Theft: A Love Story

Book Description

From the two-time Booker Prize–winning author and recipient of the Commonwealth Prize comes this new novel about obsession, deception, and redemption, at once an engrossing psychological suspense story and a work of highly charged, fiendishly funny literary fiction.

Michael—a.k.a. “Butcher”—Boone is an ex–“really famous” painter: opinionated, furious, brilliant, and now reduced to living in the remote country house of his biggest collector and acting as caretaker for his younger brother, Hugh, a damaged man of imposing physicality and childlike emotional volatility. Alone together they’ve forged a delicate and shifting equilibrium, a balance instantly destroyed when a mysterious young woman named Marlene walks out of a rainstorm and into their lives on three-inch Manolo Blahnik heels. Beautiful, smart, and ambitious, she’s also the daughter-in-law of the late great painter Jacques Liebovitz, one of Butcher’s earliest influences. She’s sweet to Hugh and falls in love with Butcher, and they reciprocate in kind. And she sets in motion a chain of events that could be the making—or the ruin—of them all.

Told through the alternating points of view of the brothers—Butcher’s urbane, intelligent, caustic observations contrasting with Hugh’s bizarre, frequently poetic, utterly unique voice—Theft reminds us once again of Peter Carey’s remarkable gift for creating indelible, fascinating characters and a narrative as gripping as it is deliriously surprising.

Customer Reviews:

Let it STEAL you........2007-08-22

Having just finished Peter Carey's latest novel, Theft, I have mixed feelings.
I liked the book, and simultaneously, found it... difficult.
First off, in the "liking it" department, well... it is Peter Carey!
You don't win the Booker Prize twice by writing poop even once! He is an incredibly good writer.
I loved his Oscar & Lucinda, and My Life As A Fake.
But this one, Theft. I did not love it, per se. I liked it.
I needed help. Parts of it got away from me, like a lifejacket floating out of reach, and I often had to rely upon my Reading Partner to haul me into the boat, as it were.

Theft is sub-titled "A Love Story" and it is!
The story of Michael Boone, an ex-"really famous" painter, born 1943, in Bacchus Marsh, Australia. [? As was Carey himself, in both time and place. Let the reader interpret!]
Newly divorced and down on his luck, Michael retreats to the unoccupied house of his patron, Jean-Paul, in an effort to here, perhaps re-invent himself.
With him is his near-autistic brother Hugh. Michael takes care of Hugh in lieu of the only other option, which would be abandoning him to an institution.
And so Michael sets out out to work on a series of new paintings.

But into this peaceful backwoods setting, a beautiful woman appears one rainy night, her car stuck in the mud.
28-year old Marlene Cook is not only vivacious, but also an art expert.
Michael soon discovers she's married to the son of the now-deceased 20th-century artist, Jacques Leibovitz, and is involved in the authentication of Leibovitz's works.
Michael has been a fan of Leibovitz since his high school years.
Needless to say, his interest in Marlene knows no bounds!
Soon he will wish there were bounds to his interest, as she involves him in a web of thievery and chicanery that threatens all he has ever stood for, in the production of authentic, genuine ART!
Not to mention, he loves her. And she, him, apparently.

Scamming, double-crossing, faking, severe cheatitry.
In many ways, this novel is rip-roaring good. Roller-coastery good!
Funny, too.
In style, Carey is as subversive and non-generic as ever. The narration alternates, chapter by chapter, between Michael and Hugh. Hence, we are given dual perspectives of simultaneous events, and this keeps the reader [if the reader is me] fully engaged and on the edge of their seat. Or the edge of the boat, as it were.
But a few times I fell into the lake.

I got a bit lost in the intricacies of exactly what is done in the art world as presented, regarding counterfeit painting and related forgery activities. I think that Carey is counting on a real savvy reader here.
It's not the kind of book you read while driving a tractor along a straight furrow. Or while stirring a pot of soup with one hand and changing a diaper with the other.
You're just not going to get it unless you are paying attention.

Throughout the book this one sentence is, themewise, center-stage:
How do you know how much to pay if you don't know what it's worth?
Hmmm.... a good question. As for me, I like to pay nothing!
My own walls are filled with laminated posters I stole from Starbucks, so what do I really know about the higher realms of art?

Because I needed a friend with this book, I suggest it as a Reading Group selection. In the multitude of voices, this book has gemstone potential.

It Stole My Time.......2007-08-21

Perhaps an Australian reader might appreciate this novel more than I did. It is filled with references to life in Sydney and the Austrailian bush which I did not fully understand. I believe that some of the language includes Australian colloquialisms lost on me. Any book that sends me to the dictionary as often as this one did should be fabulous. It isn't. Theft is the story of an australian artist now fallen out of favor who is saddled with the care of his retarded brother, Hugh. After his acrimonious divorce he falls in love with the beautiful sociopathic young wife of the son of a now deceased famous artist. The story follows him as he follows her to Japan and NYC while he hopes that his future is secured by finding a rich patron. The art theft and forgery around which the story turns churns the plot forward albeit slowly. The book is obviously humorous as well as an example of black humor which I usually like. However, I found it tedious. It is technically well written, but I only finished it because I read it for book club. This author won the Booker prize. However, unlike most of the prize's winners, his language includes particularly foul words. Nevertheless, they are not gratuitious, and that is not the reason I didn't find it engrossing.

