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    Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art
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    Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art
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    Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art
    Ebook500 pages8 hours

    Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

    By Christopher Moore

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    “Christopher Moore is a very sick man, in the very best sense of that word.” —Carl Hiassen

    A magnificent “Comedy d’Art” from the author of Lamb, Fool, and Bite Me, Moore’s Sacré Bleu is part mystery, part history (sort of), part love story, and wholly hilarious as it follows a young baker-painter as he joins the dapper  Henri Toulouse-Lautrec on a quest to unravel the mystery behind the supposed “suicide” of Vincent van Gogh.

    It is the color of the Virgin Mary's cloak, a dazzling pigment desired by artists, an exquisite hue infused with danger, adventure, and perhaps even the supernatural. It is . . .

    Sacré Bleu

    In July 1890, Vincent van Gogh went into a cornfield and shot himself. Or did he? Why would an artist at the height of his creative powers attempt to take his own life . . . and then walk a mile to a doctor's house for help? Who was the crooked little "color man" Vincent had claimed was stalking him across France? And why had the painter recently become deathly afraid of a certain shade of blue?

    These are just a few of the questions confronting Vincent's friends—baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and bon vivant Henri Toulouse-Lautrec—who vow to discover the truth about van Gogh's untimely death. Their quest will lead them on a surreal odyssey and brothel-crawl deep into the art world of late nineteenth-century Paris.

    Oh là là, quelle surprise, and zut alors! A delectable confection of intrigue, passion, and art history—with cancan girls, baguettes, and fine French cognac thrown in for good measure—Sacré Bleu is another masterpiece of wit and wonder from the one, the only, Christopher Moore.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 3, 2012
    ISBN9780062101242
    Author

    Christopher Moore

    Christopher Moore is the author of seventeen previous novels, including Shakespeare for Squirrels, Noir, Secondhand Souls, Sacré Bleu, Fool, and Lamb. He lives in San Francisco, California.

