Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

This book is: light and dreamy.
Other elements: hats, magic, sisters, love, green slime.
Read it: if you like whimsy and aren’t in the mood to think.
Overall rating: 6.5/10

This book is very light and easy on the brain. Reading it is like drinking lemonade on a hot day: it’s refreshing and exactly what you want at the time, but you’ll still be hungry later.

Howl’s Moving Castle is a lovely story. I didn’t have any deep thoughts after reading it, and none of the characters ever felt like real people. But that’s also fine; books like this have their place, and more than a few of them have their place on my own bookshelves. I enjoyed reading it. It only took a few hours, I read the whole thing in one sitting. There were one or two plot points I didn’t entirely follow, but it was still pleasant to float along in the story, so I didn’t mind.

I must confess: I saw the Hayao Miyazaki movie of Howl’s Moving Castle several times before I even realized there was a book. Reading the book didn’t change my feelings about the movie; I think it’s a great adaptation. It simplifies the plot, but the way it does so makes it feel like a movie inspired by the book rather than an inadequate copy, which I think is the best thing a book-movie can hope for.

Please do read this review with a grain of salt: I know the movie better than the book. And I’m surprised to say that I think I prefer the movie. The book didn’t feel as alive to me, and I couldn’t get into the majority of the plot points that the movie had eliminated. Sohpie’s sisters’ trickery confused me, as did all of Howl’s romance triangles (or octagons). I don’t know if this is because I first experienced Miyazaki’s version of the story and now that feels truer to me, or because the book just didn’t speak to me, but either way that’s how I feel about it.

I’ve heard that Howl’s often considered to be a bit of a heartthrob. I actually sought out this book after Howel was mentioned repeatedly on my Book Riot post about potential husbands from YA fantasy novels. But I thought he was vain, slovenly, and self-absorbed. I know, I know – he explains the way he’s been acting at the end of the book. But I don’t think saying “here’s the really good reason I was being a pain in the butt!” makes up for being a pain in the butt. There are more books in this series, so perhaps in those books Howl behaves like the charmer I’ve heard he is, rather than the selfish, sloppy, womanizer he appeared to be.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, but the love just wasn’t there for me. I think I’ll stick to Diane Wynne Jones’ (many) other excellent books.

 The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro

This book is: a great story.
Other elements: art, crime, forgery, Degas, Isabelle Gardener, the Gardener museum heist, Boston.
Read it: if you have any interest in the art world or if you don’t but you love a good story.
Overall rating: 7/10

The contemporary heroine of the story is Claire Roth, aspiring painter struggling against the spotty reputation she’s won in the art world thanks to a misguided attempt she made to help her ex-lover through a difficult time. Claire has a talent for copying the work of other artists, which, thanks to Reproductions.com, is how she makes a living while waiting for her own original work to receive the attention it deserves.

The building was once a factory–handkerchiefs, some old-timer told me.  But old-timers aren’t known for their veracity, so it could have been hats or suspenders or maybe not even a factory at all. Now it’s a warren of artist’s studios, some, as in my case, live-in studios. Illegal, of course, but cheap. – Page 5

The plot of the The Art Forger takes its inspiration from real life events: the colorful and still mysterious Gardener museum art heist.  The story flashes back and forth between Claire’s present, in which she’s trying make a name for herself, and the past of the infamous Isabelle Gardener of the Gardener Museum, whose life and legacy become increasingly relevant to Claire’s present. Shapiro takes this true story and weaves a web of fictional and historical characters in and around the true events to create a fascinating and completely engrossing story of fine art, love, questionable morality, and festering secrets.

One of Shapiro’s strongest points is her characters: even those with only minor roles are well-rounded and complex. No one is simply evil or good; they’re all real people with motivations and of their own. And – although I can barely draw a symmetrical stick figure – my writerly self felt a kinship for the community of aspiring artists who meet at their local bar every day to talk about recent failures and the occasional success. I think any kind of art (written or painted) has a similar amount of heartbreak inherent in the process of searching for recognition and validation.

“Did it go well?” Mike asks. We sometimes call Mike “the church lady” in joking salute to his keen sense of right and wrong.
“I’m guessing not, although I wasn’t expecting much.” A lie everyone recognizes. They’ve all said the same thing after a career disappointment. It’s how we survive.
“A shot of tequila for my friend here,” Mike says to Maureen. Aside from Rik, who isn’t really an artist anymore, Mike’s the only one of us who can afford actual drinks. He’s a lawyer by day, painter by night. – Page 17

My favorite aspect of The Art Forger was the inclusion of so much technical information related to art authentication and forgery. I’m a sucker for a book that treats me like I’m capable of understanding as much about something as the main character does, and this was no exception. I love feeling like I’m learning along with the characters, and I lap up the random trivia, the more obscure the better. (Cutting for Stone is another great example of a book that excels at interweaving large amounts of technical information.) Art forgery is both sufficiently obscure that I didn’t really know anything about it going into the novel, and sufficiently fascinating to keep me interested when things got complicated.

The dialogue isn’t always the most free-flowing, and certain plot events are rather too coincidental to be entirely believable – but I still had a great time reading The Art Forger.

I also happened to start reading this book shortly after the Boston Marathon (and all of the events that followed the marathon this year), at which point it felt very timely to be reading a novel set in Boston, especially a story that delves so exquisitely into the city’s cultural history and rich, artistic present.