The narrative switches from Butcher Bones in the first person to his brother, Hugh. However, the diction and vocabulary emited from the supposedly mentally disabled, Hugh, was unconvincing. The sentence structure and vocabulary were simpler but not sufficiently so. In fact had the author used such simple diction for the narration from Butcher I might have liked it better. However, other than walking around with a folding chair and his rigidity of routine, Carey does not portray Hugh realistically enough. I cannot say this was bad fiction, because it is not. Someone should inform this author that when writing is reduced to simple sentences and vocabulary, the story is enriched. I felt he was trying to impress. Still the plot might make a good movie.
I recommend reading something else.

A hysterical and heady masterpiece.......2007-08-03

Peter Carey's novels have always traversed the line between truth and fiction, trading action for intent, and forcing the reader to re-examine what we understand as truth. He's done this fairly overtly in his last two novels, My Life as a Fake and True History of the Kelly Gang. Both titles call attention to the truth theme and by following a thread where fiction and truth overlap and twist in so many ways that fact is no longer the underlying key to truth, the novels shake up the reader in a pleasurable but unexpected way. Although the title isn't quite so overt in Theft, there is a similar theme on reality versus truth in Carey's latest book. Although the truth theme continues to be compelling, it never takes precedence to the original and natural integrity of the story, which is overwhelmingly entertaining, first and foremost. On pure plot and characterisation alone, Carey is a master. That Theft like all of Carey's books, is also linguistically beautiful and full of the kind of transcendency that makes literary fiction so much more than light entertainment, is icing on what is already an excellent cake.

The story follows a heady period in the life of artist Butcher Bones, an Australian painter who has fallen out of favour after a nasty divorce and term of incarceration for trying to "retrieve" his best work "which had been declared "Marital Assets". Set in 1980, the novel opens on Bones' release as his lawyers and a wealthy collector `exile' him to a country property in Bellingen with his challenging brother Hugh where he attempts to begin painting again. One wet evening he meets Marlene Leibovitz, daughter-in-law of one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, and Bones and Marlene begin a love affair which takes them deeper into the political machinations of the art world as they travel to Tokyo and New York in a complicate thread of sexy intrigue, real and fake art, murder and a certain amount of chaos. The story is well plotted, and as is always the case in Carey's novels, is fast paced enough to push the reading forward, while the writing and characterisation are so rich and powerful that it's an almost necessary effort to continue slowing the pace to savour and re-read the gorgeous prose.

Right from the start of the book, Carey sets up the paradox between real and fake as he begins sipping a non-alcoholic beer with his patron Jean-Paul, which is "Like the real thing." (6) The house is almost like the real thing too, although impossible to paint in until Bones destroys it, and his neighbour Dozy Boylan owns a real Leibowitz painting. Marlene, a would be American, whose real Manolo shoes Bones ends up washing mud off, is a classy art savant, whose delicate beauty and sophistication contrasts with Hugh's brutish childishness. Between The Magic Pudding and Benalla High School we learn that the truth isn't always as obvious as formal certification (or "droit moral").

The narrative is told in alternating chapters of first person singular between Butcher and Hugh. Carey links the separate paragraphs with shared memories and a rough vernacular which bisects, but it is Hugh's chapters which are almost startling in their vivid intensity and the raw truth they emit.

The difference between the two narratives is a gulf between perspectives and is often funny as the narratives describe the same situations in absolutely different ways. The relationship between brothers is almost as much of a love story as that between Butcher and Marlene. It isn't a perfect love affair by any means. The filial tension is almost unbearable at times as both Hugh and Butcher see themselves as subservient to the other and jealousy, love, need and resentment all collide.

Butcher's own description of the power of colour and quality is immediately accessible to the reader, taking words beyond their usual medium.

The ride is hysterical at times, and the reader will often grimace, or laugh outloud following Hugh's exploits with his metal chair, or the feverishly naïve attempts of Butcher to try and control the events which take him over and still maintain a sense of bravado and artistic integrity. The line between self-creation, deception, crime, and reality start to blur with a rapidity that can be dizzying. It's the best kind of dizzy. However crazy the story gets, and however tricky the relationship between true and false in the end, it is as clear as the title makes it that there is simply one truth that underpins the story - love.

Like Carey's other masterpiece, Oscar and Lucinda the fantastic, easy to read plot almost masks the fact that the work is an ode to the non-discursive nature of love. There are many thefts in Theft including the theft of a child, of a life, of a painting, and of a heart, but the final theft is one where the ultimate thief is unclear, and there is only one truth. The painting is beside the point. This is a stunning novel and one which certainly lives up to Carey's claim as a modern master.

Magdalena Ball is the author of Sleep Before Evening.

Make it stop..........2007-07-17

Carey is a terrific writer. Theft, however, is a stupendously dull novel, chock-full of vapid characters and insipid storylines. To the extent that the emptiness of this novel was intended to mirror or riff on the emptiness of the contemporary 'art world', I guess it succeeds, but who's interested in an endless story about boors behaving boorishly? To the extent that this novel is intended as a black comic sendup of the same -- as some reviewers have suggested -- it fails. It is a slog from start to finish.

