Booklist
Green's second novel is a beautifully written account of the lives of artists caught up in turbulent times. In the waning days of World War II, GI and American artist Harry Baer takes refuge in an abandoned house and by chance discovers the sketchbook of prewar German artist Franz Marc. In Proustian fashion, the story elicits the tortured artistic life of Marc in the midst of artistic and intellectual movements prior to World War I. Green intertwines Marc's life with that of Baer, who is about to begin his own artistic odyssey. Baer, whose life is loosely based on American artist Harold Paris, moves to Paris, France, after the war and marries Aurora, a struggling intellectual who pushes him to become a star in the Left Bank galleries. Returning to the U.S. a generation later, Harry finds new challenges in Berkeley, California, especially with Karine, an African American activist, and Darah, a feminist who vies for the love he devotes to his art alone. Very beautifully written. Ted Leventhal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Set in the trenches of World War One Germany, Paris after the Second World War and Viet Nam-era Berkeley, Burnt Umber is an epic novel about lives and loves of two artists: the German, Franz Marc, Kandinsky's best friend, whose work revolutionized European painting; and Harry Baer, a working class American soldier whose mysterious connection to the deceased painter launches his tempestuous career as a sculptor.
