"The Goldfinch" Part III Book Review {by Donna Tartt}

The Goldfinch Book Review 
(Post contributed by Brooke)

TITLE: The Goldfinch
2014 Pulitzer Prize Winner!!!! 
Congrats to Donna Tartt & Little, Brown and Company!

AUTHOR: Donna Tartt

PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company

We want to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to Little, Brown and Company! They invited us to be part of their Book Club Insiders and sent us copies of The Goldfinch for our members. THANK YOU LITTLE BROWN!!!

NUMBER OF PAGES: 771

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2013

GENRE: Fiction

Book Summary: Thirteen-year old Theo Decker's world is turned upside down when he loses his mother in a tragic bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's during this traumatic event that he comes into possession of a highly-sought-after painting, the Goldfinch, which changes the course of his life. This epic story of loss and survival, obsession and reinvention sweeps the reader up with its vivid characters captivating suspense. 

Our Star Rating: 3.5

We had very split votes as far as ratings. As we discussed the reasons for this, we figured out that some people wanted to rate certain sections of the book much higher than other sections, which could be attributed to the length of the book. It seemed like the very beginning and the ending generated the highest reviews from our group.

Our Book Review: We kicked the evening off by "visiting" the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Picture Recap I), then having Goldfinch Mocktails while we all took turns masquerading as Xandra/Sandra for her driver's license photo (Picture Recap II). 

The movie producer responsible for The Hunger Games, Nina Jacobson, has acquired the rights for the movie adaptation of The Goldfinch. YAY! We searched around online and pooled the actors/actresses that those in-the-know were recommending (to see the full spread of choices for each character, check out our Power Point Presentation). Since we are obviously qualified, we voted! 

Drumroll please……

                    …….. announcing 
        
                             …….the DELICIOUS READS PICKS for The Goldfinch Movie! 

Audrey Decker - Rachel Weisz

(image source)

We decided that Rachel Weisz has the charming-young-mother thing down. Theo was thirteen when she would be in it, so Rachel would fit as his mother. Plus she's just so likable.

Larry Decker - John Hamm

(image source)

Who better to play Theo's handsome, washed-up actor dad than John Hamm? We know he's had enough practice on Mad Men with the alcohol and he can convey stress well. John- it's all you, buddy. 

Xandra Terrell - Taryn Manning

(image source)
After seeing Taryn Manning on the hit Nextlix series "Orange is the New Black" (as the religious crack-head Pennsatucky) we know playing Xandra wouldn't scare her off. We felt like she would be able to bring Xandra to life… XANDRA WITH AN X!

Theo Decker - Theo James

(image source)

Theo to play Theo right? While he may be a little more handsome than how Theo is portrayed in the book (let's face it… Theo James is ridiculously good-looking), we felt like he would be able to infuse the stress that Theo feels throughout the book into his character. 

Boris - Ezra Miller

(image source)
Collectively we had a hard time picking Boris. The three people the online-gurus recommended didn't match up with what was in our heads (to see the other choices, you can download our powerpoint presentation HERE). After much deliberation, we chose Ezra Miller. Of all the characters, we felt like this one had to be EXACTLY right. This spot still may be open for discussion... 

Pippa - Jenna Malone 

(image source)

We picked Jenna Malone for Pippa. We felt like she could portray both younger and older Pippa and she has that kind of understated beauty that can be toned down or ramped up. She has petite features which fits with Pippa and we felt like she could have that hauntingly-sweet-but-just-out-of-reach Pippa-ness.

Kitsey Barbour - Leighton Meester 

(imagine her with blonde hair)

(image source)

There's just no one who can do young, high society, honey-sweetness like Leighton Meester. Golden-up those locks and we'll be good to go. We love us some Gossip Girl.

Hobie- Jeff Bridges

(images source)

Ok, Hobie is another one we wrestled with. Of the three recommended choices we went with Jeff Bridges, but we're still not 100% sure. Later a few of us came up with some alternatives- Ian McClenllan, Donald Sutherland or Anthony Hopkins… what's your vote? 