Paint-By-Wonders.......2007-07-13

Two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey has a command of the language that is beautiful in its simplicity. Just as three primary colors can make up the universe's sumptuous palette, so too does Carey's uncluttered prose create a world so detailed and rich that you might re-read some passages just to wonder how the man did it. The words are there, naked and innocent, but Carey's talent is locked somewhere behind them.

In "Theft," Carey tells the story of two brothers. Michael Boone is an artist who has just been released from jail, where he was held for trying to steal his own art from his ex-wife. Hugh Boone is mentally-disabled, a looming child of a man who enjoys a good chair, a good chicken sandwich, and a children's book called "The Magic Pudding." Michael, fresh from his incarceration, has discovered that he is no longer "in," his fame has fled, and he is now reduced to playing caretaker for his not-so-simple sibling.

"Theft" claims to be a love story, and it is on several levels, but it's hard to say which level actually works. Certainly Michael is a man in love with himself as much as with his art (and at a loss to distinguish between the two). And there's a good chance he loves his brother, although there's not much evidence of that, other than his dogged (often resentful) dedication to the lumbering man-boy. Perhaps he loves Marlene.

Marlene is an authenticator of paintings, specifically those by the late Jacques Liebovitz, one of Michael's profoundest influences. She strides into Michael's life, wet, harried and wearing three-inch Manolo Blahnik heels, and she trails with her not just rainwater and mud, but also a mystery involving a missing painting, a murder, and the possibly fradulent work of Jacques Liebovitz. She's a beautiful woman, a complex and fragile work of art herself, so it's no wonder why Michael falls moronically in love with her.

Less clear is why she would fall for Michael. Maybe that's the point. In spite of the book's lucidity (and its even, measured tone) much remains muddied, like a priceless canvas that is in want of careful cleaning. The story is told from both brother's perspectives, although the narrative leaps don't happen with any kind of discernable regularity. Hugh's voice makes it easy to see why he is at odds with a world that pretends to be sane. Still, in spite of the gaps and flaws in the poor man's mind, he's eloquent enough to seem at least as coherent as Michael, if not quite as grounded. These are mostly worthless descriptions, anyway. Carey seems to be suggesting that artists, at heart, aren't that different from self-absorbed mental defectives.

That sounds harsher than the novel is. Carey mingles technical details and slick cityscapes with loving precision, and although no character in the book could be called likeable per se, they all certainly seem real enough. It's this unswerving reality that makes it hardest to like the novel, which ends with a poignance that is deserved but somehow dull. Carey's artwork is beautiful, but it feels unfinished, unframed, and lacking the last, finishing touches. His technique is flawless, but the overall effect lacks clarity. Come for all the fantastic colors, but try not to stare too long at the big picture. It's not nearly as wonderful as the brushstrokes it's made of.

Average customer rating:

If you don't have anything else to read...
Extraordinary!
Slow and unbelievable
Hush Little Baby, Don't You Cry ...
Trying to See it From another Prespective....

Coast Road: A Novel
Barbara Delinsky
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684845768

Amazon.com

In the famed romantic tradition that only Barbara Delinsky can deliver, you'll meet emotion-packed characters who make you forget whatever it was you were doing before you picked up Coast Road. In this story, workaholic Jack McGill is brought to his knees when he learns that his ex-wife Rachel is in a coma after a car accident. When he rushes to her side to be a dutiful father to his children, he is met with abrasive verbal abuse not only from his children, but also from Rachel's best friends.

By the time the doctors tell him they don't know how long Rachel will be in the coma, Jack has reacquainted himself with his children, and fond memories have surfaced of his ex-wife and her creative artistic talent. Through Rachel's best friend, Katherine, Jack learns about a secret Rachel had hidden from him during the days they were married. The secret, revealed through artwork, is one of the many factors that thrust Jack into "introspection mode." He reevaluates his life, digging deep into his heart's desires, and decides to quit his job and stay at Rachel's side, even if she never wakes up.

Coast Road deals with some very difficult subjects, such as miscarriage, divorce, traveling husbands, breast cancer, and the ramifications of living in a coma. However, once you get past the research exposition and the bantering, you'll laugh and cry (a lot) at what this once-separated family goes through. Delinsky paints vivid pictures of Rachel, who remains in a coma for about 99 percent of the book, but you'll see that it sometimes takes a life-threatening accident to rekindle the fires of love. --Candy Paape

Book Description

Coast Road. Where life's greatest gifts come to us by accident.

Barbara Delinsky has always had a gift for creating tales of extraordinary emotional power and depth. Now this New York Times bestselling author of Three Wishes surpasses herself once again in a novel that takes readers on a journey as richly textured, colorful, and poignant as the northern California landscape in which the book is set.

Rachel Keats and Jack McGill were artists, deeply in love when they married, until the rush of life took its toll. After ten years of marriage, they divorced and went their separate ways. Jack stayed in San Francisco. Rachel moved with their two young daughters to Big Sur.

Six years later, an alarming middle-of-the-night phone call demands that Jack put aside his own busy life and career as a leading architect to rush to his ex-wife's hospital bed. While she lies lifeless, Jack maintains a bedside vigil and finds himself getting to know Rachel better than he ever did -- through their daughters, her friends, and, even more revealingly, through her art. Meanwhile, the beauty and grace of the redwood canyon where she has made their home also work their own special alchemy upon Jack. He begins to see Rachel, his daughters, and the story of his marriage with new eyes.