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    Reviews for Sacre Bleu

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    • 5/5
      5 stars if I liked the ending more. I've always enjoyed Moore's stuff, it was light, zany humor with over the top ridiculous characters and situations. This was different. This was brilliant. It was REALLY funny but not constantly silly. There was more of a story here and better plot than the other novels. It showed a maturing author who has aged toward perfection.I definitely suggest it on audio, the narrator was excellent. All those French names sounded exotic and set a tone that brought me back to the Renaissance (or at least the way I envision the renaissance was since as far as I know I was never actually there).I'm very interested to see if he keeps up the same standard of excellence in the next book.
    • 5/5
      This book was my favorite Moore book, although it's humor is slightly different from his other books. It's dripping with that dry sarcastic French humor I love so much. Not to mention the subject is art related and all the characters are based on French impressionist artists. One of the best humorous books I have read, really was perfect to my tastes but might not be for everyone.
    • 5/5
      I am writing this review because, unfortunately, and to my utter disappointment, I unwillingly arrived at the end of this fantastical piece of literary art. Art, indeed.I won't provide a synopsis, it's just not my style. So let me just begin by saying that never before has a single color kept me more thouroughly entertained (and that's saying a lot, I'm a graphic designer). I wanted to live, breath, eat, read, and frolic in Mr.Moore's descriptive offering of Paris, circa the late 1800's. Henry Toulouse Lautrec has officially joined my band of favourite characters, and I would have been honored to meet his acquaintence, but of course, only if it was Moore's Henry.I want to say so much more, but my heart hasn't quite finished bursting with joy and satisfaction from having experienced the adventure that was Sacré Bleu. Lovingly researched, yet with just the exact right amount of made up genius.Moore's best book yet.*Applause..applause*
    • 5/5
      What a fun book to read! I love Christopher Moore so I am going to enjoy anything he writes, but I was happy to learn something at the same time! I am headed to Paris this summer so the tutorial on impressionist artists was a bonus. He is hilarious and mystical and his voice is loud and clear in this novel. Loved it.
    • 4/5
      Quite clever and deeply strange. Christopher Moore seems to get more accomplished and complex with each novel. Occasionally he will go overboard packing too much clever into a paragraph, but that's easy to forgive. If you have even a passing attraction to the Impressionists and like speculative fiction - though Moore is on the line between that and fantasy - definitely pick this one up.
    • 5/5
      MY THOUGHTSABSOLUTELY LOVED ITThis is a sneaky little read, it crept up on me and before I knew it, I was in love! Christopher Moore will take you on a warped tour of the history of the color blue, but like all Moore books, there is weirdness and twists until you get to that moment of epiphany and the whole curious tale becomes brilliant. The story starts out with innocently enough with a baker / painter Lucien Lessard (don't bother googling him, he only exists in Moore's mind), wondering why his good friend and fellow painter Van Gogh shoots himself and then walks a mile to a doctor. He conspires with Toulouse Lautrec to find out the truth behind his "suicide". In his search for the truth, he makes some surprising discoveries behind the majority of painters that have had brilliant, yet strangely unsettling intersections all with the same colorman who supplies them all with blue paint. Weaving through the history and the great names of the Paris art scene, the mystery behind the color blue unravels into what becomes the story of those mythical creatures known as muses. The characters in this book are so full of life and detail. The colorman is one of those quirky characters that can only exist in a Moore book , especially with a name like "poop on a stick". With the colorman's counterpart muse, known by several names, who longs to be free of the colorman, is still enslaved by the magical properties of the color blue. This is a truly magical use of a metaphor and links the whole story from murder mystery to love story. There are some wonderful inventive histories about painters explained as well like where did Van Gogh's ear end up, why so many painters dies of syphillis, and why so many artist abandon their work throughout the years. It also takes you back in time to the earliest of cave paintings and will answer that other question of why there was never blue to be seen there. See, now you will be googling cave paintings to see if that is correct. I know Moore's books have all been optioned for movies and this is one that I really hope makes it to the screen now with the success of Midnight in Paris. This is the literary equivalent except that there are famous painters in the place of authors. Moore is the only author I have first editions that I will keep forever since I first learned of him in San Francisco at the City Lights book store when my husband asked for something weird. I really didn't get into him until I read Lamb and then I devoured everything he has ever written. I must admit that the only book of his I didn't *get* was Fool and now I may have to go back and reread that one.
    • 4/5
      Christopher Moore's latest. It didn't make me laugh beverages out my nose as hard as his previous works. I think that might be partially due to the fact that I read this one, as opposed to listening to it on audiobook, which I've done with most of his other books. I just seem to find them more funny when they are read to me. Aside from that, I found the characters to be interesting and really enjoyed how actual paintings were provided to help advance the story and provide a visual. I didn't find this one as gripping as "Dirty Job" or "Bite Me", but would still recommend to other Christopher Moore fans.
    • 3/5
      one of those books that explains lots of obscure history in a fantastical/supernatural way using wit and humor and clever plot devices (eg Talouse-Latrec in steam-powered stiltshoes). if this were made into a movie it would be a genre-bender walking the lines of comedy, horror, and historical romance.

