The Art Collector of Le Marais by Ahmad ArdalanMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
To be perfectly blunt, this is kind of a nothing story.
I was bored a lot.
This is the story of Sebastian's life, but it's told rather than shown which makes for incredibly tedious reading.
A lot of research clearly went into writing this novel, because it feels like we get ALL of it. Rather than focusing on the most important/interesting facts to enrich the novel, we get walls of text on all kinds of mundane things. I was really interested in the art side of things, but with so many names and styles and preservation techniques etc. it all got so muddled and in the end nothing really made an impression. There were also some awkward spelling and grammar mistakes.
Honestly, I think what this story needs is just a heavy-handed editor. Someone who can tease out the interesting and help it form a much more eloquent story.
The story itself needs a little tough love, too - the amount of priceless art Sebastian is given for free just because he's nice to someone is absolutely ridiculous. Every person he interacts with is overwhelmingly generous and kind and I wasn't buying it. Not nearly enough struggle for my liking. It was also really hard to keep track of what year it was, how old everyone was, and just generally get a feel for where and when we were. It was really hard to immerse myself in it.
I didn't particularly care for any of the characters, (view spoiler) and so I just never really got attached. Even the Paris setting was a bit of a let down. There was just not enough detail in characters, setting or atmosphere; no emotions for me to feel. Very bland all up.
It's quite obvious that the author has been inspired by his own travels, and done plenty of research. The effort is there, it was just long and tedious and really needed some tough love to cut it down to an interesting story and include some emotion.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review.
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