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Title: Poetic passages do not a novel make
Review: James McKean is a fine craftsman, as a builder of violins and as a poet. His first novel, "Quattrocento," is larded with exquisite passages. Unfortunately he has not yet learned how to construct a longer work. Only the central character has any depth; everyone else peopling this effort at a work of fantasy is not even a portrait - barely a sketch. Through his protagonist the author exhibits some erudition in the realms of art history, restoration and attribution, and could, perhaps, achieve more novelistic success after studying some of the works in those fields which have enjoyed success in the marketplace. ion, e.g. Jonathan Harr's "The Lost Painting." In the meantime the world will be more served by his poetry than by his prose.