      i liked all the color used in the book itself, too.
    • 5/5
      This is a book about painting in the late 19th century, but mostly about the color blue. Blue pigment made from ultramarine was worth more than gold at one point. At the start of the book, Van Gogh dies and this news sends his friends and fellow painters in Paris into a great tumult. Two such painters, Lucien Lessard and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec decide to do a bit of investigating and learn about the connection of strange women and the color blue to several painters, themselves included. Painters lose time and occasionally paintings, though alcohol was not involved. The story takes us not only to the present (of the 1890s) but back to the previous generation of painters and even further back to painters in the Renaissance and more. The latest Christopher Moore certainly does not disappoint. It has all the traits of his previous novels: humor, history, and heart. Part of the main reason I started reading Christopher Moore was because the books were funny. They're wacky, and quirky, and other words not ending in "ky." I have to try not to laugh at loud while I'm reading at work. The best is that he manages to find the humor in the historical setting. Some of the jokes are anachronistic, but that's sort of a wink to the reader and perfectly acceptable. The historical setting is Paris (for the most part) in the late 1800s during the time of the Impressionist painters and their followers. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec is a major character and many other painters of the time also appear throughout the story. I took a couple art history classes in college where I majored in history, so I very much appreciate the accuracy of the portrayal of the time and the people. I'm not sure what it is, but Toulouse seems to steal the show in each of his scenes (and this is not exclusive to this book, for it's true of other portrayals of him in other stories and films), something I'm sure he would be delighted to know. In any case, it's obvious that Moore did a lot of research into his subject. The book has images of the relevant paintings throughout, which lends a sense of reality to the story: these are actual people who lived during that time. I particularly appreciate that the author provided a chapter guide available on his website for an extra bit of the history involved as well as more pictures.The characters in this book grab the reader's attention and affection easily. That's the beauty of Christopher Moore's writing style--he brings characters, both historical and fictitious, to life. We understand fully why Jane Avril pats a very drunk Henri on the head to say good-bye after leaving him in Lucien's care, wanting to give him a little pat or a hug ourself for by this point in the book we have grown to love Henri. I loved this book. I highly recommend it to any fan of Christopher Moore of course, but also to those who enjoy humorous fiction (and aren't offended by the occasional penis joke). This book is sure to make anyone laugh and perhaps even appreciate the art and artists of the late 19th century just a bit better.
    • 4/5
      How can you not like a book with a quote like "two pathetic penis plotters." Especially since one of the penis plotters is a mule called Etienne. I enjoyed that Moore took liberties with the time period and the characters. Why not give Toulouse-Letrec an over sized personality and make sure that Vincent Von Gogh is completely crazy. The plot was somewhat repetitive toward the end but it was fun a read.
    • 4/5
      Vincent Van Gogh’s unusual suicide—he shot himself in the chest shortly after finishing a painting, then walked a mile to a doctor’s house—provides the catalyst for revelations about the origins of the painter’s madness in this humorous and layered novel. Lucien Lessard, baker in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris, has grown up around some of the greatest painters of the age, including Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Manet. An aspiring painter himself, Lucien finds that his painting takes fire when his true love, the mysterious and beautiful Juliette, brings him a special tube of ultramarine blue paint from a strange paint dealer known only as the Colorman. As it turns out, Van Gogh also bought his blue from the Colorman, as did most, if not all, of the other famous painters in Paris at the time. And all of those painters also conducted mad, passionate, and ultimately doomed relationships with beautiful women at the same time. Lucien, beginning to piece this together, joins forces with his friend “the little gentleman,” the painter Toulouse-Lautrec—who, as it turns out, has also bought blue paint from the Colorman and also lost his true love, Carmen. They must discover the secret of the Colorman and the secret of the sacred blue before they, too, end up dead.Humorous as Moore’s books always are, Sacre Bleu, like Lamb and Fool, also contains a wealth of rich historical detail, clearly the product of meticulous reseach and a deep interest in the material. The painters are all portrayed as vividly as their paintings, and fin de siecle Paris is evoked realistically and colorfully.
