The Muse

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That said, Jessie Burton is a great writer. I thought so when I read The Miniaturist and I can't do anything but confirm it now. Her characters are well developed, her writing style is elegant and she's capable of describing human emotions in a realistic way. The plot might be a bit predictable in this case, but the final result wasn't any less beautiful because of it. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Meanwhile in 1936, Spain is on the verge of war and revolution and Olive Schloss; daughter of Harold and Sarah, and aspiring artist is entranced by the mysterious and enigmatic brother and sister; Isaac and Teresa Robles.

The prose was flowery beyond belief. This was compounded by the fact that the reader seemed to continually adopt an overwrought style more befitting a Shakespearian play. The accents also seemed exaggerated to the point of distraction. Set in Calvinist Amsterdam, it follows a new bride in a strange country and the miniaturist who foreshadowed her life with his creations. Many thanks to author Jessie Burton via publisher Pan Macmillan for a copy of The Muse in exchange for my honest review. A fateful night in Spain sees fireworks mirror the civil unrest, exploding in the sky “red and green and orange, gigantic sea urchins, falling fountains”. When all is lost and those who are left flee Spain for the safety of England, the sea is “mud and milk, slate and leaf, and bronze when the light caught the crest of a wave.” A very wealthy English-Austrian family moves to a poor region of Spain. The reaction of the local people is very realistic – they try to benefit from the visitors, while at the same way not getting too close, knowing these people are only passing through and will one day leave. The daughter, Olive, struggles with this reaction. She wants to be taken seriously, to show that this is her home and that their fights are her fight. It’s no surprise that no one believes her, and everyone thinks it’s all a game to her. At any point, she can get on her ship and leave war and danger behind. But Olive is determined, and she proves her loyalty in the most heartbreaking way possible.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 characters from this book are extremely well developed, especially the central characters, Olive and Odelle. Odelle is an aspiring writer, who faces a lot of challenges on her way to achieve a meaningful job, and not to mention her wit and intellect will surprise many readers like it surprised the characters surrounding her. Olive, on the other hand, will come across as someone bit naive and when she falls for the handsome local boy, Issac, she devotes herself to him, despite his as well as his sister's efforts to bring Olive's talent in the limelight. Another character deserves worth a mention in the review is Marjorie, whose no-nonsense and independent demeanor will make the readers fall for her. Overall, the characters aren't that memorable yet etched out with finesse.

The plot follows two different but interwined timelines. We have Odelle, a Caribbean immigrant in London in 1967, and Olive Schloss, daughter of an art dealer in Spain in 1937. all these quotes are taken from an uncorrected proof of the book, so they might be subject to change. There are two timelines here. One is London in 1967 and the other is in Spain in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. This is an exploration of the relationship between art and artists and indeed the role of the muse. It also considers the afterlife of a painting. Burton explores the way men and women are treated differently as artists and there is a sort of artistic detective story. 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?”In 1936 Spain, in the impoverished rural village of Arazuelo on the southern coast of Spain, Olive Schloss, a nineteen year old artist, lives in a rented villa with her expatriate parents. Her father is a Viennese art dealer who doesn’t believe women can be true artists, and is totally unaware of his daughter’s talent. Olive hides her artwork, along with her invitation to study art at a London art school. Either from uncertainty or a feeling that her artistic future lies elsewhere, Olive never responds to the art school. Her decision to stay is solidified when she meets Isaac Robles, an art teacher and revolutionary, and his young sister Teresa. Olive befriends Teresa and falls in love with Isaac, who inspires her to paint greater art than Olive has ever created before. Isaac’s minor talent at painting, Teresa’s desire to have Olive become known for her art, and Olive’s compulsion to keep it secret, collide, with unexpected consequences for all three of them. Do you have a body if no one is there to touch it? I suppose you do, but sometimes it felt like I didn't. I was just a mind, floating around the rooms." So why didn’t the whole add up to the sum of it’s parts? Well, I can’t tell you about the whole, but I can tell you about the half of it.