Novels Now

Chaz Wilmot is (by choice) an unsuccessful painter doing primarily commercial work. He obviously has more talent than what he’s using, and this fact is a constant source of frustration for his ex-wife and others around him. As part of a medical study, Chaz starts taking Salvinorin A, a drug being tested for its effects on artists’ creativity. Chaz is strangely affected by the drug; it not only increases his creativity, it makes him have the memories and abilities of the famous Spanish artist, Diego Valazquez. Is Chaz crazy, or is the drug truly giving him these actual memories and abilities?

Salvinorin A is a real drug, reportedly having real, similar effects as the ones occurring in this book. If you like art and psychological suspense, you may enjoy this book by Michael Gruber. It was a little too graphic for my tastes, but I did enjoy the basic story.

2008, 318 pp.
Rating: 3.5/5

Also reviewed by:

• Nicola

The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber
Pages: 318
Finished: Mar. 21, 2008
First Published: April, 2008
Genre: psychological suspense
Rating: 3.5/5

First Sentence:

Wilmot showed me that one, back in college; he’d written it out in his casually elegant calligraphy and had it up on the wall of his room.

Reason for Reading: I received this as an ARC.

Comments: Chaz Wilmot is a painter who is stuck in a rut producing advertising art so he can afford to pay for his son’s expensive medical treatments. He agrees to take part in an experimental drug study focusing on artists and their creativity. Soon afterwards Chaz starts slipping into memories of the great painter Diego Velazquez. But these may not just be memories; he seems to actually be leaping back in time and living the painters’ life.

This is the beginning of a roller coaster ride that carries Chaz from New York to Italy, from sanity to insanity and into the world of international art forgery. Chaz is very confused and doesn’t understand what is happening and the reader tries to make sense of it all. Is Chad having drug-induced visions? Is there something supernatural happening to him? Or perhaps Chad is really a psychotic mental patient? This was a thrilling read that continuously kept me guessing.

Chaz is a very unreliable narrator and because of that I did find it hard to connect with him and actually care what happened to him. The profanity in the narrative bothered me some. It’s one thing to have characters swearing at each other but I find it irritating when the narrator is swearing at me. However, the plot was a whirlwind of intrigue that kept me interested until the unsettling finish. I also loved the art world setting from the New York art galleries to 15th century Italy and Spain. Recommended.