The Muse

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Like most artists, everything I produced was connected to who I was - and so I suffered according to how my work was received. The idea that anyone might be able to detach their personal value from their public output was revolutionary.” Raised in poverty, these illegitimate children of the local landowner revel in exploiting this wealthy Anglo-Austrian family. Insinuating themselves into the Schloss’s lives, Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents with devastating consequences that will echo into the decades to come. I pressed on beyond half-way but then gave up. First DNF in a while. In truth, I thought it was simply dreadful. Set in Calvinist Amsterdam, it follows a new bride in a strange country and the miniaturist who foreshadowed her life with his creations.

At first, I wasn’t planning to read this book. The Miniaturist didn’t impress me, and I wondered if I should give Jessie Burton another try when there are so many new authors to discover. Then, I realized the reason why The Miniaturist didn’t work for me is that a certain plot turned out random and pointless at the end, but I loved the characters and the writing itself. So I thought, if The Muse avoids this problem, it has the potential to be very good. And it is! In fact, it’s beautiful!

The Muse

Spain, 1937. Olive Schloss, the daughter of a Viennese Jewish art dealer and English heiress, follows her parents to Arazuelo, a poor, restless village on the southern coast. She grows close to Teresa, a young housekeeper, and her half-brother Isaac Robles, an idealistic and ambitious painter newly returned from the Barcelona salons. A dilettante buoyed by the revolutionary fervor that will soon erupt into civil war, Isaac dreams of being a painter as famous as his countryman, Picasso. Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam’s most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed – perhaps this will set their fortunes straight. Yes, yes, I know. The mystery is predictable. And yes, I guessed the mysterious character’s identity pretty early on. But so what? I feel it’s wrong to think of this book as a mystery. It’s not about solving the puzzle; it’s about so much else.

it's a solid sophomore novel from burton, and i can't help but interpret this one quote as a sly little wink from her about the anxiety of writing a second novel after a very successful debut: The majority of the work was by men, but I would listen enraptured by the words and voices of Una Marson, Gladys Lindo, Constance Hollar - and Cynth would pipe up, 'one day you be read out, Delly' - and her little shining face, her bunches, she always made me feel like it was true. Seven years old, and she was the only one who ever told me to keep going. By 1960 that programme had stopped, and I came to England two years later with no idea what to do with my stories.The author expertly and quite beautifully weaves the two stories together, seemingly only connected by a work of art, as the novel progresses, the two stories are knitted tighter and tighter together until each and every character has their own place in both parts. Part of the novel is set in Spain, in the 30s, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of an art dealer, works in secret. Her paintings are fraudulently sold in London as the creation of a handsome young Spaniard named Isaac with whom Olive is in love. A parallel narrative belongs to Odelle, a West Indian writer in 60s London whose stories are submitted anonymously for publication. “I became interested in how ego, personality and identity are tied into not only the creation of a work but its commodification – the cult of the artist – and how people will attach extra value to a work because a particular person has painted it when, had they no idea who had created it, they would not pay as much.” There is much to recommend. The Muse. Not only is the tale of love, danger, betrayal and revolution in 1936 Spain riveting for the impact on the characters, it offers us a time-and-place look at a nation on the verge of darkness, a harbinger of horrors to come. Human drama meets historical madness. Burton’s portrait of 1967 London was certainly interesting, particularly for the challenges faced by non-whites, and for how people born in less central parts of the British Empire relate to the Queen-motherland. But Spain is where the real action is here. The Muse" tells the story of two women: Odelle living in 1960s London and Olive living in 1930s Malaga in Spain. It's a story about art, but it's also a story about history and destinies. From very early on in the book, I felt captivated with and invested in the story. It was simple, beautiful and I was eager to find out more about these intriguing characters.

Burton's first novel for children, The Restless Girls, was published in September 2018. [12] The story is based on the Brothers Grimm tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. [13] Your English is not as good as mine," I should have said."It does not have the length and the breadth, the meat and the smoke. Come at me with my Creole, with its Congo and its Spanish and its Hindi, French and Ibo, English and Bhojpuri, Yoruba and Manding."' Yes, historical fiction fans – I think you will really enjoy it! Now I’m off to add The Miniaturist to my to-read pile!

odelle has a similar observation, listening to the BBC'c Caribbean Voices on the radio as a little girl Olive hides her talent until she meets a young artist, Isaac, and his teenage sister Teresa. Isaac is a political activist raising funds to fight the fascists in the civil war. He an Olive decide to extract money from her parents who are oblivious to the violent carnage they face in the very near future. The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in rural Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come an artist and revolutionary, Isaac Robles, and his half-sister Teresa, who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family, with explosive and devastating consequences …