Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Susan Vreeland

Written by Susan Vreeland
Read by Loren Lester, Sheryl Bernstein, Martin Ferrero, Gigi Bermingham
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 5hrs 2min
Publisher: HighBridge Company
Release date:March 2007
Format: mp3, 64kbps, chaptered

Picture this: “A most extraordinary painting in which a young girl wearing a short blue smock over a rust-colored skirt sat in profile at a table by an open window.” Susan Vreeland imagined just such a humble domestic scene, suggested it was created in 17th-century Holland, and attributed it to Jan Vermeer. Then she wrote a beguiling short novel about this canvas, which so closely resembles the 35 extant works of the Dutch masterthat it might as well be one of his–long, lost, finally found, and as exquisite as ever. The artistic journey Vreeland recounts begins in present-day Pennsylvania, where a schoolteacher claims he owns an authentic Vermeer, a legacy from his late father, who acquired it under heinous circumstances: a Nazi officer, the father had looted it from teh home of Dutch Jews.

Moving back in time and across the Atlantic, Vreeland traces the treasured painting from owner to owner. In doing so, she demonstrates the enduring power of art in the face of natural diseaster, political upheaval, and personal turmoil. Ultimately, she ends the odyssey in Delft, where the painting’s haunting subject is identified and tells her own poignant story about the picture’s origins.

Susan Vreeland’s story of a painting truly comes to life in vivid color through the readings by these performers. With a different reader for each vignette, the performers make this highly acclaimed but unremarkable book something special. The emotion, character, and variety of voices make the stories exceptional. Each chapter could stand alone as a good short story, but together they flow to create a life for the painting as it travels back in time, changing hands as a parade of characters live their lives with it. Thanks to a lively reading, one may not want to stop listening until the painting returns to its moment of inspiration as an idea in the artist’s mind. H.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

There were end-of-disk overlaps. I hope I caught all I could remove or made them less obvious…..J