Mrs. Barbour - Gweneth Paltrow

(image source)
We picked the lovely Gweneth because we felt she could really do a younger, immaculate Mrs. Barbour and then also a more fragile version of herself in the later years after she's been through everything.

Mr. Barbour -  Pierce Brosnan

(image source)

We picked the handsome Pierce Brosnan to play the part of Mr. Barbour. We decided he would be able to talk for hours about the sea with Andy and he can convey that old-money ritz. He and Gweneth would portray the perfect Barbour  duo.

Popper

And of course we had to have a casting call for Popchick! 

(image source)

Donna Tartt recently won the PULITZER PRIZE for the Goldfinch! We learned that Donna Tartt was born in Mississippi in 1963 and went to The University of Mississippi and Bennington College in Vermont. She has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s and The Oxford American. She lives with her two pugs and a Boston Terrier and divides her time between Manhattan and Virginia.

She has written three books: The Secret History (1992), The Little Friend (2003) and The Goldfinch (2013). She won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend and the Pulitzer Prize for the Goldfinch. She was also just named to the Time 100, the most influential people of 2014. You can see her only AMERICAN TV INTERVIEW HERE.

(image source)

We discussed the way the Goldfinch in the painting is chained up… and drew a parallel to the way Theo is essentially chained to the painting for most of the story. We thought the reason he couldn't ever let it go was because in his mind it was unalterably connected to his mother, to his affection for her and it was like as long as he kept it safe, his memory of his mother would stay in tact. It was his own personal way of honoring her. 

We talked at length about the characters in the story and their relationships with Theo. Donna Tartt does an amazing job of making all the characters come alive. Several of the characters were someone's favorite- not everyone liked the same character best, which was interesting. We seemed to have a love/hate thing going on for Boris. Some of us thought he was the most interesting and enigmatic character and others were so frustrated with his choices and the mess he gets Theo into. But overall we decided our differences in opinion was the mark of a great book because Boris moved all of us to FEEL something. 

Right after the bombing, Theo has to pick somewhere to go and he chooses the Barbour's. We talked about how such a quick decision changed so much of his life and then we discussed how that has happened in some of our own lives- one small moment affecting everything. 

We discussed Theo's duplicitous relationship with Hobie and how he didn't want to let Hobie see the darker side of him. We discussed under what circumstances   people do that in every day life.

We discussed the black and white, or lack there-of, from Bori's point of view, between good and evil. 

“Well—I have to say I personally have never drawn such a sharp line between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as you. For me: that line is often false. The two are never disconnected. One can’t exist without the other. As long as I am acting out of love, I feel I am doing best I know how. But you—wrapped up in judgment, always regretting the past, cursing yourself, blaming yourself, asking ‘what if,’ ‘what if.’ ‘Life is cruel.’ ‘I wish I had died instead of.’ Well—think about this. What if all your actions and choices, good or bad, make no difference to God? What if the pattern is pre-set? No no—hang on—this is a question worth struggling with. What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can’t get there any other way?” --Boris

We talked about the guilt factor after everything that happens in Amsterdam and discussed if we would be able to live with the consequences as they were laid out in the book. 

We brought up several stressful moments in the book and each decided what was the most stressful to us personally. We all agreed that Donna Tartt does an excellent job portraying the dire circumstances in a way that left us needing to turn those pages. 

The ending is sort of open-ended on several fronts and leaves the reader to ponder many questions brought on by Theo's musings. Some of us felt like the book was an "anti-epic," meaning a whole lifetime has passed but there's not much movement or growth for the character (as there would be in a true epic story), but others disagreed. They felt like once Theo was no longer "chained" to the painting, his thoughts went in a different direction, hopefully towards finally healing from what happened so long ago in the museum. In that way, the way the book ended was the only way it could end- that Theo just needed to release that albatross from around his neck in order to move on with his life. 

Either way, we are left with some huge questions at the end of the book, about the heart and what it wants, about life and the meaning of love, art, and reality.

We had amazing discussion of The Goldfinch! Thank you again to Little, Brown & Co. for the books and thanks to everyone who had a hand in making this evening such a special event. And finally a heartfelt thank-you to Donna Tartt for creating such an amazing and fascinating read! 

