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Written by: Lauren Valerio
Ah, Paris. One of the world’s known venues for a culture immersed in art and pathos. Yet when one thinks of such a culture, it is difficult to envision it amid a German Nazi backdrop circa the early 1940s. How can art and emotion survive such turmoil?
Sara Houghteling’s newest novel, Pictures at an Exhibition, propels readers into 1939 Paris where a Jewish family of three resides comfortably. The novel unfolds the life of Max Berenzon, the teenage protagonist, and his life amongst his father’s collective art gallery prior to the Nazi invasion.
The gallery is filled with works created by such names as Picasso, Matisse, Morisot, and Édouard Manet. Although the gallery is a family business, Max is informed by his father that he could not “in good conscience” hand down the gallery to him, and instead it would be best if he served as a pediatrician. An attractive and intelligent former curator from the Louvre is hired as the new gallery assistant. Her name: Rose Clément.
Max initially envies Mademoiselle Clément, but is later captivated by her beauty and passion for art and his family’s gallery.
Germany invades Paris in 1940, in which time Max, along with his mother and father, escape chaotic Paris and go into hiding. From the time of the invasion until 1944, readers do not hear of the Berenzon’s family and are left to speculate on the means of how the family survives.
Readers reencounter Max and his family when they travel back to their gallery in Paris four years after the invasion. To their dismay, they find their gallery ransacked and bare; the Berenzon family’s life investment vanishes with the Nazis like a cool breeze that leaves one with a chill.
The location of Mademoiselle Clément remains a mystery to Max. Max’s father withdraws himself from the search of his artwork, but Max embarks on an endeavor to recover his family’s investments in hopes of obtaining his father’s respect for him as an art dealer.
The novel is a captivating glance into the black market of art during a time of mayhem and confusion.
The novel’s plot pursues Max’s myriad of hunts: one for the looted artwork as he encounters new friends whose hospitality cares for him when he abandons his father; another for Mademoiselle Clément with whom his heart has adhered to; finally a search for Bertrand, a childhood friend, whose disappearance from Paris begins before the Nazi invasion.
To anyone who has a passion for art, romance, history and/or mystery, this book will enthrall you from the instant you start reading. Empathy is instantaneously attached to the Berenzon family, especially Max as he persistently attempts to gain an understanding of his father’s decision to seclude him from the family business.
The novel plays on art and the beauty associated with not only the images themselves, but also with the meaning that each individual brushstroke embraces.
Romance wavers back and forth between Rose and Max as their lives pan out after the invasion.
Although this is no typical detective novel, the unsolved mysteries of the artwork, Rose’s location and emotions, and the whereabouts of Bertrand and his family keep readers engrossed and captivated until the very end.
Rating: 4.5/5 Falcons
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