![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jul. 12th, 2012 09:49 amA while ago I had a book recommendation from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
madambeetroot (see, sometimes I do write down who tells me things!) for The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. It's sort of a different view of art looting than I'm used to, because it's not just about the looting but about the history and a really large context for the items.
It's an incredibly dense book, though a much faster read than I initially thought it would be. Edmund de Waal uses an art collection, and specifically a collection of Japanese netsuke figures, as the central theme of the book, but it's also about the history of his family since the late 19th century, what it was like to survive the first world war and the start of the second in Vienna, and what it meant to be Jewish in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
( So there's a lot to deconstruct and I am going to do nearly none of that. )
Final Verdict: It's a wonderful book, though very hard to read at times, mostly due to content rather than any problem with the prose. It's subtle and layered and well-crafted, which is even more impressive considering Edmund de Waal isn't a writer by trade. Well worth the purchase price (though admittedly I got it from the library).
madambeetroot (see, sometimes I do write down who tells me things!) for The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. It's sort of a different view of art looting than I'm used to, because it's not just about the looting but about the history and a really large context for the items. It's an incredibly dense book, though a much faster read than I initially thought it would be. Edmund de Waal uses an art collection, and specifically a collection of Japanese netsuke figures, as the central theme of the book, but it's also about the history of his family since the late 19th century, what it was like to survive the first world war and the start of the second in Vienna, and what it meant to be Jewish in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
( So there's a lot to deconstruct and I am going to do nearly none of that. )
Final Verdict: It's a wonderful book, though very hard to read at times, mostly due to content rather than any problem with the prose. It's subtle and layered and well-crafted, which is even more impressive considering Edmund de Waal isn't a writer by trade. Well worth the purchase price (though admittedly I got it from the library).