If you missed the first two posts on our special Goldfinch evening, you can see them here:

The Goldfinch Picture Recap I
The Goldfinch Picture Recap Part II

"The Goldfinch" Part I Book Club Ideas {by Donna Tartt}

Our book club has been looking forward to reading THE GOLDFINCH for the past four months- let me explain why.
Back in March I opened an email that came from a lovely gal who works for Little Brown & Company. Wait, is this for real, did someone from one of the LARGEST PUBLISHING HOUSES actually contact me and my book club?!? Yes, this is REAL, this is a real email!

Here is an excerpt from the email I received,

"I love your book club. In fact, everyone here at Little, Brown loves it—ever since I saw your post about BOSSYPANTS and sent it around to my colleagues, we've been raving about you guys. The editor of the book—our publisher, Reagan Arthur—even forwarded your post to Tina Fey. Her response? “Oh my goodness, that is adorable. And it must have been a nine-hour meeting.”
 I wanted to reach out and see if you’d like to become one of our Book Club Insiders, From the PowerPoint to the menu, from the performance to the discussion, you guys are really a perfect example of what book clubs can be. Finally, would your group be interested in reading THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt?" 

I didn't realize until I finished reading that email that I was standing in place doing my happy jig that I do when I'm really excited! (It's a real thing, I can't help but dance when I'm happy!) I was thrilled that our book club became noticed by Little Brown and even more thrilled to know that they wanted Delicious Reads to become "Book Club Insiders" for them!! So, when Little Brown asked us to read the 770 page Pulitzer Prize winning book THE GOLDFINCH we all immediately said "YES!"
My hope is that anyone reading this post will find some great ideas for their book club and find inspiration in the pages of this fantastic book.

This Book's Moderator was

BROOKE!

*Brooke is an aspiring author, obsessed with debuting her first novel- REMality. She blogs once a week and also contributes on Delicious Reads with her "Writerly Rants" series. As our Moderator, Brooke planned the entire evening including: finding the book inspired décor, putting together the menu, hosting her quiz, creating the discussion questions and powerpoint and putting together the fun "art exhibit" we toured before our book discussion!

Welcome to "Hobart and Blackwell's," 

Please ring the green bell if you'd like to come in to join our book discussion. (pg. 120)

Right as members walked into book club, they were escorted into the "art gallery" where they were directed to enjoy the "festive champagne" and hors d'oeuvres. 

Everyone sipped their drinks and nibbled on the yummy finger foods while observing the many "masterpieces" hanging on the walls as we discussed the difference in Line, Texture, Color, Shape...just kidding, we mostly gossiped about the book because we couldn't wait to start talking 

about it!

Brooke explained to us that all of the "art" we were looking at were actual paintings mentioned in The Goldfinch.

If you want to see all of the artwork mentioned and/or described in The Goldfinch then you have to check out THIS Pinterest board that compiled them!

These finch inspired appetizers that Elizabeth created were DELICIOUS!
If you would like to learn to make them for yourself, you can find the blog post with instructions HERE.

After we finished "culturing" ourselves (cough, cough) in the art gallery, we moved into the kitchen to load up our dinner plates and grab a Goldfinch Mocktail.

Here is the full menu Brooke put together for The Goldfinch and if you read closely, you will see page numbers marked by many of the foods indicating why she choose what she did.

You can find this AMAZING and addictive carbonara recipe at Cara Nicoletti's Yummy Books blog which is GORGOUS and will make you want to lick your computer screen.  

(Photo by Nicoletti from Yummy books)
Find this decadent open faced cheese sandwich recipe over at Yummy Books along with many other Goldfinch recipes

The recipe we used for this heavenly panna cotta was from The Kitchn and it was DELICIOUS!

Want to know WHY there is an over sized Xandra drivers license sitting in the middle of the kitchen during our meeting? 