    • 5/5
      Start with Albert Brook's 1999 film The Muse, change the setting to Paris when Impressionism was the hot new art style and throw in some color reproductions of famous paintings with completely cheeky captions and you have the foundation for Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore.The book opens with the death of Vincent van Gogh. While it's not quite the Doctor Who version, I did happen to start the book right after re-watching "Vincent and the Doctor" (series five, episode ten). The coincidence certainly put me in the right mood for Moore's book.Sacré bleu (ultramarine) — the blue once reserved for the Virgin's clothing — was one of the most sought after but hard to come by pigments. As this color is so crucial to the flow of the story — the cover is done in shades of blue. Likewise, the text is printed in a very dark but distinctly blue shade.Moore uses the color as the set up to introduce a muse — Blue — and the parasite who feeds off the creativity she inspires. This parasite provides access to his especially potent blue pigment to specially chosen artists. The blue has certain properties that allow the artist time to finish more complex pieces. The downside, though, is the madness and ill-health that comes from such an outpouring of creativity and productivity.Most of the book follows a fictional baker who has the desire to paint. He falls into an unlikely friendship with Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Welcome to the world of sex, drugs and burlesque.Sacré Bleu has risen to the top of my all time favorite Christopher Moore books. While his bawdy humor is still there, it's matured from the previous sophomoric affairs to something more refined.
    • 4/5
      Usually I am not a huge fan of having historical people appear in novels, but it was done by Christopher Moore, so of course the result was really funny, clever, and a bit irreverent. This book made me want to look up artworks from artists mentioned, paint, and hit someone with a baguette.
    • 3/5
      I'd give this 3.5 stars if I could.
    • 5/5
      Loved it! Mr Moore has a wonderful sense of humor. His characters are well rounded and the bits of history make it even more enjoyable. This just might be my favorite Moore book.
    • 4/5
      This is a fun book with lewd artists, loose women, and a lusty muse. It’s about the color blue.
      It’s not about just any blue. It’s about a special blue, a mystical blue, a sacred blue, a blue that fell from the sky in a fiery ball almost forty-thousand years ago. It’s about a blue that provides inspiration -- for a price. There are other colors mentioned, but the plot is about blue, and I can tell you little else about it without it becoming a spoiler.
      The plot is not a terribly complex one. It could have been relayed quite well in a short story rather than a novel, but then we would not have been able to hang out in late Nineteenth Century Paris with some of the most entertainingly eccentric characters you will ever meet, real or fictional. Those between the covers of this book are a bit of both.
      Obviously, this is a character-driven story more than a plot- or action-driven story. I don’t mind this. In fact, I prefer it. If I don’t care about the characters, I don’t care about what happens to them. Conversely, if I do care about the characters, then pretty much anything they do that is worthy of mention has a good chance of being interesting or, especially in the case in this book, amusing.
      Even for a character-based story, though, this book is outside the norm. It centers on the fictional artist/baker Lucien Lessard, but it begins with Vincent Van Gogh. Through the course of the story, we also meet Renoir, Monet, Pissaro, Manet, Whistler, and others whose personalities are based, with due artistic license, on historical characters. My personal favorite is Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. This libidinous little guy is portrayed with such an uninhibited lust (literally) for life that I find him oddly refreshing. He is lecherous, immodest, and lewd, but his unrepentant surrender to his baser desires makes him seem somehow more honest and human.
      The physical book published by Harper Collins is very well done. It includes several full-color images of works by some of the artists mentioned. The art along with the story allows the reader to imagine deeper insights into the artists’ personalities. The fact that these personalities may be largely fictional is completely beside the point. This is not a book of history. It is not a biography. It is a novel. It is fiction. It is a work of art.
    • 5/5
      This book was crazy funny and I really think it had a lot to do with the fact that this read was an audio book. Narrated by Euan Morton, Van Gogh has been killed by "the color man" in a cornfield!
      His painter friends vow to find the killer and along the way give us a taste of mystery, some passion, art history and lots of humor--loved it!
    • 4/5
      French impressionists and debauchery .... of course I loved it!!!! Art history a la Christopher Moore is so much more fun! Zoot alors!
    • 4/5
      What did a stooped old man (with a tendency towards exhibitionism), a beautiful and mysterious woman, and a highly desired ultramarine paint known as “sacred blue” have to do with Vincent Van Gogh’s death? Christopher Moore, the king of irreverent hilarity, will lead you to the answer in this playful and often bawdy romp through nineteenth century France. Join Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and fictitious artist Lucien Lessard as they investigate their friend Van Gogh’s death, and along the way discover an ancient cave painting, a trove of priceless art treasures, and the truth behind Lessard’s father’s death years earlier. Moore’s book is a pleasure to read, not only for its bursts of humor and wonderful caricatures of the French Impressionists, but also for the author’s skilled writing. A perfect summer read.
    • 4/5
      In the wake of Van Gogh's death, his painter friends in Paris begin investigating how the sinister Color Man--and a series of alluring models--might be behind it.Why I picked it up: As if Christopher Moore isn't enough, it's read by Euan Morton.Why I finished it: The usual delightful parade of Moore-ish characters, stumbling into worlds where something very, very weird (and a bit absurd) is going on.I'd give it to: Bear with me here, but I think Christopher Moore and Diana Wynne Jones are really very much alike (with Ms. Jones lacking the sex farce and eloquent profanity). Both put their engaging characters in absurd and slapstick situations that often are driven by deeper metaphysical and mythological forces.
    • 2/5
      For over a decade I've been a loyal Christopher Moore fan and I've read nearly all of his books, save one. In college, when I would read his books while taking public transportation, other riders would look at me as though I was crazy because I would often randomly burst into laughter out loud reading his novels. His past few novels, though, have been increasingly less funny, less amusing and more predictable. I wanted to love this book, but it just wasn't funny. I accept that the story is creative and, in that sense, definitely exhibits his talents but it was slow and I didn't care for the plot or the characters. I am the first to accept that I have Victorian sensibilities, but every page of this book is strewn with the words: penis, dick, boink, and bonk. This sort of overt sexually themed comedy (which admittedly I've never really enjoyed) worked in other books, but did not work in this one at all.
    • 5/5
      I listened to the audio version of this book and was entranced throughout. The narrator was magnificent. I'd recommend listening to this book for that reason alone. I fell even more in love with Toulouse-Lautrec than I was before. Perhaps the fact that I have more than a working knowledge of French art and art in general added to my enjoyment. The overall theme relating to artistic inspiration was actually somewhat serious. I'm just sorry it would give away the plot to discuss it in any depth.
    • 4/5
      A fun, quick read. One of his better books. No vampires, but there are steam powered stilts, a girl that exudes ultramarine blue, love, art, and bits that make you laugh out loud. What's not to love? :-)
    • 4/5
      The Sacred Blue: the only colour acceptable for the Virgin Mary’s cloak, the only colour on the artist’s palette not easily found in nature and allegedly the cause of the demise of many artists throughout history. After the apparent suicide of Vincent van Gogh grief stricken friends baker/artist Lucien Lessard and man-about-town/artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec begin to suspect all is not as it should be in gay Paree. Added to the mix every known impressionist painter, the Moulin Rouge, baguettes, a mysterious “colour-man”, a blue Muse and a liberal dose of cognac and you get Mr. Moore’s humorous look at 19th century impressionism.

