Book Club - The Art of Murder by Jose Carlos Somoza
Before I do a holiday write up I need to get down our book club musings before I forget them.
This time our book was chosen by lathany. It was the Art of Murder by Jose Carlos Somoza. This was his second book to be translated into English. The first book was the Athenian Murders which I had previously lent to lathany.
The Art of Murder is part murder mystery and part speculative fiction about an alternative modern artworld in near-to-modern day settings. The action takes place across Europe and the focus of the story is a series of gruesome murders in the artworld which are focussed on the hyperdramtic works of art involving real people as "canvases".
lathany kicked off the meeting. She had chosen this book because she had really enjoyed the Athenian Murders but found after reading the Art of Murder that it was her favourite. She started by saying that she really liked this novel and was the first to point out the cross genre status of the book as both murder mystery and speculative fiction. She said she found the murders, characters and world all very believable and liked the consistent approach of the author to his created, internal world and characters.
She said she thought the final approach of the two main characters to the climactic scene was very very interesting but felt that the main character of April was never really resolved satisfactorily.
lathany had actually read the book twice to refresh her memory of the book prior to book club and had found on the second reading that every character (even some of the minor characters) makes a point of referring to their father at some point in the novel.
The only negative point lathany really had to makes about the book was that the translation was sometimes a little rough around the edges.
KR (Not on LJ) had only managed to read 4 chapters into the book having been given it only last week. She said that in the short amount of time she had been reading the book that she thought that some of the descriptions of hyperdramatism were close to the more extreme example of coutuere (sp.) modelling in the real world. Later she also compared some of the physical manipulations of the canvases to the extreme slimming required of models as young as 14 which also reflected the book's focus on the young female canvases in hyperdramatism.
I was next.
I really loved this book. I loved the Athenian Murders and was apprehensive that the author would be able to top it but he did and created something fresh and new and very exciting. I was on tenterhooks the whole time I read it because I found the ideas and world created so exciting - the actual murder mystery was very much secondary to this.
There were themes of feminism, politics, money and the extremes of materialism and consumerism. The exploration of these themes and the philosophising that the reader is invited to undertake in this book are all very well explored and thought out by the author. For example early on the book I realised that pretty much all the models in the book (and certainly those which were the focus of most attention) tended to be young, good-looking women. However later in the book a member of a hyperdramatism protest group makes exactly the same observation and links this to child porn. The analogies with prostitution and pornography are even clearer and something that Somoza is clearly conscious of.
However the author refrains from making value judgements and leaves it to the reader to determine for themselves.
al_fruitbat also loved the book but thought that it was pure science fiction rather than speculative fiction. He approached it from the viewpoint of someone who knew a bit about the modern world and appreciated the commentary that the author was making about the processes of creating art and the artworld. He thought that Somoza's world of art was very believable, fresh and exciting and above all beautiful. He said that he thought Modern Art in the real world was just ugly and shocking and that Somoza's vision was of a Modern Art that could have been; and would have been both beautiful and erotic.
He said that he didn't really get into the whodunnit aspect of the book but didn't find it bothered him.
He said he thought the insight into the characters lives was interesting and that he really enjoyed the use of Rembrant in the story and the implications of that.
He thought that the character of Clara would be sad to have found she survived the serial killing.
elle_ also liked the book and thought it was was part thriller, part fantasy and partly philosophical.
She liked the conflicting emotions about hyperdramatism that the author had created in the reader and thought that April and Lothar personified this conflict.
However she said that she found the mindset of the artists themselves very alien and noted that all the people at the heart of hyperdramatism were fundamentally emotionally damaged. It was discussed how this may be analogus to the perception that great artists are often a little crazy.
elle_ also noted that although the murders were described in horried detail the main point of the murders was secondary and used to keep the attention of the reader whilst the author explored that ideas around hyperdramatism.
_alanna Initially really liked the book but then found she got bored towards the middle of the book and liked it much less by the end. She liked the idea of hyperdramatism but found she couldn't make the leap to seeing a difference between the work of art and the human being used to create it. She thought that the excusing of molestation as art and murder as art was something she couldn't see because art and being as artist was no excuse. She also thought that Clara was manipulated and brainwashed into being the canvas and that this raised various issues as to consent and when consent is no longer valid.
Ultimately she didn't like the book because she couldn't buy into the world view offered.
April was her favourite character.
ealescerwen also liked the book but didn't think the characterisation was strong.
Her favourite character was Gerrard.
ealescerwen: I didn't take notes on your views like I did the others, so if you want to comment on this post that would be most cool - Cheers!
Generally this was a great book club book. Everyone saw something different in it and got something different and interesting out of it. Almost everyone would recommend the book to someone else and I in fact bought it for cardinalsin's stepmother who then lent it to two others.