Coast Road celebrates those things in life that matter most -- the kinship of neighbors, the companionship of friends, and the irreplaceable time spent with children and family. In this masterful new novel, Barbara Delinsky depicts with exquisite accuracy the ties that bind each of us to those people and places we hold most dear.

Download Description

Six years ago, Architect Jack McGill picked his career over his family, but now a car accident has left his ex-wife, Rachel, clinging to life. Rushing to her bedside, Jack learns about a woman he never really knew--and sees the story of his marriage with new eyes.

Customer Reviews:

If you don't have anything else to read..........2006-08-15

I happened to read this book because it was at the beach house we rented for vacation last week. The description made the book seem interesting, but it was very one-dimensional & the characters were so stereotyped that they are not believable.

For Rachel to have loved (still love) Jack so much, she found it very easy to suddenly pack up & leave him. Also, the writer should have thought out a better way to communicate for Rachel - Katherine seemed very harsh & abrasive. I also found it hard to believe that Rachel was such a loner in the city, but quite the joiner since moving to Big Sur. Nothing really flowed together right to make the story believable.

If you don't have anything else to read, give it a try, but don't buy it.

Extraordinary!.......2005-11-23

Delinsky has a way of making normal/ordinary life occurances extraordinary! She has "painted" her characters so well that I could relate to them as if I had known them all my life. The issues the characters face are common. But their reactions are not! Emotional, passionate, and redemptive... a great read!

Slow and unbelievable.......2005-03-16

Although I don't read romance, I gave this a try at the advice of friends. While there is a plot with some merit, the characters are all caricatures - one person, one personality trait. One daughter is sweet; one is rebellious. Rachel is beautiful; Jack is selfish. Even the grandmothers are one-dimensional; one is a frump, one is a shallow socialite.

Their actions are not believable. Rachel couldn't find a single friend or anything to do in the city, but in the middle of nowhere she's the center of the whole community? She loved her husband so much but she couldn't even tell him about his own child? Jack is so clueless about teenagers that he couldn't see trouble in his daughter's plans to spend the night with a bunch of kids he didn't know? Katherine is so "open" that she needs to rudely lecture Jack the first ten times they meet? And he takes it - obviously feeling that he deserves this rude behavior?This is a male-bashing female fantasy in which the evil man needs to be redeemed by becoming, essentially, female. The fact that so many reviews are positive about this book makes me think that a lot of women think people should act this way, or do in real life. Come on, sisters! Men are different than women. Let's look for some more dimensional characters in our entertainment.

Hush Little Baby, Don't You Cry ... .......2005-03-11

COAST ROAD being the 6th novel I'd read of BD's work, I had begun to notice that her fiction creates a state of mind similar to what one of my readers (a US Marine) described about my work, "I was reading and reading, and all of a sudden I realized I had forgotten I was reading and felt I was just thinking my own thoughts."

Delinsky's fiction is so naturally and seamlessly real that I had, with COAST ROAD, decided to quit trying to pick out what works about her writing techniques, and to allow myself to just "be there," ironically slipping into a peaceful dream-like luxury similar to that of resting in a coma along with Rachael, receiving rather than responding, while her family and friends shower her with the balming presence of every variety of perfect love.

Almost as cathartic as the regeneration of the soul-link between Jack and Rachael was the beautiful, believable transformation of 15-year-old Samantha from a highly annoying super brat into a sensitive, appealingly gutsy young woman. What I admire most about this novel, though, is that it is told from a man's point-of-view, exposing simply and gently how tremendous emotional growth could occur in even the most Macho Male.

Even shored up by 5 previous Delinsky novels, I was concerned that a story about a woman in a coma would have to be sad and depressing, possibly even boring at times. This book was anything but. Sensitive, yes, sad but redeeming, and intensely engrossing in a way of deep, pensive satisfaction. It's another landmark winner of a book.

Trying to See it From another Prespective...........2004-07-15

In this story, Jack McGill, who has choosen his career over his family numerous times gets a wake up call when he discovers that his ex-wife Rachel is in a coma after a car accident. Jack never stopped loving Rachel, and for the first time in his life he puts his career on hold and goes to Rachels bedside, and to his two daughters. He discovers both his daughter and his wife are not the people he always thought them to be and that he somehow "missed the forest for the trees". With verbal abuse as well as a lot of guidance from Rachel's new friends, and his own daughters, Jack begins to reevaluate his life.

Book Description

Jay Jin is the headstrong teenage rebel, determined to prove she's seriousabout making art. J. Max is the tall debonair foreigner, in Korea on business, with more--much more--to his background than he lets on. On the surface, it would seem as though Jay and J. have nothing in common...untila chance encounter in a hotel lobby sparks a mysterious attraction. Will true love prove strong enough to overcome the language barrier, not to mention the thousands of miles separating two attractive people? Then there are the interventions of friends and family who think they know best... as well as a disastrous encounter with spicy chicken kebab! A giddy romantic fable for our ever-shrinking world, 100% Perfect Girl demonstrates the power of chemistry to conquer all.

Customer Reviews:

Absolute.......2007-07-31

I absolutely loved this story. Like they say it's a modern day Cinderella story only a little more mature.

