Book Review: "Pictures at an Exhibition"

Max's father is a big time art gallery owner in Paris in the late 1930s. He rubs elbows with Picasso, for heaven's sake! But he is not interested in Max taking over the gallery, although he fully expects his son to know every painting in and out, back and forth, up and down. Max knows their values. He knows how to study a painting to determine its worth. He's good.

But Max's parents want him to be a doctor, so they force him to go to medical school and hire Rose to work at the gallery instead.

Max falls for Rose. Rose does not fall for Max. Then a bunch of Germans plow through the country and Max's family, who are Jewish, go into hiding and lose everything.

Max and his dad come back to Paris years later and confirm that everything is gone. Max's dad doesn't seem interested in finding his lost paintings. Max, on the other hand, is determined to get them back. And if not all of them, one: Almonds.

This novel is the first by Sara Houghteling, and I'm impressed by her research of works of art. She does a good job of combining fact and fiction. In "The Rape of Europa," I read about the plight of art during WWII, and some specific moments -- like the moving of "The Winged Victory" down a staircase in the Louvre -- appear in this book as well.

Rose Clement, in this novel, is based on Rose Valland, a French woman who worked as an art historian before and during German occupation and kept meticulous records of the art that passed through the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris. Valland is considered a national hero in France and was awarded several decorations for her work.

In those moments, when I recognized truth in the story, I loved the book. I was also engaged when Max began his quest for his father's art, and my heart stopped with his every time he recognized a piece that belonged to him.

I was not quite as interested in Max's existential crisis along the way, even though I understand it. And the big reveal, which explains why his parents didn't want him to work in the gallery and follow in his father's footsteps, was weak to me. But the ending, set 25 years after the war with Max bidding on a painting in an auction and eventually losing his prize to a handicapped woman wearing the Legion d'honneur medal... that was cool.