THE PASSION OF ARTEMISIA by Susan Vreeland #FridayReads

After reading and enjoying Girl In Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland, I was eager to read another of her novels.

In The Passion of Artemisia the author expresses with tantalizing narrative the artist Artemisia’s passion for life and for her life’s calling as an artist. Each chapter is written with an intensity that allowed me to savor the fine details along with the broad strokes of the story as it unfolded.

The anguish displayed in the first four chapters created such emotional tension in me that reading became halting as my mind assimilated the injustice in the life of Artemisia.

Artemisia Gentileschi is only one of a few female post-Renaissance painters who achieved fame during her own era. After she is raped by her painting teacher, she is humiliated for being a “loose woman.” When she appears in the papal court to testify against her rapist, her testimony is dismissed. Rather than become involved in a planned marriage, she heads from Rome to Florence where she is befriended by none other than Galileo. But can she reconcile family life, passion, and genius in her lifetime?

For many authors, drawing reaction from the reader, whether favorable or negative, is the purpose of writing. As a reader, my goal is to experience that reaction through the development of characters within a story. While reading The Passion of Artemisia, my reactions to events were immediate, and often my opinions of these events were strong. A novel that can create this type of response from the reader is always a welcome find.

 

Next up for review (in May - after April’s A to Z Challenge) is:

The Litigators by John Grisham

and

American Pain by John Temple