How to Paint a Dead Man has ratings and reviews. Kirsty said: I loved this. The writing is fabulous - full of sentences that make you sit back an.
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The distinctive voices were in first, third and even second person. Second person can be really tedious to read but here it was my favourite part of the book as it seemed to be rationed out just nicely. The settings varied from s to the present day and included London, Italy and Cumbria. On the whole the book was well varied but early in the story I found the changes difficult to keep track of - though it wasn't long before I was hooked. This is definitely a literary novel and not one driven by plot devices and I enjoyed the fact that the links between the four strands of the story weren't pointed out time and time again.
I liked coming across small pieces of the jigsaw in the prose and I'm sure that there were plenty of details that I missed. The book takes in, as you'd expect from the title, death, art and dying artists. Which might make it sound pretty bleak but it's a book full of light, full of interesting snippets of life and well worth a read. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving….
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Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. How to Paint a Dead Man 3. The lives of four individuals—a dying painter, a blind girl, a landscape artist, and an art curator—intertwine across nearly five decades in this luminous and searching novel of extraordinary power. With How to Paint a Dead Man , Sarah Hall, "one of the most significant and exciting of Britain's young novelists" The Guardian , delivers "a maddeningly enticing read.
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Paperback , pages. Published June 4th by Faber Faber first published January 1st Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about How to Paint a Dead Man , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about How to Paint a Dead Man. Lists with This Book. Dec 07, Kirsty Darbyshire rated it it was amazing Shelves: The distinctive voices were in I loved this.
Sep 02, Kathleen Maher rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: 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 Sarah Hall writes about four characters in this novel; each with her or his own section and voice. And their differing stories all focus on art and isolation, grief and joy, beauty, time, patience, and subjectivity. One character's history shifts through shades of the s.
One's twin brother has died suddenly in a traffic accident and a young girl in a strict Catholic family, post WWII, grows increasingly blind and ends up selling the family's flowers in the town's market. There are two men and two women and although the novel's plot hews to realistic days turning into night and the framed construction keeps their passion, loves, and suffering somewhat distant from the reader, the novel offers the reader a rich experience.
Oct 19, Corey rated it it was amazing. 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 This was a beautifully written book.
A desire to go out and prove I'm alive and in this world had me bopping at the edge of the couch.
How to Paint a Dead Man
And most times I finished a chapter, fully intending to head out and experience To be honest I read this while sick with the flu so perhaps some of my responses can be tied in to that delving into another chapter instead of going for a walk in the Portland rain, for example. Regardless, this was a beautiful book. I strongly suggest you read it. If you don't respond to it like I did, well, read it again with a fever and then you'll get it. Feb 22, switterbug Betsey rated it it was amazing. 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. The story contemplates the nucleus of art, the e 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.
The story contemplates the nucleus of art, the essence of beauty, and the inestimable measure of loss. Additionally, the illusive nature of reality is explored like a kaleidoscope rotating within a turbulent vortex or shifting around a vast abyss of stillness. The prose is poetic and infinitely exquisite, often stirring me to tears and evocations of wonder at its penetrating sensuality. The elliptical ending continues to contour in my mind as I am drawn to multiple readings of the final page. The epigraph preceding the novel is the recurrent theme of the story, a quote by Gaston Blanchard: Its radiance massaged my senses and literally put me in a state of grace.
Even the carnal scenes were like polished ore, mined with such brutal delicacy that I recaptured my own spellbound encounters with erotic infatuation. This book is meant to be read slowly, allowing the passages to percolate and reverberate. There is such sublime luminescence to the narrative that it put me in an elevated state of consciousness as it also burrowed in my subconscious strata.
Erudite, cultivated, and masterful, this is a quietly profound literary experience. View all 9 comments. Feb 29, Bonnie Brody rated it it was amazing. Sometimes one is privileged to read a book that is so brilliant we hope it never ends. 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 a Sometimes one is privileged to read a book that is so brilliant we hope it never ends. The book is like a chorale woven of four parts, each part about a different artist.
The composition of the book is much like a chorale in music with each artist playing a different role in the book. There is Suzi, a curator and photographer, who is so lost in her grief for her dead twin and mentor, Danny, that she has lost herself. No matter what extremes she goes to in order to feel alive, her grief is pervasive and overriding. In fact, the emotion is so strong that she denies it is grief. Grief would be simple.
Something internal, something integral, has shifted. You feel lost from yourself. It's like looking into a mirror and seeing no familiar reflection, no one you recognize hosted within the glass. The poignancy is reflected in the demise of the human spirit as it searches to be reborn. Annette is a blind Italian florist, caught up in the visions in her head. Despite her mother's attempts to keep her childlike, she blooms , much like the flowers she loves. She sees beauty in others, senses colors, and is empathic. She imagines the world in all its sensory glory and has been deeply influenced by Giorgio, the artist who taught in her school when she was a child.
Years after his death, she still brings flowers to his grave. Giorgio is an elderly Italian artist of some renown. His character is based on that of the actual artist, Giorgio Morandi, known for his exquisitely shaded paintings of bottles. Giorgio lives a reclusive life but is influential in mentoring a young landscape artist named Peter. Peter's landscape art takes him to the brink of danger, and the very landscape that he loves and is the source of his inspiration, becomes a threat to his life. He is Suzi and Danny's father and has been Suzi's mentor.
He himself, an over-the-top, expressive human being has been mentored distantly by Giorgio who is one of the most disciplined of artists. This is a book about art and artists. It examines the discipline of art - - its freedom and passion along with the sense of release that art provides. It also explores art as an entrapment. Art is both the seen and unseen, the visible and the visualized. Though the book takes place in different times and different places, through different voices, it all comes together in the unfolding relationships between artists and mentors.
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Click here for a list of interest-specific sites grouped by category. If you are located outside the U. From Sarah Hall, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Daughters of the North and The Electric Michelangelo comes the Harper Perennial paperback original novel How to Paint a Dead Man, a daringly imaginative tale in which multiple lives are woven together through the prism of a still life painting. Thanks for signing up! We've emailed you instructions for claiming your free e-book. Tell us more about what you like to read so we can send you the best offers and opportunities.
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By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bookperk and other HarperCollins services. You may unsubscribe from these email communications at any time. How to Paint a Dead Man is her finest novel yet. And, given a lyrical style so beautifully worked and savoursome you can taste it, this novel could have overwhelmed.
Hall's book, however, slips cleverly between four separate narratives, allowing space for echoes to sound and tension to build. Each narrative is a suggestive, almost tactile construct, with Hall's talent evident on every page. Hall has a sharp eye for the intricacies of human suffering, but, above all, her book lyrically affirms the depth and richness of our imperfect, astonishing lives. It makes for a sad chorus, but How to Paint a Dead Man is all the more affecting for it. Hall rarely indulges in any ponderous pronouncements about the nature of art.