That one was a little bizarre, much like the last chapter of A God in Ruins, but I’m nowhere near getting to write about that book yet, so that’s all I’m going to say. The timeline of the book is 1937 – 2013, with one story that takes place in outer space in an unknown year. I tried to find this painting online but couldn’t, which makes me think it might not actually exist (also one book blogger posted that it was fictional, and since I can’t find it, I’m inclined to believe her). The painter was a Chechen artist named Zakharov. So where to begin? The stories in the novel revolve around a nineteenth century painting, Empty Pasture in Afternoon, and the people who come in contact with it. I read Anthony Marra’s first novel ( A Constellation of Vital Phenomena) a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, so I was primed to think that this was a good book.

But I think it was really well done despite the cliché. It was totally a 21 st century interconnected novella multiple perspective nightmare that Bethany would make fun of. But on the day that she brought it in to work I promised that I would read it ASAP. This sort of thing annoys her-wasting paper and money (in that order) on multiple copies of the same book being purchased in the same circle of book readers. I had to tell her that I had already bought it but hadn’t read it.

My boss brought me this book to borrow a few months ago.

The tsar of love and techno review