Wow!.......2007-06-06

This manga was a lot better than I expected, I looked over the first few pages at the store and decided to give it a shot since I'm a huge shojo and romance fan. The flow of the entire book is perfect. I must say the author did an excellent job of making this book captivating but not cheesy, and the art is fantastic! Other reviews here have gone into great detail about what the book is about, so I'm not going to bother- but I'm basically writing out my opinion of my feelings towards this book in order to encourage whoever is reading this review may buy it. :) I really am hoping number 2 is as great!

Beautiful Art!.......2007-05-20

I'm new to this author's work and I found her artwork to be very beautiful. I love the close ups on the characters in volume one.

**Warning: May contain spoilers (though I tried hard not to put them)**

100% Perfect Girl is a modern day Cinderella story. Jay is a girl about to go to high school who loves art, yet her mother only cares about Jay's brother, a medical school student who wish is her command. Jay is definately stepped on numerous times in this volume by jealous exes, her mother, and brother, but she's not the weak character one might think she is, which was surprisingly refreshing.

Prince J., actually King J., is a young man who rules the country Rionne. He, as well as everyone in his country, is incredibly smart. He, however, has never experienced love and his clumsyness is just too cute. He gets carried away once, and Jay lets him have it, which just makes her more attractive to him. He's used to people treating him in a "royal" way, but Jay treats him like any other guy, even after she finds out who he is.

If you loved Cinderella as a kid, or if you just like Shojo manga you should check this story out. I guarantee true lovers of romance will be hooked after the first volume, and volume two is due out in June (only a couple weeks away) so you won't have to wait long for it.

Happy Reading!

perfect.......2007-05-17

Love it...the art is so fluid and fantastic...compositions are amazing and the style is so quirky...it's realistic and unique...I really recommend this for maybe reasons but mostly for it's shear originality.

Beautiful art, fun story........2007-05-01

The art of Wann is rich and vivid, full of life and personality. The storyline is described as a modern Cinderella story -- the main character is unable to pursue her artistic dreams, and she befriends the handsome prince who can make her dreams come true.

The translation into English is awkward every now and then, enough for me to give it 4 instead of 5 stars. The art is always fantastic, and the characters are very human; though Jaye's family isn't developed much beyond stereotypes, Jaye and J. are both complex characters, and I'm eager to see how things turn out with them.

I would recommend this to manga and romance enthusiasts, and I'll be buying the rest in the hope that they live up to the promise of this first.

Average customer rating:

Not that impressed with so few pages.
Mostly Art
GIRLS ON GIRLS!

Velvet Love Vol 1
Various
Manufacturer: SQP Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Perfect Paperback

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ASIN: 0865621098
Release Date: 2005-04-01

Product Description

Oh, what IS it about two beautiful women locked in a forbidden embrace that just makes guys go a little crazy? Maybe it s that silly idea they'd invite us into their little lovefest. One can always dream, or look into the pages of this new art collection by the team of Mazzotti and Silvestroni. An erotic series of stories,each accompanied by a steamy full color painting, this first volume of lesbian friction is sure to raise more than eyebrows!

Customer Reviews:

Not that impressed with so few pages. .......2005-12-29

If I had no other books from SQP I think I would rate this a 2, or 3 so that's what I'll review it as. Usually with SQP books like this you get a collection of detailed pencil drawings of half clothed women, monsters, fem pirates and so on. This book is a bit different. There is a sketch (very rough) on the first page, and it's painted, and complete on the second. It's 48 pages total so if you buy these books to scope for pencil drawing reference your only getting half a book, and the pencils in this volume are at a very early stage at best. If you buy for the painting I've seen both better, and worse.
It seems like half of what is usually a short book to me. The sketches I could have done without, and probably would have given it a better review if it were 48 different pages that were all painted, or a collection of various artists doing detailed pencil drawings on the subject as many of the SQP books are. As it stands I think it's closer to a one than a three, but I'll leave it at three.

Mostly Art.......2005-11-30

This book is described as, "An erotic series of stories, each accompanied by a steamy full color painting, this first volume of lesbian friction is sure to raise more than eyebrows!" Well, only part of that description is true.

Each page spread has a color plate on the right. The left side has sketches related to the plate as well as the so-called story. There is only one real story in the bunch. Some of these are less than five lines long. Most of the ones I read had little to do with the actual art. If the idea of a sketchbook with stories is what has you interested in this then you will be disappointed. It really is just a sketchbook.

For sketchbook fans the art is clean wild. Some of the plates cross over into the hardcore zone which is not too common in the sketchbook (except those by Rebecca where it is the norm). A nice selection of artists take a swipe at trying to create an erotic work involving Sapphic love. There is certainly plenty of nudity and some hard action but whether you will find it erotic or merely titillating depends on your own taste.

Again, if you are looking for stories, avoid this one. If the pictures are what you want then this one is pretty good.

GIRLS ON GIRLS!.......2005-10-19

In the first in a new series of collections from SQ Productions, Velvet Love explores erotic girl on girl love. Stefano Mazzotti provides the outstanding art and Vincenzo Silvestroni provides the prose in this combination of sensuous art and evocative verse. Stefano Mazzotti was completely unknown to me before I saw this collection. I'm not sure how much of his work has been collected previously but he is one supremely talented artist. His women are drop dead gorgeous and if these pieces don't give you at least a tingle you must be on life support.

