Brief Review: The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy

Griffin & Sabine - An Extraordinary Correspondence (1991)
Sabine's Notebook: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues (1992)
The Golden Mean: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes (1993)

Written and illustrated by Nick Bantock
Published by Chronicle Books

Somehow I managed to avoid reading any of Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine books back in the '90s when they were all the rage. So when the Art History Reading Challenge came along, I decided to remedy that situation. The books that make up the first trilogy are just about 50 pages each; so, together, they form something of a novella-length story.

In the first book, London artist Griffin Moss receives his first missive from Sabine Strohem – a note complimenting him on a decision he has made to alter one of the handmade postcards he designs. This mystifies Griffin, as he works alone and never discusses his design process with anyone. He has never met or even heard of Sabine before; but he responds, begging her to tell him how she knows about his changes to his original design. When Sabine replies, she tells him "I share your sight," and explains that in her mind she can see his work as he creates it, even though she lives many miles from him – in another country, in fact. And so their correspondence (which truly is, as the subtitle claims, extraordinary) begins, and gradually becomes ever more intimate, romantic, and astounding.

Griffin fantasizes about Sabine, and is by turns, powerfully obsessed and repelled by their strange situation. Over the course of this and the next two books, the relationship grows and the two make plans to meet. They also face the problem of a sinister intruder who wants to study their "psychic" connection.

These books were a joy to read. There are wonderful illustrations on every page, and the story unfolds as the reader examines the cards and letters that pass between the two artists (many of the letters are in actual envelopes). Their individual personalities and outlooks are exposed through their correspondence and their very different artistic styles – Griffin's in his postcards, and Sabine's in the postage stamps she designs for her South Pacific island home, and the whimsical doodles she includes on each of her cards and letters. And all through the series runs the question of just how much is real and how much exists only in Griffin's imagination. Or in Sabine's.

The trilogy ends with one final, rather enigmatic postcard – which leaves an obvious opening for further adventures in the future. And I was very excited to find that there is, indeed, yet another volume in the series – The Gryphon: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Is Rediscovered. Can't wait to get my hands on that next installment!

The Art History Reading Challenge 2010

Found another one. I know, I know - I should really stop looking! But for a while there, several centuries ago, I was headed for grad school in art history (alas, never to be). So this is a subject that's dear to my heart.

The 2010 edition of the Art History Reading Challenge is being hosted by Nomadreader, and runs throughout 2010 (1 January to 31 December). You can sign up and read all about the challenge over on the announcement page, but basically the idea is just to read art-related books (either fiction or non-). There are four different levels of participation; I'm going to be very conservative and opt for Level Two ("Fascinated") - so I'll be reading at least six books, but I hope to do much better than that. Listing your books ahead of time isn't a requirement, but I've got a few that I'm thinking about:

• The Forgery of Venus, by Michael Gruber
• Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper, by Harriet Scott Chessman
• Seek My Face, by John Updike
• Stealing Athena, by Karen Essex

Plus two more. Of course, my list may change and (I hope) expand as time goes on its flight. I've got a much longer list of titles to choose from, over on my challenge blog; and I'll be updating my progress there, during the year.

Random Photo Monday: Summer and Hogarth

Random Photo Monday has moved to my other blog (Joy's Blog). To give it a look, go here.

Random Notes

Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings is showcasing some really amazing altered book art on his site (see: Book Week: Day Two). I know altered books are controversial with book people – if you love books, the idea of cutting them up or obscuring the text in any way can amount to wanton disfigurement, pure and simple. But some of Carl's examples are breathtaking. I don't think I would ever have come up with the idea of carving a book.

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I'm sure everybody has probably discovered Weekly Geeks by now. It's a new kind of challenge hosted by Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf, and it has a different theme every week. It started off this past week with "Discover New Blogs Week," with the following guidelines:

1. Look through the list of blogs on the Mr Linky ... and see if you can find five that are new to you. If you can’t, find as many new blogs as possible and then some you don’t read super regularly.
2. Visit those new blogs. A comment would be nice; people like comments.
3. When you’re ready, at some point by Friday if you want to be included in the blurbs next week, write a post in your blog featuring those new blogs you visited.
4. Don’t forget to come back here and leave a link to your post, so that I can get it into the blurbs!

I haven't had time to do a lot of sampling, but I did find a few new book blogs that look interesting.

Mysteries in Paradise is devoted to reviews and talk about mysteries and crime fiction – one of my favorite genres.
Books & Other Thoughts has many fine reviews of children's and YA titles, and a nice inviting tropical design.
The Book Mine Set is owned by John Mutford. Well, technically this wasn't a new find – I've visited John's site before. He's Canadian and hosts the Canadian Book Challenge. His blog is a great way to learn a bit about Canadian literature, and there are always lots of amusing comments to read, too.

Well, I know that's not five, but I'm still exploring.

