The Swan Thieves Paints a Richly Textured Work of Art
Author: Elizabeth Kostova
Title: The Swan Thieves
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Much like the paintings that inspire its characters, The Swan Thieves is a richly textured work of art.
It's a matter of perspective, something successful artist Robert Oliver has lost—to the point that he's been arrested for attacking a painting in the National Gallery with a knife. If that sounds a little like a game of Clue® (the artist in the gallery with the knife) you're not far off. There's a lot of mystery about Oliver, and it's up to his new psychiatrist, Andrew Marlowe, to solve it.
Marlowe, an artist himself, is intrigued by the case. Oliver confesses, "I did it for the woman I loved," then he stops talking. About anything. At all. Instead Oliver obsessively paints a dark-haired woman, filling canvas after canvas. Who is she? What's his relationship with her? And what does a packet of crumbling old letters from another era have to do with anything?
That's what Marlowe sets out to discover. Stepping beyond the bounds of normal psychiatric care (and trampling on a few professional ethics along the way), he travels from DC to North Carolina to interview Oliver's ex-wife. (Who is decidedly not the woman in the paintings, by the way.) He goes on to hunt down Oliver's former lover (also not the mystery woman). Each describes Oliver in her own words, painting the picture of an odd—but oddly compelling—artistic genius whose obsession with his dark-haired subject destroyed first, his relationships, then, his mind.
As mentioned before, it's all about perspective. Oliver has none about himself, his art, or his obsession. Both Oliver's ex-wife and ex-lover are too close to see him clearly. Marlowe himself is in danger of losing perspective about his patient. Like any artist with a work in progress, he has to step back now and then to see how all those individual brush strokes fit into the big picture. It will take all his considerable professional skill, solid detective work, and a fair bit of international travel before everything comes into focus.
Woven throughout Marlowe's investigation are those mysterious letters, which chronicle the relationship between a young woman and a much older man, both artists. Not only do the letters provide gentle respites from Oliver's flamboyant life story, they're vital to the plot.
By the time you reach the end of the story—and at well over 500 pages, it's not a short trip—you'll be cheering Marlowe on as he fits the final piece into the puzzle. Don't be surprised if you also start looking up visiting hours for the nearest art museum. After spending so much time with all those artists, you may have a whole new perspective on art, yourself.
Warning for the gentle reader: while love scenes were tasteful, some artistic-but-graphic descriptions of the human body are included and there were a couple of spots I found a little coarse. If you're easily offended by that kind of thing, approach with caution.
**This review first published on January 26, 2010.
Originally published January 26, 2010.