I thought this was a great book and I can't wait to see what Somoza does next.
The next book chosen by KR is The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
This time our book was chosen by lathany. It was the Art of Murder by Jose Carlos Somoza. This was his second book to be translated into English. The first book was the Athenian Murders which I had previously lent to lathany.
The Art of Murder is part murder mystery and part speculative fiction about an alternative modern artworld in near-to-modern day settings. The action takes place across Europe and the focus of the story is a series of gruesome murders in the artworld which are focussed on the hyperdramtic works of art involving real people as "canvases".
lathany kicked off the meeting. She had chosen this book because she had really enjoyed the Athenian Murders but found after reading the Art of Murder that it was her favourite. She started by saying that she really liked this novel and was the first to point out the cross genre status of the book as both murder mystery and speculative fiction. She said she found the murders, characters and world all very believable and liked the consistent approach of the author to his created, internal world and characters.
She said she thought the final approach of the two main characters to the climactic scene was very very interesting but felt that the main character of April was never really resolved satisfactorily.
lathany had actually read the book twice to refresh her memory of the book prior to book club and had found on the second reading that every character (even some of the minor characters) makes a point of referring to their father at some point in the novel.
The only negative point lathany really had to makes about the book was that the translation was sometimes a little rough around the edges.
KR (Not on LJ) had only managed to read 4 chapters into the book having been given it only last week. She said that in the short amount of time she had been reading the book that she thought that some of the descriptions of hyperdramatism were close to the more extreme example of coutuere (sp.) modelling in the real world. Later she also compared some of the physical manipulations of the canvases to the extreme slimming required of models as young as 14 which also reflected the book's focus on the young female canvases in hyperdramatism.
I was next.
I really loved this book. I loved the Athenian Murders and was apprehensive that the author would be able to top it but he did and created something fresh and new and very exciting. I was on tenterhooks the whole time I read it because I found the ideas and world created so exciting - the actual murder mystery was very much secondary to this.
There were themes of feminism, politics, money and the extremes of materialism and consumerism. The exploration of these themes and the philosophising that the reader is invited to undertake in this book are all very well explored and thought out by the author. For example early on the book I realised that pretty much all the models in the book (and certainly those which were the focus of most attention) tended to be young, good-looking women. However later in the book a member of a hyperdramatism protest group makes exactly the same observation and links this to child porn. The analogies with prostitution and pornography are even clearer and something that Somoza is clearly conscious of.
However the author refrains from making value judgements and leaves it to the reader to determine for themselves.
al_fruitbat also loved the book but thought that it was pure science fiction rather than speculative fiction. He approached it from the viewpoint of someone who knew a bit about the modern world and appreciated the commentary that the author was making about the processes of creating art and the artworld. He thought that Somoza's world of art was very believable, fresh and exciting and above all beautiful. He said that he thought Modern Art in the real world was just ugly and shocking and that Somoza's vision was of a Modern Art that could have been; and would have been both beautiful and erotic.
He said that he didn't really get into the whodunnit aspect of the book but didn't find it bothered him.
He said he thought the insight into the characters lives was interesting and that he really enjoyed the use of Rembrant in the story and the implications of that.
He thought that the character of Clara would be sad to have found she survived the serial killing.
elle_ also liked the book and thought it was was part thriller, part fantasy and partly philosophical.
She liked the conflicting emotions about hyperdramatism that the author had created in the reader and thought that April and Lothar personified this conflict.
However she said that she found the mindset of the artists themselves very alien and noted that all the people at the heart of hyperdramatism were fundamentally emotionally damaged. It was discussed how this may be analogus to the perception that great artists are often a little crazy.
elle_ also noted that although the murders were described in horried detail the main point of the murders was secondary and used to keep the attention of the reader whilst the author explored that ideas around hyperdramatism.
_alanna Initially really liked the book but then found she got bored towards the middle of the book and liked it much less by the end. She liked the idea of hyperdramatism but found she couldn't make the leap to seeing a difference between the work of art and the human being used to create it. She thought that the excusing of molestation as art and murder as art was something she couldn't see because art and being as artist was no excuse. She also thought that Clara was manipulated and brainwashed into being the canvas and that this raised various issues as to consent and when consent is no longer valid.
Ultimately she didn't like the book because she couldn't buy into the world view offered.
April was her favourite character.
ealescerwen also liked the book but didn't think the characterisation was strong.
Her favourite character was Gerrard.
ealescerwen: I didn't take notes on your views like I did the others, so if you want to comment on this post that would be most cool - Cheers!
Generally this was a great book club book. Everyone saw something different in it and got something different and interesting out of it. Almost everyone would recommend the book to someone else and I in fact bought it for cardinalsin's stepmother who then lent it to two others.
I thought this was a great book and I can't wait to see what Somoza does next.
The next book chosen by KR is The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera