MixedHyperallergicThe book’s first hundred or so pages drag with the details of Julius’s attempts to get the painting back from his ex-wife...A conflict that should have intense emotional stakes is reduced to a series of negotiations between lawyers ... Clark’s use of multiple narrators could have offered readers more insight into how scandals and scams unfold, how we make truth malleable to fit our needs, how something like an art forgery scandal could be a compelling diversion from the social and political chaos of Weimar Germany and the rise of fascism. Clark raises important questions about the lengths we go to distract ourselves from governmental horrors, and how art can’t save us. Unfortunately, the abundance of voices and plot lines hinders the author from providing any answers.