Full Color paintings alternate with pages of black & drawings. The text of Sivestroni accompanies the black & white drawings. The works are sumptuous, sometimes quite explicit, and always beautiful. One of the first pieces I love is found on page 5 showing a lovely redhead about to be shaved by another woman with a straight razor. This is a voyeur's dream! Pages 7 - 11 feature a series of paintings depicting girl on girl sex between cheerleaders.

Bondage fans will be big fans of Velvet Love as there are several fantastic pieces in this vein. One shows a woman, bound in chains providing oral pleasure to her leather booted, whip-wielding mistress. Another features a lovely blonde captive on her knees, tightly bound with leather straps and at the mercy of a nude, brunette wearing a fashionable leather corset. Then there is the painting of a leather masked dominatrix, riding her captive like a horse and spanking her backside with her riding crop.

In Velvel Love you'll find cowgirls and Indians resolving their differences in a most pleasurable way, wealth socialites enjoying the care of their French maids, and tattoo covered biker babes enjoying each other's bodies. For any man, or woman, who enjoys girl-on-girl sex, Velvet Love from SQP is required viewing. Another great collection!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Love Letters: Leonard Woolf and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons, 1941-1968

Average customer rating:

Love Letters: Leonard Woolf and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons, 1941-1968
Judith Adamson , Leonard Woolf , and Trekkie Ritchie Parsons
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Leonard Woolf: A Biography

ASIN: 0712664734
Release Date: 2002-04-23

Book Description

“To know you and love you has been the best thing in life.” —Leonard Woolf wrote to Trekkie Parsons in 1942.

Trekkie, a painter and book illustrator, was married to the publisher Ian Parsons who was away at war. Leonard was 61, Trekkie 39. They first got to know each other a few months after Virginia Woolf’s suicide. When Ian came back from the war, they became even closer. Trekkie, a feisty feminist, had never wanted a husband and now, it seemed, she had two, spending her weekends with Ian and weekdays with Leonard, and telling no one of their arrangement. That is how they lived for twenty-five years. Apart from a handful of letters, no one has read their correspondence, which Trekkie had sealed until after her death. These remarkable letters tell the story of their unusual relationship.

Average customer rating:

Beautifully written, but the story stumbles a little
A noble attempt at explaning a classical author..
Boring
Judge a book by its cover
A Good Story

The Love-Artist: A Novel
Jane Alison
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312420064

Book Description

Why was Ovid, the most popular poet of his day, banished from Rome? Why do only two lines survive of his play Medea, reputedly his most passionate, most accomplished work? Between the known details of Ovid's life and these enigmas, Jane Alison has created a haunting drama of psychological manipulation, and an ingenious meditation on love, art and immortality. When Ovid encounters a woman who embodies the fictitious creations of his soon-to-be published Metamorphoses, he is enchanted, obsessed, and inspired. Part healer, part witch, she seems to be myth come to life, and Ovid lures her away from her home by the Black Sea to Rome. But the inexorable pull of ambition leads him to make a Faustian bargain with fate that will betray his newfound muse.

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully written, but the story stumbles a little.......2007-01-03

A very fine first novel, The Love-Artist attempts to breathe life into the Roman poet and libertine, Ovid -- rather like Pygmalion breathing life into his creation, Galatea, in Ovid's own Metamorphoses. The only problem is that the story isn't quite as fully or as well realized as I hoped it would be. The writing is beautiful, full of remarkable, poetic images, but where these should be the embellishment, with the story providing a solid backbone, in The Love-Artist, it's rather the other way around: the images are the primary substance, and the backbone of the story is rather more weak than I would have liked. It feels like the novel a poet would write -- a mixed compliment and criticism.

Still, well worth reading for the beauty of its language alone.

A noble attempt at explaning a classical author.........2004-09-14

I wanted to like Jane Alison's "Love Artist". I really wanted to see if she could bring new life into the story of Ovid. Well, she didn't, and I was left feeling confused and a bit hallow. In this tale, Ovid meets an unusual "sorceress" named Xenia, and they fall in love, and he brings her back from the Black Sea coast to his Rome, where "Metamorphosis" has just came out. There, Ovid gains the patroonship of Augustus's only granddaughter, who dispises her grandfather so much she aborts a pregnancy, thus robbing him of heirs. Anyway, parts of the book are quite erotic, but I don't quite understand how it ended badly for them. Alison is too vague mostly, and this detracts from the story.

Boring.......2004-06-21

This book is so boring that it makes other boring things seem interesting. Nothing happens - it is just a bunch of pretty description. Characters are vague and uninteresting. Plot is boring. I didn't even read the book - I wasted my time just scanning over the page praying to be done soon. And it is finally over. I never knew that 240 pages could strench on for sooooooooooooo long. Even 'Lord of Flies' seems interesting comparing to this. Hell, I'd rather be reading Stephen King than this. That is how bad it is.

Judge a book by its cover.......2004-05-27

I admit, I sometimes judge a book by its cover. In this case, I was not disappointed.

"The Love-Artist" is a rich work. During his banishment from Rome, the great writer Ovid meets Xenia (no, she's not a warrior princess). Xenia is known for her healing talents. She intrigues and inspires Ovid, who returns with her to Rome. But when Ovid decides to use her as the subject for his play "Medea," he creates situations meant to drive Xenia to the brink of madness. How does his muse cope with these manipulations and has Ovid take the charade too far?

Jane Alison's writing is eloquent and full of great imagery and exacting emotion. The characters themselves are well developed and believable.

I highly recommend this book.

A Good Story.......2003-10-24

I really enjoyed The Love-Artist. Well researched and beautifully written, it provides an entertaining look at the events that might have inspired Ovid's poetry and his exile, but it also falls short of being a great book. The mystery of Ovid's exile makes an enthralling narrative engine, and the language recreates Ancient Roman and the wonder and magic of the age. That's great, but it is also disappointing, as Ms. Alison seems to be capable of much more. Talented beyond story-telling, she is capable of creating great literature. Next time, I hope Alison aspires to do just that.

Average customer rating:

Not a bad retelling....
Reality Romance
What happened?
I Listened To The Audio Recording and I Liked It!
No "Beauty"

Beauty: A Novel
Susan Wilson
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0517701529
Release Date: 1996-05-28

Book Description

Every reader is familiar with the popular tale of Beauty and the Beast. But what if the fairy tale came true? Beauty tells the story of a modern woman who learns to love the deeper man, beyond all appearances; it is a totally credible, contemporary retelling of the classic tale. First serial to Good Housekeeping.

Customer Reviews:

Not a bad retelling...........2006-12-16

The best thing that can be said about this modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast is that it is entertaining. the worst is that it is inconsistant. Overall Wilson did a nice job of creating her characters. We know from the begining who will wind up with whome but there's a certain pleasure in watching that happen. I liked that the greatest challenge was not in the "beauty" character loving the "beast" character, but rather in him allowing himself to accept that love and believe himself worthy of it

***spoilers ahead***

A lot has been said about this book's ending and I feel that that's where it really falls short. I don't object to an unhappy ending if it serves some purpose or works in the context of the story. My problem here is that Wilson seemed to add a sad epilogue in order to avoid the "happily ever after" found in fairy tales, which makes little sense because that's exactly what this is. This ending simply feels tacked on after the "real" ending

Reality Romance.......2006-12-04

I began reading romance novels because I liked happy endings, but this book will always be on the top shelf for me. The characters were sweet, but not unbeleivably sweet. They made mistakes and paid for them. Many romance novels. Too many romance novels' heros and heroines make mistakes but never pay for them; the Fates in those books are kind indeed, for everything always turns out perfect. I enjoyed this book despite its sadness, and perhaps because of it. I believe that anyone who has had a broken heart will be able to identify.

What happened?.......2006-01-16

The novel was so good. I thought the characters were a bit shallow including the heroine Alix, she was with a very shallow man for the longest time, she would think to herself what a jerk he was and then she would just hop into bed with him. I thought Leland was adorable although the people with his disease disliked the novel and the way the disease was portrayed I thought Leland was kind and sweet. A little more could have been said and researched about Leland's desease instead of the reader just hearing about how ugly and reclusive it made him. The friendship and love between Alix and Leland was beautiful but the author could of at least let us see them consumate that love. The novel was great, I was so happy when they finally got together and then the last 13 pages it was like someone else had started writing. It was very stilted with little emotion and it made absolutely no sense to end the novel that way. Just because it is a modern update doesn't mean that the ending has to be all depressing, if it were really modern, modern medicine would have saved that ridiculous ending. If you want to read a beutiful love story then you should read this book but when they finally get together, close the book and just make believe they lived happily ever after.

I Listened To The Audio Recording and I Liked It!.......2006-01-04

I listened to the auduiobook recording of Susan Wilsons book Beauty and I liked it. It is sort of based on The Beauty and The Beast Story but is about a beautiful woman named Alix falling in love with a man named Lee who's face has been disfigured by a disease and I think that Lee is a very inspirational character and I found his and Alix's love story very touching and yes the ending was very sad but I sill liked this book. I just found out recently that this was turned into a movie, I was was watching something on Lifetime Television and a commercial came on for the movie that is based on this book and I was like oh, my gosh, I have to set my VCR timer and tape it, which I did. I haven't watched the movie yet but it stars Janine Turner from Northern Exposure as Alix and Jamey Sheridan from Law and Order: Criminal Intent as Lee and also Hal Holbrook from Designing Woman as Alix's father. I haven't watched the whole movie yet but I did see the ending and they left out the sad ending from this book!

No "Beauty".......2004-06-03

Reworking a fairy tale is tricky business, especially when it's set in the modern world without magic. And "Beauty," Susan Wilson's limp, colorless reworking of "Beauty and the Beast," is a failure as a fairy-tale retelling, because it lacks magic. More specifically, it lacks the magic of good writing.

Alix Miller arrives in New Hampshire paint the portrait of Leland Crompton, a reclusive writer who only communicates via computer. When Alix arrives, she learns why he's a recluse: Leland is disfigured by a rare disease called acromegaly (also called "Elephant Man's Disease"), and so he uses his detective alter ego to live the public life he can't.

Despite already being in a relationship with hunky, well-off Mark, Alix starts to fall in love with Leland despite his outward deformities. But long years of loneliness and being shunned make Leland think that she can't possibly want to be with him. Can Alix dump her worthless boyfriend for the guy she really loves? And can Wilson resist the urge to give the book a gratuitous weeper ending?

A modern "Beauty and the Beast," complete with the Beast's emotional hangups? Nope, doesn't work. Susan Wilson turns a classic fairy tales into a prosaic, predictable, plain-vanilla romance weeper. Take some boring dialogue, boring characters, a predictable storyline and a mess of scientific inaccuracies (related to acromegaly) and you have a recipe for a disastrous retelling.

