It’s been suggested that there’s a fine line between brilliance and madness, and it is exactly this edge of reason that becomes the centerpiece of exploration for “New York Times” best selling author Michael Gruber in his new work, “The Forgery of Venus.” This brilliantly written, endlessly fascinating story focuses on the life of Chaz Wilmot, an artist of exceptional talent who has had to make a hard scrabble living from commercial work, even while living in the shadow of his father, a far more famous artist.
Chaz has led a less than exemplary life (doing drugs, acting out) and despite his superior talent (better than his father or other contemporaries), he finds himself desperate for money to help support his sick child who needs expensive medical treatment. To make ends meet, Chaz first agrees to participate in a drug study on creativity, but then receives an even more lucrative offer he finds he cannot refuse. His best friend, gallery owner Mark Slade, tells him about a ceiling in Venice that needs a secret restoration. This Tiepolo ceiling, however, is more re-creation than restoration, but the price is so tempting that Chaz agrees.
Thus begins the descent into confusion over his own identity and sanity. While in Italy, Chaz Wilmot continues to take the drugs stolen from the medical study on creativity, which have a transformative effect on him. When under their influence, Wilmot believes that he becomes the Spanish painter Velazquez. Adding to the insanity surrounding Wilmot are the motivations of his employer, a shady art dealer who has been accused of selling paintings stolen by the Nazis in World War II, who seeks to keep Wilmot in a questioning state so as to use his talent for forgery.
It is this descent into a mixture of madness and the full execution of Wilmot’s own exceptional artistic talent that lay at the center of the novel. Which reality is true? Or can both be true at the same time? Can Wilmot believe what is happening to him or what he knows within himself to be true? Gruber is a master at using this novel to explore these issues and create for the reader the sort of confused state in which he imagines his own main character. Add to this his gripping tale of the life of Velazquez, the story of paintings stolen during World War II, and the issue of forgery and truth in art, and you have an amazing novel in which the line between sanity and insanity seems arbitrary at any given moment.
This hallucinatory state is so brilliantly and compellingly written that Gruber touches on something that seems nearly impossible to describe: the state of creativity. What makes art so interesting in part is its magic: Just how did the artist create the work? What was his state of mind? Because artists tend to live on the edge of society (apart in their craft and way of seeing the world), the rest of society seems to view them as “mad geniuses,” an apt description in this novel.
The author himself has created something truly outstanding with this novel: He has allowed a peak into that world through his story and character Chaz Wilmot. He has created a book that is part mystery, part art history, part literary fiction and totally engrossing. Where is the line between madness and sanity? Although Michael Gruber may not answer that question in his novel, he certainly gives his readers plenty to think about.
The above review was contributed by: Christine Zibas. Christine has spent all of her life in love with books, and most of her life working with words. She has a B.A. in Political Science from WesternIllinoisUniversity and did advanced studies in politics and publishing at WIU, OxfordUniversity, GeorgeWashingtonUniversity, and Stanford. To read more of Christine's Reviews CLICK HERE
For many years Christine was an editor in the think tank world, editing books and reports on international relations and military studies. She worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. and the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute, where she served as director of publications. In London she was the editor at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
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