      I found this book to be a little step away from Mr. Moore’s usual offering. It definitely smacks of a firm knowledge or diligent research into the Impressionist movement and Paris at the time. Where his other books are bawdy and raucous to the core this one seems a mellower. Don’t get me wrong there are still the obligatory “boobie” and penis jokes for die-hard fans. But this book seems a step out in faith. Mr. Moore has a large and divergent fan base and this book deals with a very specific time period and an equally specific number of real people. Rarely is the period of an art movement as well documented at the Impressionists … photography was available, their works populate current galleries and vast documents still exist … Mr. Moore was brave to tackle it. I also feel that unless the reader has a better than passing familiarity with the artists and works included some of the “inside jokes” might be lost. Only Christopher Moore would refer to “La Grand Jatte” as “the painting of the little monkey in the park”.

      I love the Impressionists and thoroughly enjoyed this book. A very forgiving sense of humour for subjects near and dear to your heart is definitely required as Mr. Moore carries on the tradition he established with his previous offerings; “Lamb” and "Fool” proving yet again that nothing is sacred … in this case, not even the colour blue.
    • 1/5
      That's it. I'm done. I like some of Moore's earlier stuff, but now it's just mindless unfunny crap. No mas. You're fired.
    • 3/5
      A novel about artists in late 19th century Paris, an ancient Muse who can be anyone, a creepy little guy known only as the Colorman, and a shade of blue with supernatural powers.I've really enjoyed some of Moore's other novels, and this one has, I suppose, a similar off-the-wall plot and irreverent sense of humor to those, but I'm afraid it mostly left me cold.Part of the problem, no doubt, is that I don't have any familiarity with, or interest in, the 1890s Paris art scene. I can't help but feel, though, that with the right approach the story might have drawn me in and made me interested. But while Moore is no doubt trying to do that, he doesn't really succeed. (I did, by the way, appreciate the fact that pictures of many of the paintings mentioned or alluded to in the text are included here. That did help. But, while I have no doubt that it was economically necessary, reproducing paintings in black-and-white to serve a story that is all about color seems downright perverse.)Anyway, it's not just my lack of connection with the subject matter that kind of put me off. More than that, it's how utterly focused the story is on the way its male characters see and experience women: as objects of lust or sentiment, as models, as useful tools, as delights for the senses, but always -- and I use the word deliberately -- two-dimensional. And as fundamentally interchangeable, an idea that's baked into the entire premise of the plot. It's basically Male Gaze: The Novel.Now, one could no doubt start a lively and reasonable debate about whether Moore is embracing these attitudes or sending them up, but I find I just cannot bring myself to care enough to do so. The truth is, I don't find it provocative in any sense of the word, I just find it kind of tedious. I'm sure many people, possibly up to half the population of humanity, might happily read all day about the play of sunlight on the nude female body and what one might like to do with said body when not painting it, but I am really not one of them. Entirely aside from the question of whether it's done offensively or not, it's just dull.All of which suggests that maybe this is just a case of the wrong reader for the wrong book, and in cases like that I try not to judge too hard, but this time I can't help but feel that it's not just me, that the author could have written this in such a way that I would have enjoyed it more, and that it would have been a better book in general -- not just for me -- if he had.
    • 5/5
      It's the year 1890 and the art world in France is still reeling from the apparent suicide of Vincent Van Gogh. He shot himself in the chest and went to a doctor for help shortly afterwards, which seems counterintuitive. He didn't actually kill himself. He was murdered by a small man who calls himself the Colorman and sells quality paints to artists. He is always flanked by a donkey and a woman he calls Bleu. That woman's name is also Juliette and she has her sights set on Lucien Lassard, a baker who aspires to be a painter. Lucien and his best friend, Henri Marie Raymond de Talouse-Lautrec-Monfa, are investigating Van Gogh's death and see similarities to other painter's live that have ended tragically. Can they put together the puzzle before any other artists die? How is Juliette connected to the Colorman and who is the Colorman really? Will she prevent Lucien from solving the mystery and condemn him to a tragic death?I will read pretty much anything that Christopher Moore writes, but I was particularly excited about Sacre Bleu because it's about art history and mostly the French Impressionist artists. I have always liked that era in art, but I never really thought that much about how the people painting these masterpieces would be in their day to day lives. Sacre Bleu portrays them as normal men in an irreverent, funny manner. Whenever I've heard about these artists at museums or in art history classes, I think of their lives as epic and eventful and more interesting than a normal person's, but Christopher Moore's story probably falls closer to the truth. They were simply men, many with torrid love affairs, venereal diseases, and substance abuse problems. These artists revered by historians and art critics were just people and not always pleasant or sober or even sane. Bleu/Juliette is my favorite character in Sacre Bleu. She's the only major female character and she holds her own with all these famous and powerful men around her. She acts as a muse for the artists she manipulates and a goddess figure in this comic novel. That inspiration causes the artists to create faster and more intensely and better than they ever thought possible, but it comes at a price. I loved the reveal of her connection to the Colorman and of how far their influence in art history actually goes. I can't really talk any more about her character without spewing spoilers, so I'll stop here. Just trust me that she's awesome.Sacre Bleu is a fun novel that blends art history and irreverent humor. This narrative is full of bawdy jokes, drinking, whores, drugs, and sex and it's incredible fun. There are paintings printed throughout the novel that help the reader visualize each artists' style and see some of the paintings described. I would recommend this to fans of art history not afraid to laugh a little or fans of Christopher Moore's work in general.
    • 3/5
      Moore spins out an ingenious and humorous take on the color blue in Impressionist paintings. I loved the aesthetics of the book--the blue type, the paintings interspersed in the text--but found I didn't connect strongly with the characters.
    • 4/5
      I've really loved some of Moore's novels, and been less impressed with others.This is one of the best ones.Artists and the Parisian demimonde were handled really well. The plot was fantastic... but it was pretty plausible in context! which is what I loved. The dialog was entertaining and witty.And I simply adored Latrec here.The occasional inclusion of various paintings definitely added to the "historical" ambiance, though having them all be in grayscale mean we missed most of the point of the Impressionists, especially.I'd recommend this one- especially for anyone interested in this particular historical/artistic period, but who is willing to have fun with it.
    • 3/5
      This was the first book I've read (actually, I listened to it on audio) by Christopher Moore, and it may be my last. It wasn't bad, just not the kind of thing I'd normally read. I picked this one up because it dealt with the Impressionist painters. I've heard that his books are hilarious; this one had a few rather juvenile snickers (e.g., Juliette's name for the color man, "poop stick"), but I didn't find it all that amusing. The 'mystery' of what happened to Van Gogh and so many other painters is not only a bit creepy but also borders on the fantastic, and fantasy is another genre that I really don't care for. If you're a fan of Moore, just ignore this review; it's a matter of taste. If you haven't read Moore before, maybe a different novel would be the place to start.