From rowdy Barcelona barrooms to the incandescent streets of turn-of-the-century Paris, Pablo Picasso experiences the sumptuous highs and seedy lows of bohemian life alongside his rebellious poet friend with a shadowy past, Carles Casagemas.
Fleeing family misfortune and their parents’ expectations, the two young artists seek their creative outlet while chasing inspiration in drugs, decadence, and the liberated women of Montmartre—creatures far different from the veiled ones back home.
The new life feels like bliss, and nothing can come between them…until a dark-haired, enigmatic muse enters the picture. The two artists’ passion for Germaine will lead to a devastating turn. Amid soul-searching and despair, however, Picasso discovers a color palette in which to render his demons and paint himself into lasting history.
Bringing the exuberance of the era vividly to life, this richly imagined portrait of Picasso’s coming of age intertwines the love, death, lust, and friendships that inspired the immortal works of a defiant master.
Goodreads Rating: 3.56 stars with just over 2,000 ratings.
Genre listing: Historical Fiction, Art, Fiction
Goodreads Challenge: 19/50 (Sooooo behind. Argh)
2019 reading challenge: #22 a book about an artist (find the full challenge here.)
Book Review:
I'm honestly just going to dig right into this review. If I don't, I may lose all my thoughts, and I've been grouchy and snarky this week. The summary above calls it riveting, and I don't think that's the word I would use to describe The Blue Period by Luke Jerod Kummer. It is about 350 pages long, but it seems like so much longer. Every time I checked my progress, I felt disappointed with how little I had actually read. It is one of those books where you read like ten or so pages and feel like you've read fifty because it just drags on.
I think that part of the reason that The Blue Period drags on and on is that nothing really ever happens in it. I believe it starts with his friend dying, and then flashes back to his childhood and how he learned to paint. Once it catches back up to the initial scene, it's just a pattern of Pablo Picasso either being broke in Spain or broke in Paris. Which, don't get me wrong the author did a great job of showing just how destitute the painter was and how dirty the world was.
I was surprised at how little there was actually detailing the paintings done by Pablo Picasso. I mean don't get me wrong, it's there. But I thought it'd be more prevalent in this story. A lot of it is that he snuck away and painted at night. Might favorite aspect of the story was when he went and painted at the prison. However, for me, this just felt like a small part of the story. I didn't read the summary when I picked it out or started reading it. I saw Pablo Picasso and said welp, there's my book for #22 and called it a day. Had I read this, I probably would have realized that it wasn't necessarily about the artwork, but what got Pablo Picasso to his famous Blue Period. I also know very little about Picasso's life. I saw the Old Guitarist at an art museum once, and that's about the extent of it beyond his signature styles. I like art, but Art Historian I am not.
I was honestly not prepared for the graphic nature of the book or the desperate need for a thesaurus. Real or fictional, I feel like after reading The Blue Period by Luke Jerod Kummer, I now know more about Pablo Picasso's sex life than his artwork. Most of his time in Paris based on the story told in this book seemed to be occupied screwing prostitutes and having Syphalyis. I don't mind reading sex scenes, but I feel like they need to be done well if they're going to be done at all. Literally, every sex scene was described as fucking. There are a plethora of words in the English language that could be used to describe someone having sex, why limit ourselves to just one word? I know. Strange ask coming from me, considering I tend to use the word or some derivative of it as sentence enhancers. In the realm of Picasso, having Syphilis- I did not need a detailed description of the sores on his dick. I came for Art but got a description of diseased genitalia. Awesome.
I think that part of the reason that The Blue Period drags on and on is that nothing really ever happens in it. I believe it starts with his friend dying, and then flashes back to his childhood and how he learned to paint. Once it catches back up to the initial scene, it's just a pattern of Pablo Picasso either being broke in Spain or broke in Paris. Which, don't get me wrong the author did a great job of showing just how destitute the painter was and how dirty the world was.
I was surprised at how little there was actually detailing the paintings done by Pablo Picasso. I mean don't get me wrong, it's there. But I thought it'd be more prevalent in this story. A lot of it is that he snuck away and painted at night. Might favorite aspect of the story was when he went and painted at the prison. However, for me, this just felt like a small part of the story. I didn't read the summary when I picked it out or started reading it. I saw Pablo Picasso and said welp, there's my book for #22 and called it a day. Had I read this, I probably would have realized that it wasn't necessarily about the artwork, but what got Pablo Picasso to his famous Blue Period. I also know very little about Picasso's life. I saw the Old Guitarist at an art museum once, and that's about the extent of it beyond his signature styles. I like art, but Art Historian I am not.
I was honestly not prepared for the graphic nature of the book or the desperate need for a thesaurus. Real or fictional, I feel like after reading The Blue Period by Luke Jerod Kummer, I now know more about Pablo Picasso's sex life than his artwork. Most of his time in Paris based on the story told in this book seemed to be occupied screwing prostitutes and having Syphalyis. I don't mind reading sex scenes, but I feel like they need to be done well if they're going to be done at all. Literally, every sex scene was described as fucking. There are a plethora of words in the English language that could be used to describe someone having sex, why limit ourselves to just one word? I know. Strange ask coming from me, considering I tend to use the word or some derivative of it as sentence enhancers. In the realm of Picasso, having Syphilis- I did not need a detailed description of the sores on his dick. I came for Art but got a description of diseased genitalia. Awesome.
In addition to the desperate need for a thesaurus. The dialogue needed serious help. Every scene with it just read really weirdly. I don't know if it was an attempt to go for the language used in the early 1900s if it was translated from another language into English, or what, but it did not read well. It just felt awkward most of the time. Overall, I just really didn't enjoy this book. I read it because it was free, and it filled a spot on the challenge list.
As you can tell, I really didn't enjoy the book. For what it's worth, I don't like shredding author's work like this. I actually feel bad, but I promise honest reviews, and I've never been one for sugar coating anything. I imagine when I finally publish my work that Karma will bite me in the ass for this blog. If you want some different views on the book, feel free to check out Goodreads. It seems to be a mixed bag.
As you can tell, I really didn't enjoy the book. For what it's worth, I don't like shredding author's work like this. I actually feel bad, but I promise honest reviews, and I've never been one for sugar coating anything. I imagine when I finally publish my work that Karma will bite me in the ass for this blog. If you want some different views on the book, feel free to check out Goodreads. It seems to be a mixed bag.
Enjoyed your take on the book. I also thought the author took huge leaps of imagination in describing Picasso's sex life. I have never heard that Picasso EVER had syphillis, nor that he ever had a sexual relationship with Maynac either. He DID get the treatment of syphillis correct in the story as of course, there were no antibiotics in those days. All in all, it was a great introduction to the life of Picasso. I wish I had been able to read it before I went to Barcelona this summer instead of after the trip.
ReplyDeleteHi! Sorry for the delay in response.I have not been getting notifications, apparently. That would have been interesting to read before Barcelona. I hope you had a good trip.
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