throughout the entire book. Also, I had trouble excusing Catherine’s strange actions beyond a certain point. To some degree, I sympathized with her and wanted her plan to succeed, but when she actually went through with it, I was disgusted by her selfishness and her inability to see Julian as anything but a replacement for her husband.

Overall, it’s a good read, and I’m sad that the reviews here are so harsh on it. It’s poetry in slow motion, and it covers a fascinating subtopic of WWI.

[Bethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this so hard to read. No actually I didn't. The stop, start process of the story I found hard to read, concentrate and keep me entertained or interested in what was going on. The story didn't flow and although it had exquisite and harrowing details to do with mood, scenery and medical terms, I have to admit half way through I had enough. It nearly ended up in my CNC pile. Which I hate doing to any book. I struggled with it to the end only to find out it didn't even tell you what happened to the main characters that dominated the story all the way through the book.
I was deeply unimpressed, unhappy and felt like I had wasted my time.
This gets three stars purely for the beautiful language it was written with.

Apart from that.. If I could go back in a time machine I would choose not to read this book. Ever.

[Shuriu · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It's a mistake to believe we can have companions. We're alone in our work." (p. 265)

McCleary dismissed the joking conversation that reached him over their shoulders as frivolous and unnecessary. Why couldn't they enjoy silence, the enormous space of quiet? He increasingly craved solitude. (p. 267)

Ovid quoted:

"All things are always changing,
But nothing dies. The spirit comes and goes,
Is housed wherever it will, shifts residence
From beasts to men, from men to beasts, but always
It keeps on living. As the pliant wax
Is stamped with new designs, and is no longer
What it once was, but changes form, and still
Is pliant wax, so can I teach that spirit
Is evermore the same, though passing always
To ever-changing bodies." (p. 271)

[Bayneeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is probably generous, but Josephine Bailey does a perfectly fine job on the audio. Might not have stuck with this to the end if I'd been reading it. (Debbie, you would hate her metaphors. Even I found them distracting.) Fascinating subject matter. World War I with lots of battle survivors with huge portions of their faces blown or shot off. Doctors work with sculptors to create masks to hide the deformities. A couple of real life people are among the cast of characters: Anna Coleman Ladd and Dr. Kazanjian for sure, maybe others. The topic brought back memories of Jack Huston in Boardwalk Empire. Anyway, seemed there was plenty of potential for an interesting, even compelling novel. Never came together for me.

[Jill · Rating 1 out of 5]

'The Crimson Portrait' by Jody Shields was a huge disappointment. Set in an English manor house that has been taken over as a hospital in World War I, it depicts the beginnings of plastic surgery as surgeons attempt to patch up the faces of disfigured soldiers. So the premise is interesting. However, it suffered from poor characterisation (amazingly, I felt nothing for any of the people), glacial speed, and so much medical information and explanations that it felt more like a research document. The impact of facial injuries on men was so much better done in Louisa Young's 'My dear, I Wanted to Tell You'. And if you are still interested, go to the source itself and read about the surgeon Major Harold Gillies who pioneered this type of surgery.

[D.S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is set in England during World War I. I have read other books set during the same time period, and all of them were more compelling. At times, subplots overwhelm the main story and the ending "just happens" in the epilogue so there is little sense of closure. Only two of the primary characters evoke empathy. Also, many sections read more as a research paper than as fiction. While exposition about the nature of facial wounds to soldiers is essential to the story, the long passages about treatment of those wounds is tedious at times.

[Lonesome · Rating 2 out of 5]

the two stars are for the idea and the atmosphere
this is a topic that is fascinating and scary ..can bee seen in works like the officers ward
yet here there is little plot beyond the idea and no characterization ..a grieving wife and devastated scarred soldier ..the rest are mere shadows come and go..
but the worst fault is the language ..she tried to write like a modernist classic writer and it comes off very pretentious... and many times i actually skipped many paragraphs
I however can see it done as a film.. it might work visually much better especially as psychological horror

[Savannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel was pretty unique. I was not sure where it was going. It really touches on the power of love, grief, and appearances. Definitely gives one a new perspective. It was slow in places, but overall I enjoyed the book.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less an actual story and more a recitation of all the stuff the author learned from her research.

[Andrew Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really enjoy this book. There were some interesting characters but for whatever reason I could not get engaged.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very odd book.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Set in WWI, a story of art, love and illusion. Should appeal to fans of Bess Crawford, Maisie Dobbs, and Downton Abbey.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sad but true what men go through in war

[Alex Montoux-Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the style of writing and everything about that whole historical era, but the story never really did anything for me.

[Kenzie Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

So creepy..