Then you'll just have to come back tomorrow for Part II of The Goldfinch post where I explain the rest of our evening including why Xandra was on all of our minds. ;)

The Snow Child Book Review {by Eowyn Ivey}

Title: The Snow Child
Author: Eowyn Ivey 
Pages: 386

Published: February 2012

Publisher: Little Brown, and Co
Recommended for: 16 + 
Awards: Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Fiction (2013), Indies Choice Book Award for Adult Debut (2013), UK National Book Awards for International Author of the Year (2012), Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize Nominee (2012)

 

Our Rating:


3.75 stars

SUMMARY: "The Snow Child provides an interesting contrast of an unhurried, ethereal, fairy-tale and the beauty and brutality of life on a homestead. Alaska in 1920 was a cruel place to live, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart-- he breaking under the weight of the work; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blond-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them as adapt to their new life, new friends, and new love."  (Summary adapted from Goodreads.com)

The Snow Child been described as dazzling and enchanting, unnerving and honest. Robert Goolrick, the author of A Reliable Wife said, “If Willa Cather and Gabriel García Marquéz had collaborated on a book, The Snow Child would be it.”


OUR REVIEW- 

Right away we all agreed that this book was not plot driven, although it does has a certain constancy about it, similar to an Alaskan winter. The charm of the storyline is the characters, the relationships, and the sad, cold aura that seems to permeate the entire novel only to occasionally be sprinkled with moments of hope and happiness.

We discussed several possible themes for the book. Like life’s uncertainty, loss, grief, how you cannot run from problems and bottling things up and shutting people out is never effective. Though we cannot choose our ‘beginnings’, we can we choose our ‘endings’. Many of the themes were delivered by way of letters Mabel received from her sister, Ada. Here are a few of our favorites:

From a letter to Mabel from her sister, Ada, about the Russian fairytale book,

 "What a tragic tale! Why these stories for children always have to turn out so dreadfully is beyond me. I think if I ever tell is to my grandchildren, I will change the ending and have everyone live happily ever after. We are allowed to do that, are we not Mabel? To invent our own endings and choose joy over sorrow?” P. 129

"Was it as Ada had suggested, that we can choose our own endings, joy over sorrow? Or does the cruel world just give and take, give and take, while we flounder through the wilderness”. P. 155

 “We never know what is going to happen, do we" Life is always throwing us this way and that. That's where the adventure is. Not knowing where you'll end up or how you'll fare. Its all a mystery and when we say any different we're lying to ourselves. Tell me, when have you felt most alive". Letter from Ada (Mabel’s sister) 

Character relationships played a key role in the story. Since the plot moved a little slowly, we discussed how the character descriptions and relationships had to carry the storyline. It seemed that most of the relationships were unlikely ones forged by circumstance, not necessarily choice. One example is that of Mabel, an Alaskan-transplant and refined city woman without any experience in farming or frontier living and Garrett, a spry young man with an affinity for living off the land as a trapper and hunter. Here’s a great quote describing the unique relationship they developed, allowing Mabel to adapt to her new life.

"Who would think that an adolescent boy would have anything to teach an old woman? But it was Garrett who had led her into the fields and closer to the life she had pictured for herself in Alaska. She would think of no way to explain that to him. With a mother like Esther, surely he could not imagine a woman doing anything against her will, or worse yet, not knowing her own will. It was as if Mabel had been living in a hole, comfortable and safe as it might have been, and he had merely reached down a hand to help her step up into the sunlight. From there she was free to walk where she would." P. 208

{Alaska downtown storefront around 1920}

We all loved the tender and tentative relationship between Mabel with Faina. Take note of the emotion portrayed through the author’s words.

"Mabel took the cloche and veil from its hook and set it on Faina's head, securing it with hairpins. Then she wove the wild pink roses and white star flowers into the lacework above Faina's braids across her forehead. But it wasn't a crown, not a circle of flowers that could sprout from the earth.

Faina reached out for Mabel's hand and squeezed it. Her touch strong and warm, and Mabel squeezed back and then impulsively brought the girls' hand to her lips to kiss it.

"I love you, child." She whispered

Faina's face was quiet and kind.

