The Muse

Product Information

Was the difference between being a workaday painter and being an artist simply other people believing in you, or spending twice as much money on your work? As far as Olive saw it, this connection of masculinity with creativity had been conjured from the air and been enforced, legitimised and monetised by enough people for whom such a state of affairs was convenient – men like her father.” of the two stories, i liked odelle's much more. she's a more appealing character, and she does indeed have a way with words, even the ones she doesn't speak aloud to those who would condescend to her. The author expertly and quite beautifully weaves the two stories together, seemingly only connected by a work of art, as the novel progresses, the two stories are knitted tighter and tighter together until each and every character has their own place in both parts.

Set in Calvinist Amsterdam, it follows a new bride in a strange country and the miniaturist who foreshadowed her life with his creations. The Muse by Jessie Burton nicely flips the stereotypes with a female artist and male source of inspiration. Many thanks to author Jessie Burton via publisher Pan Macmillan for a copy of The Muse in exchange for my honest review. Odelle’s experiences in London were depicted really well. Her hopeless job search, her frustration with locals knowing nothing about Trinidad (although it was a part of the empire,) while she knows so much about London, always having to prove herself, always having to work five times as hard to be at the same level as her peers, everyone constantly misspelling and mispronouncing both her surname and her given name in ridiculous ways. And, most of all, Odelle’s own feelings about her experience:

Need Help?

Raised in poverty, these illegitimate children of the local landowner revel in exploiting the wealthy Anglo-Austrians. Insinuating themselves into the Schloss family's lives, Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents with devastating consequences that will echo into the decades to come. full review to come, but i wanted to get that out there now for people like me (although with better spines, hopefully) who may not feel drawn to this book by the synopsis alone. now you have the synopsis, an anecdote, and a quote. There’s little else I can say about the plot of this book without giving something important away. While many of the twists were foreshadowed, there were a couple that came as a surprise to me. I confess that this is a story that would have benefited from a bit more characterization and a little less plodding prose. While the writing was lovely, it tended toward boggy. I liked what the novel had to say about art and the process of creation, and I appreciated that the book highlighted women as artists. But none of the relationships felt true, and the characters didn’t seem to like or accept themselves, which made them hard to enjoy. All of that boils down to this: I enjoyed the philosophical aspects of the story far more than the story itself. That being said, the book has merit, especially for people who appreciate the theory of art or are artists themselves.

The mystery behind the painting wasn't as captivating as I hoped for. It wasn't a riddle you would enjoy solving. There is much to recommend. The Muse. Not only is the tale of love, danger, betrayal and revolution in 1936 Spain riveting for the impact on the characters, it offers us a time-and-place look at a nation on the verge of darkness, a harbinger of horrors to come. Human drama meets historical madness. Burton’s portrait of 1967 London was certainly interesting, particularly for the challenges faced by non-whites, and for how people born in less central parts of the British Empire relate to the Queen-motherland. But Spain is where the real action is here. I really liked Olive's story too, but I didn't like Olive as much as I wanted. Which is also the main reason why I preferred The Miniaturist to The Muse, even though I really liked the latter. I appreciated that Olive was a strong woman herself and that she wanted to prove something, but she came across as a bit naive and sometimes as someone who was too self-centered. I completely understood her need to be seen, but she didn't think about the consequences of her actions most of the time, and that definitely irked me. It's a good book to put someone suffering insomnia to sleep. I yawned a lot and paused a lot and read a lot of another book in between. I mostly exaggerate when I'm disappointed but I'll give credit where credit is due. It's not the worst book out there and it can appeal to someone with a different taste. I liked the beginning and parts near the unsatisfactory end. But the middle content was a meh.I loved all the twists and turns, drama and intrigue. There were a few times, especially in the 1930’s Spain setting, that it got slightly slow for me, but I think again that is my usual indifference to historical fiction coming through, rather than any fault of the writer.