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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780143113522
ISBN number: 0143113526
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: February 26, 2008
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sale Popularity Level: 32925
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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A vivid exploration of one of the most beloved Renoir paintings in the world, “done with a flourish worthy of Renoir himself” (USA Today)
With her richly textured novels, Susan Vreeland has offered pioneering portraits of artists’ lives. Now, as she did in Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Vreeland once again focuses on a single painting—Auguste Renoir’s instantly recognizable masterpiece, which depicts a gathering of Renoir’s real friends enjoying a summer Sunday on a café terrace along the Seine. Narrated by Renoir and seven of the models, the novel illuminates the gusto, hedonism, and art of the era. With a gorgeous palette of vibrant, captivating characters, Vreeland paints their lives, loves, losses, and triumphs so vividly that “the painting literally comes alive” (The Boston Globe).
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Rated by buyers 
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I thought the book was hard to get into. I know some French and still felt confused sometimes by all the French locations thrown around continuously. The characters seemed to ramble in their thoughts too much, especially early on. I hate to put a book down so I skimmed a lot and trudged through. It picked up midway. I enjoyed learning about the impressionist painting "movement" and found a new appreciation for that style of art. I really liked her Girl With a Pearl Earring, so I was disappointed by this book. If you are totally bored, pick it up.
Rated by buyers 
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It takes a lot of nerve for a novelist to revisit and deconstruct a major piece of art. The members of my book club had that reaction when we read Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind, and I expect them to react the same way to Vreeland's take on Renoir, which we are reading now. Vreeland's book itself is anything but a work of art. But it helped me understand the painting better and appreciate more why Duncan Phillips and so many others consider it a masterpiece.
Let me start with the good news. Vreeland tells a good story; she offers a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Somehow, being able to name all the characters in the painting and clearly parse their basic relationships with one another is more satisfying than many of the technical and historical details presented in the (excellent) 1996 Rathbone et al. Phillips Collection catalog, Impressionists on the Seine, that Vreeland cites as a major source. Vreeland brings Renoir's painting style to life, helping the reader understand, for example, the impossibility for Renoir of designing a painting with drawn lines of graphite or charcoal without considering what colors go where. She somehow places the reader between Renoir and his canvas, between him and the palette and brushes in his hands. She can describe his landscape and still life settings in language that evokes the feathery, sensuous strokes and contraposition of unblended colors that Renoir and Monet worked with--I can almost feel the color-forms that she describes on my body. She captures Renoir caressing the canvas voluptuously with his brushes as though he were physically touching his model.
But then human characters appear on the page, presumably with real personalities, real motivations and psychological experiences and, God help me, supposedly real dialogue and internal monologue. Arrrrrrgh! (as Aline might say) Show me, don't tell me! Put me in the moment that the Impressionists sought to live in rather than asking me to listen to an Acoustiguide curator tell me what he said, she said, he thought, she felt.... Put the footnotes out of sight; let the narrative grow organically from them rather than building it, fact on fact, like a paper-thin house of note cards. I feel like I am watching a biopic from the 1930s with a teenage Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney saying, "Let's put on a show!" Renoir hears Alphonsine suggest her terrace as the location for a painting and suddenly emotes, "Aha!! This is the answer to all my problems [which have conveniently just been laboriously laid out in outline form for the reader]. Let's make a masterpiece!"
This happens a lot. When Vreeland wants to acquaint us with Montmartre, she has Renoir and Paul Lhote wander from bar to bar, purportedly seeking Angèle to model in the painting, thereby giving us a Zagat's-eye guide to the bars. When she wants to acquaint us with "la vie moderne," while Renoir paints, she has one of the models, Circe, ask the other models, as true "flâneurs de Paris," what they have seen in the last week that embodies "la vie moderne" for them--this now a Zagat's-eye guide to Paris. When Caillebotte mopes around about the infighting among the founding members of the Impressionist group, we know he's hurting because he says repeatedly, in more or less the same words, "I'm hurting," and Renoir responds, again in more or less the same words, "Sorry, I'm moving on." And the agony of resolving the problems of the quatorzième and anchoring the painting, over and over and over.... Ugh! I'd rather get the Acoustiguide and let Eliza Rathbone herself just TELL me about Montmartre, TELL me about "la vie moderne," TELL me that Caillebotte was hurting as Renoir moved on.... This is not art.
And what about that rude, crude Angèle with a heart of gold, and that Jules, le très drôle Bardomatique? Yikes! In every scene in which they appear. They leave me embarrassed for the author.
Did you notice how I slipped in a few simple French phrases above? Vreeland taught me that. She inserts bits of French that allow a reader (like me) who vaguely recalls her high-school French to read them and experience the quick rush of "Ooooo, I speak French!" (Please, no one mention Thomas Dolby's "Air Head.") Sort of like peppy hooks in a pop song that you can't get out of your head--the simple frisson of them catches you unawares and you dance for a moment. Until you get tired of doing it, over and over and over. Is this story happening in French or English? Do these cute tourist phrases connote anything more than a doggie treat to reward an aspiring Anglophone reader (like me) trying to feel a bit closer to French culture?
So, fair warning. Don't ask too much of this book. It's not literature. It's not art. It is absolutely NOT, as USA Today apparently claimed "done with a flourish worthy of Renoir himself." Think teenage Judy Garland, not ... Read More
Rated by buyers 
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This was one of the best books I've ever read. With all that France has had to endure, the French people are celebrated here through art, food and the love of the outdoors. Ms. Vreeland did an excellent job researching her subject. If you are not an avid art lover or Impressionist fan, you will be after reading this book. Renoir painted happiness and her book depicts this. Yes, the characters all brought their struggles to the table so to speak, but look at this painting - they are all having a good time. No matter how much hardship - people survive.
This was a great book club pick. Many in my club had no idea about art or this painting. They really enjoyed the trip into France and into a painter's life. It made for a great theme, too. It makes me want to go see the actual painting in Washington D.C.!
Rated by buyers 
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This fictionalized account of Renoir's creation of the signature Impressionist painting was a delicious diversion while driving to Lake Tahoe (I have the audio version). For me, it captured the essence of Renoir struggles at this turbulent time of his career. Around the process of creating this masterpiece, Vreeland offers up tantalizing, if somewhat non compelling fiction around the characters captured in the painting. Don't expect a lot of historical accuracy, as good storytelling seems to prevail. The tale of Aline Charigot's involvement and her predecessor in the painting seem especially factitious. However, my only real complaint is that in the audio version, the vocalist (forgot her name) makes all male dialog sound like macho declarations. This was a major distraction as I have never had this problem with other audio books.
Rated by buyers -
As an artist, I have to say, I have fallen in love with this book. Ms. Vreeland has conceived a beautiful palette of colour and harmony with her characterizations and her stories behind this painting.
I feel like I am right there with this group, posing for this painting. My hat is off to you Ms. Vreeland. You have achieved a masterpiece with this book. Your knowledge of the artistic process is exceptional. You capture the time period so well. How did you manage to get inside the head of Renoir so fully? Thank you. I am finding this book completely inspirational to my own creative process. It makes me feel not so alone when I also reach a moment when things are not quite right and I have to rework sections of paintings. You are brilliant and so is this book. I love it!
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