"I wish to be the mother you are to me, she said so softly Mabel doubted her own ears. But those were the words she spoke, and Mabel took them into her heart and held them there forever." P. 351

Faina had a peculiar relationship to a wild red fox. We discussed how it was almost as if it was more than a friendship, but a magical lifeline. It seemed to be an integral part of who Faina was. They were always together, separate but together. The fox also was part of what made her live. Once the fox was killed, Faina and Garrett met, fell in love, and married; but he didn't seem to fill the same place the fox did. Again, here is another part of the magic. We talked about the possibility that the fox was part of her heart; part of her make-up, and nothing/no one could fix the part that was broken.

Photo Credit: Rodney Campbell

 

We felt the books’ strengths were:

 

1. The imagery of Alaskan wilderness through prism of magical realism. The author has a wonderful way that describes the realities of the harshness of the wind and the delicate falling of snow. The vivid imagery is one thing that many us enjoyed the most. Here’s an excerpt: 

"It wasn't just the river otter. She once spied a gray-brown coyote slinking across a field with his mouth half open as if in laughter. She watched Bohemian waxwings like twilight shadows flock from tree to tree as if some greater force orchestrated their flight. She saw a white ermine sprint past the barn with a fat vole in its mouth. And each time, Mabel felt something leap in her chest. Something hard and pure. She was in love. Eight years she'd lived here, and at last the land had taken a hold of her, and she could comprehend some small part of Faina's wildness.” P. 207

2. The enigmatic nature of the titular snow child. Snow child or abandoned little girl? This is the question that plagues her adoptive parents and the reader and was one topic that was discussed at length. Faina’s vulnerable fragility masked by the exterior of strength and stubbornness is touching, indeed, but it left us with a split decision as to if she was human or a magical creation of her surroundings. We concluded that it's precisely this mysteriousness, further underscored by the quotation mark-less dialogue every time Fauna makes her appearance that, while endearing, makes her character have less of a connection to the readers. Some felt this was intentional from the author to help readers feel the evasiveness she left in Mabel & Jack’s hearts.

“No matter how she turned it over in her mind, Mabel always traced the child's footsteps back to the night she and Jack had shaped her from snow. Jack had etched her lips and eyes. Mabel had given her mittens and reddened lips. That night the child was born to them of ice and snow and longing... The exact science of one molecule transformed into another -- that Mabel cold not explain, but then again she couldn't explain how a fetus formed in the womb, cells becoming beating heart and hoping soul. She could not fathom the hexagonal miracle of snowflakes formed from clouds, crystallized fern and feather that tumble down to light on a coat sleeve, white starts melting even as they strike. How did such force and beauty come to be in something so small and fleeting and unknowable?” P. 204

"Never had Mabel imagined the little girl would be sitting before them, at their own kitchen table. How had this come to be? The moment had the surreal fast-and-slow movement of a dream. She was even smaller than she had appeared from a distance, and the chair back towered around her... Mabel saw her thin arms and small shoulders. She wore that same cotton dress with tiny flowers on it, but Mabel could see now that it was a summer dress for a grown woman. Beneath it, she wore a long-underwear shirt that was too small; the sleeves did not reach her thin wrists. The girl's hair was white-blond... she saw that woven and twisted among the strands were gray-green lichens, wild yellow grasses and curled bits of birch bark. It was strange and lovely, like a wild bird's nest.” P. 98

3. The depiction of quiet desperate sadness and alienation that plagues a deeply unhappy couple, torn apart by the weight of grief, struggling under the burden of their perceived failures. 

Each of us in the group has a different background and related to the circumstances that caused the initial strain in Mabel and Jack’s relationship differently. Realizing all relationships, especially marital ones, have their difficulties, we related to and discussed the struggles, joys and sorrows of the main character couple.

"Oh Jack, why does it always have to be somebody's fault?"

"Because it always is."

"No. Sometimes these things happen. Life doesn't go the way we plan or hope, but we don't have to be so angry, do we?"

He continued eating, but without any pleasure as far as Mabel could tell. It was as if he was gagging down each bite. Finally he gave up and pushed his plate away. "

Artistic depictions of the fairy tale that inspired this book:
      

 Source: Daniel /Buffalo NewZakroczemskis

The Russian folk tale: Snegurocka

A tragic young maiden made of snow, doomed to demise the fire/spring/love in the many versions of the fairytale (beautifully depicted by the famous painter Vasnetsov) who through the last couple of centuries cam to fill the role of the granddaughter of Father Frost, the ubiquitous presents at any kindergarten New Year's Day party, and the inspiration for many children's New Year's Eve outfits.

Final Thoughts
Every fairy tale has sadness- beginning or ending. Some end living “happily ever after”, and others are ‘to be continued’. The ending was a source of controversy as to whether it was satisfying, or left more questions than answers. While we agreed that the book was a bit slow, it was beautifully written and we would recommend it to individuals and book clubs who want to believe in love, overcome obstacles and a experience a little bit of magic.

“You did not have to understand miracles to believe in them. In fact Mabel had come to suspect the opposite. To believe, perhaps you had to cease looking for explanations and instead hold the little thing in your hands as long as you were able before it slipped like water between your fingers. “ P 364

About the Author:

Photo Source: Star Tribune

Eowyn Ivey currently lives in Alaska with her husband and their 2 daughters. As a family, they harvest salmon and wild berries, keep a vegetable garden, turkeys and chickens, and they hunt caribou, moose, and bear for meat. Because they don’t have a well and live outside any public cut water system, they haul water each week for their holding tank and gather rainwater for their animals and garden. Their primary source of home heat is a wood stove, and they harvest and their own wood. These activities are important to Eowyn’s day-to-day life as well as the rhythm of her year.

Her career has taken her from writing pages of the “Frontiersman” newspaper, to writing novels and selling books in between. The Snow Child is Eowyn’s debut novel. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in London’s Observer Magazine, Sunday Times Magazine, Sunday Express Magazine, Woman & Home Magazine, the anthology Cold Flashes, the North Pacific Rim literary journal Cirque, FiveChapters, and Alaska Magazine.

She is currently a contributor to the blog 49Writers and a founding member of Alaska’s first statewide writing center. 

Author Q&A:

Q: How did you come up with the idea for the book?

A: One day I was shelving books at the bookstore where I worked and in the children’s section and I came across a used, inexpensive paperback children’s book about the snow child. I quickly read it there in the store, and I just knew. This was it. I became a bit obsessed—researching the original Russian fairy tale and imagining my own version.

Q. How does being a bookseller influence the way you write—or does it?

A: This is a great, complex question. The Snow Child absolutely would not have been born if it weren’t for Fireside Books. But on a more subtle level, working as a bookseller informed me on trends and markets and what readers want. I can’t say it influenced what I wrote—it’s a shortcoming of mine that I’m able to write only what I really, really want to write. But it helped me recognize when I had an idea I thought might be exciting to other people, too.

Q: What are some books you would recommend with an Alaskan setting?



A Winter on Earth
by Joseph Enzweiler

  Two in the Far North
by Margaret E. Murie

Tales from the Dena
by Dale DeArmond

*CONTENT CATEGORIES*	*RATING: PG-13*
LANGUAGE/PROFANITY	mild
SEXUALITY	moderate
VIOLENCE	heavy (mostly killing and cleaning of animals)
DRUG/ALCOHOL USE	mild

 Want to see our photos, recipes and many other book club ideas for THE SNOW CHILD? Then check out THIS POST!

"The Monuments Men" Book Review {by Robert M. Edsel}

TITLE OF THE BOOK: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History

AUTHOR: Robert M. Edsel (Bret Witter, Contributor)

NUMBER OF PAGES: 496

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2009

PUBLISHER: Little Brown and Company
GENRE: Historical Non-fiction

SUMMARY: At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloging the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised.

Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. 

OUR STAR RATING:

3.5 out of 5

OUR GROUP REVIEW: Overall, we felt like the book had amazing details and we were in awe at the extensive research that Robert Edsel did in preparation for the book. Just as mentioned at the beginning of the book, Edsel admitted to acquiring so much information on the Monuments Men and their efforts that he had to separate the discoveries and activities that took place in Italy for another book--Saving Italy, published in 2013.