Review: Miss Rumphius

Written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney
Published by Puffin Books, 1985, 30+ pp.; ages 4-8
Originally published by Viking Penguin, Inc., 1982 Young Readers Challenge

The Lupine Lady is little and old. But she has not always been that way. I know. She is my great-aunt, and she told me so.

Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius, winner of the 1983 American Book Award, is the charming story of little Alice Rumphius who lived in a seaside city, where "From the front stoop she could see the wharves and the bristling masts of tall ships."

Alice's grandfather is an artist and woodcarver who carves figureheads for ships, and paints pictures of ships and faraway places ("When he was very busy, Alice helped him put in the skies."). In the evenings, Alice sits on her grandfather's knee and listens to his stories about the places he's traveled. When she grows up, says Alice, she wants to live the same life her grandfather has lived – to travel to faraway places and then come home to live by the sea. And her grandfather tells her that there is a third thing she must do – she must do something to make the world more beautiful.

Alice grows up. People call her Miss Rumphius. She moves to a city far from the sea and works in a library ("dusting books and keeping them from getting mixed up, and helping people find the ones they wanted"). And just as she had hoped she would, Miss Rumphius eventually leaves her library and travels the world, meeting new people and having adventures. Then she comes back and finds her home by the sea.

And finally, she discovers a way to make the world more beautiful, as her grandfather had said she must, many years before. All one summer she wanders the fields and country lanes around her home, scattering lupine seeds to the wind (because she's always loved lupines the best). And that's how she comes to be called "The Lupine Lady" – although some people just call her "That Crazy Old Lady," which shows that even the best intentions can go unappreciated.

Somehow I managed to miss out on Barbara Cooney's books when I was a child. Though she illustrated more than 200 (she was twice awarded the Caldecott Medal), this book was my first experience of her work. And I've certainly been missing something. Her illustrations are wonderful - the misty watercolor-like pictures are perfect for the book's seaside settings. And the story of Alice Rumphius is a great example of how one person can find a way to make a real difference in the world.

Barbara Cooney died in March, 2000 at the age of 82. Toward the end of her life, she admitted that Miss Rumphius was the book that was closest to her heart. As she worked on the book, she said, Alice Rumphius came to seem like her alter ego. And that seems utterly fitting for an artist whose illustrations brought so much loveliness into the world.

Review: The Flanders Panel

Written by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa
Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994, 295 pages
Winter Reading Challenge 2008

"Life is an uncertain adventure in a diffuse landscape, whose borders are continually shifting, where all frontiers are artificial, where at any moment everything can either end only to begin again or finish suddenly, for ever and ever, like an unexpected blow from an axe. Where the only absolute, coherent, indisputable and definitive reality is death. Where we are only a tiny lightning flash between two eternal nights, and where . . . we have very little time." [Chapter XV: "Queen Ending," p. 269]

Julia, a 20-something art expert in Madrid, is hired to restore a painting about to be auctioned off by Claymore's, a prominent auction house. The Game of Chess, by fifteenth-century Flemish master Pieter Van Huys, depicts the Duke of Ostenburg and one of his knights seated at a chess board, engaged in a game, while in the background a lady in a black velvet dress sits reading by a window.

When she has the painting X-rayed before cleaning, Julia discovers a hidden message in a corner of the work, presumably written and then deliberately painted over by the artist himself. The message is written in Latin: "Quis Necavit Equitem" ("Who Killed the Knight?"), and Julia's obsession with finding out more about the inscription, the picture and the historical events surrounding its creation are the basis of Arturo Perez-Reverte's sophisticated mystery novel, The Flanders Panel.

As she turns up more information about the painting and the characters involved, Julia begins to realize she's uncovered a Renaissance murder mystery that seems to have ramifications in the present century. But even as violence and danger begin to erupt, her fascination with the painting and its story increases until it threatens her own life and the lives of her friends and loved ones.

As the book's advertising claims, The Flanders Panel is truly a "mystery for the connoisseur." The writing is sophisticated and elegant, the plot twists and turns, and the story shifts easily back and forth among many attractive (and yet somehow sinister) settings – auction houses and museums, antique shops and chess clubs, nightclubs and the streets of Madrid. The chess motif is well-researched, and runs through the whole book, but readers who know little about chess (and I'm one) can still enjoy the story.

Images of Alice and her looking-glass are sprinkled through the book – another heroine caught up in a story based on a game of chess. The author throws in several paradoxes and puzzles along the way, and many references to Edgar Allan Poe and Dupin, and to Sherlock Holmes and Watson, I suppose to emphasize the fact that the story is a mystery. And there are surprises (almost literally) around every corner.

This is the second Perez-Reverte novel I've read – the first was The Club Dumas; and I don't think "Flanders" quite comes up to that level. Still, it kept me turning pages into the wee hours, several nights running, and whetted my appetite for more of his work - and I consider that a pretty good recommendation.