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Title: Fascinating Premise Mired In Unabsorbing History
Review: I was fascinated by the theme of this book: What lengths will a man go to possess something that he covets? In this case, the object of desire is a painting which the narrator of the tale is convinced is the work of Bruegel, and he is prepared to lie, cheat, and jeopardize his marriage to obtain it. Although I laughed out loud at the narrator's efforts to rationalize despicable conduct, my enjoyment of the story was diminished by (what I deemed) the excessive descriptions of the political and religious forces in the Netherlands in the 16th century that shaped Bruegel's work. It is this detail which, although likely appealing to a reader with a keen interest in art history, significantly reduced the pleasure I derived when reading this novel.
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