Many of us had a hard time following the story because it did seem to jump around and there were so many characters to keep track of. I put together this PDF guide here for the main characters of the book (I wished I would have had something like this while I was reading). 

Brittanie created an awesome PowerPoint here. Her presentation gave us a snapshot of the main characters in the book and some key places that were a part of their story, including Altuassee and Monte Cassino.

We watched the trailer for "The Monuments Men" movie, which several Delicious Reads members went together to see that weekend. Though the movie isn't as historically accurate as the book (they even gave the main characters different names) and many of the events were over-dramatized, the overall feel for the book gives a little taste of what went on with the Monuments Men.

We also watched a clip here from an old black and white movie, called "The Train." The movie is based on a book the Rose Valland wrote called Le front de l'art. The scene we watched is supposed to be representative of Rose Valland and her role as a spy that helped the MFAA. 

Some of the other key points we discussed were: 

(see here for a full list of discussion questions we used)

1.) It was ironic that Hitler despised the Jewish, but coveted their art and belongings. He wanted all of the art that was German or what he considered German. He took everything. Harry Ettlinger said years after the war, "My knowledge of the Holocaust started really with the realization that it was not only the taking of lives...but the taking of all of their belongings." We liked that Harry got some of his grandfather's stuff back (though he still keeps it hidden away in a closet).

2.) The Monuments Men had the credentials and the passion for art to risk their lives for this cause. The story of the rescue of a sixteenth-century Flemish painting details how, in the midst of the fighting, two Monuments Men, Walter Hancock and George Stout, carefully wrote detailed notes on the painting. It definitely took a special kind of person with an interest in and/or passion for the arts to be a Monuments Man. The outcomes wouldn't have been the same if a soldier had been assigned to that division who did not have an interest in art.

3.) In a letter to a colleague on October 4, 1944, George Stout recounts his conversation with an old colonel about his activities in the MFAA division, and how the colonel became more and more interested and excited. Stout closes the letter by writing, "Perhaps [. . .] this simple, curious outlook of healthy men is more important than some of the monuments themselves."  

-We agreed that this was true to an extent, though some of the men would have sacrificed themselves for the art (and some did--Walter Huchthausen and Ronald Balfour). 

-We have an emotional connection to art, we seek for it.

-The beauty/ray of light in the war that these men saw was: "I can save this!" They were doing something that wasn't destructive--saving not destroying like the rest of the war caused.

4.) We loved Rose Valland! Of course she was the only woman mentioned so it was easy to stand out, but we loved her attitude too.  She was strategic and had allies on both sides. Rose Valland believed “My duty is to the art.” We thought that the author's constant talk about her being matronly and unattractive may have been excessive.  We believed her plainness was a choice too, that is made her not stand out so she could do what she did.

5.) On May 13, 1945, Monuments Man Lincoln Kirstein wrote about Altaussee, wondering, “How could one of the most important and unbelievable moments in art history—not to mention the history of a world war—simply become a forgotten footnote?” Despite his disbelief that this could ever happen, for the most part the role of the Monuments Men did remain largely forgotten or unknown until recently. We believed this was due to the fact that so much horror happened at the same time.

Brittanie showed us the size of the Ghent Altarpiece that the Monuments Men had to move. She mapped it out using large paper to give us an idea of the size (it covered the whole side of Kelly's living room and half the book club members!):

6.) We felt like this quote summed up some of our feelings over WWII and the cultural impact of Hitler: 

"But the lasting impact of his bitter reign is best measured in more ephemeral ways, fifty million loved ones who never returned home from the war to rejoin their families or start one of their own; brilliant, creative contributions never made to our world because scientists, artists, and inventors lots their lives too early or were never born; cultures built over generations reduced to ashes and rubble because one human being judged groups of other human beings less worthy than his own." (The Monuments Men, page 402)

Don't forget to check out our full photo recap of the night HERE!

*CONTENT CATEGORIES*	*RATING*
LANGUAGE/PROFANITY	MILD
SEXUALITY	MILD
VIOLENCE	MODERATE (bombs/explosions)
DRUG/ALCOHOL USE	MILD
INTENSE/SCARY SCENES	MODERATE (WWII & Hitler references)