Wilson tries to maintain the fairy-tale atmosphere with the forbidding house and mystery recluse. But it dies when Leland comes onto the scene; it becomes a predictable emotional tug-o-war between Susan and her two lovers. It's painfully obvious what her decision is going to be, and the plodding, cliched dialogue between the two reluctant soulmates only makes the trip seem longer.

What's more, Wilson's style is simply too dull. There's no sparkle or magic to her writing. She tries to spice things up with a gratuitously tragic ending, that merely turns it into a cheap melodrama, but by that time readers will find it hard to care what happens to Alix or Leland.

Alix is an uninteresting heroine, especially since she doesn't seem very bright. Why did she get involved with Mark in the first place, since he's a jerk who just seems to use her as a sex toy? Leland is an uncompelling character, since he seems rather social and outgoing for a shunned recluse. And Mark... what else need be said? Wilson apparently cannot write well enough to give Leland a decent rival.

Some writers like Jane Yolen can give modern spins on old fairy tales, without losing that hint of magic. It eludes Susan Wilson in the un-beautiful "Beauty," a soppy, weepy mess of a retelling.

Average customer rating:

A lovely and unique little comic..

A hidden gem

A beautiful, witty book

True Story, Swear to God: Chances Are
Tom Beland
Manufacturer: AiT/PlanetLar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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True Story, Swear To God: This One Goes To Eleven (True Story, Swear to God (Graphic Novels))

True Story, Swear To God: 100 Stories (True Story, Swear to God (Graphic Novels))

Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness

Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World

ASIN: 1932051090

Book Description

Life is about chances. What are the chances of going to a theme park, on the other side of the coast... and meeting a person who will change your life as you know it? What are the chances of this person living on the island of San Juan, Puerto Rico, some 9,000 miles from your home in Napa Valley, California? What are the chances of a long-distance relationship such as this lasting very long? If you're California cartoonist Tom Beland and Puerto Rico journalist Lily Garcia, well, those chances are pretty good. "Chances are." combines the first four issues of Tom Beland's Eisner-nominated autobiographical series "True Story, Swear to God." A book that deals with the joys of meeting someone by chance and the heartache that comes with distance. It covers the humor, anxiety, annoyances and paranoia found in every relationship.

Customer Reviews:

A lovely and unique little comic.........2005-01-07

This is a firm and welcomed break from the abundance of superhero comics saturating the market. Instead, Beland has created a gentle and romantic little work, chartering the development of his relationship with a Puerto Rican radio DJ he met at a bustop in Disneyland.

The artwork is light and likable and Beland is funny, warm, uncontainably romantic and eager to examine his own faults. While this is unlikely to revolutionise the comic genre, it is quick and likable and a complete break from whatever you may have read.

A hidden gem.......2004-05-01

Even if I wouldn't see myself in almost every page of this description of a long-distance love story, I'd be a fan of this book.
It's funny at times, then hearbreaking, then thought provoking. Both the art and the writing are highly professional, Mr. Beland is truly ready for the big times.
If you like books like Love & Rockets, Strangers in Paradise, Les Aventures Extraordinaires de Lapinot, you'll love this.

Just buy the book already, 'kay??

A beautiful, witty book.......2003-03-17

My wife and I were at this book's presentation at a library in San Juan the other day - bought it on the spot - read it the same day - IT'S GREAT!!!

California-bred Tom Beland shows us, in cartoons (a.k.a. comic book), how he met his future wife, Puerto Rican journalist Lily García (they worked togetheer from the second thru the fourth section of this book)). How they "clicked" and fell in love immediately, the doubts, the hopes and backstories of their romance... it's all here, from the moment they met "in a Magical Kingdom" (guess where that is) to the moment he first visits Puerto Rico and starts falling in love with the local culture... The book doesn't carry the story up to date, but since it is part of a series, it will come in an upcoming issue.

If you want to fall in love all over again with your spouse, read this one together. If you want to have a better understanding of Puerto Rican culture thru wit, read this one. Tom Beland's drawings and writing are sharp, lucid and funny... this book is to be read and treasured.

Average customer rating:

Great review of the whole Dickens family as well as Kate

Katey: The Life and Loves of Dickens's Artist Daughter
Lucinda Hawksley
Manufacturer: Doubleday UK
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
19th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0385607423
Release Date: 2006-09-26

Customer Reviews:

Great review of the whole Dickens family as well as Kate.......2006-11-19

I preordered this book after hearing a lecture by Lucinda Hawksley. It met all my expectations and more. It is easy to read and very informative. She uses great references and is able to access and read actual correspondence which really helps accuracy and interest. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Charles Dickens. BRAVO!

True Story Swear To God Volume 1 (True Story: Swear to God)

Average customer rating:

True Story Swear To God Volume 1 (True Story: Swear to God)
Tom Beland
Manufacturer: Image Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Image Comics | Publishers | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1582407614

Book Description

Tom Beland is a California cartoonist who is now living on the island of Puerto Rico, with the woman of his dreams he met at a bus stop a year ago in Disney World. It hasn't been easy, since his freelance clients haven't paid him in months, while demanding more work from him. But all that is going to change as Beland demands restitution... or else!

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