TURNER'S PAINTBOX

The fictional narrator of this Australian novel, Gerard Moyne, is a cold intellectual who, though an expert on art history, has none of the warm emotions that all fields of art require. Therefore, Humphrey Bower faces a dilemma when narrating—how to get the listener to relate to an essentially unlikable character. Bower maneuvers accents—Australian and English—with far more skill than the author interweaves the colors of Turner's paintings. Whereas the author’s Turner descriptions lack authority, Bower fine-tunes the story’s narration in a graceful flow. Luckily, Moyne has the possibility of discovering his emotional depths through his romance with the sensual and spontaneous Julia. Further, this is a story of the failure to understand creativity, and that makes it a worthwhile listen. B.H.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2009]