This has been on my wtr list for awhile. I had the thought (off and on while reading) that maybe it should have stayed there??
Not that it's a bad book, I just found it utterly sad. If you're feeling sorry for yourself, maybe pick this up and see (but for the hands of fate) what your life could be. It's an "in-your-face" accounting of the ways ordinary people are forced to cope with the "cards" life dealt them. How they rise to the challenge, how it requires selfless sacrifice from others to make it possible & how it can be a thankless task.
Anna Christina Olson, the woman in the famous painting, thru no fault of her own, was born with a debilitating genetic disease. She's an unlikeable protagonist despite the compassion she elicits because of her condition. One is simultaneously awed by her determination to live her life (crawling around the property using her forearms is the very definition of fortitude) and yet angry at the hateful way she treated those who tried to help her. I felt the most sympathy for her brother who sacrificed his entire life to make sure she could live hers.
***You know I googled how their story ended ~ turns out Alvaro died in 1967 then Christina followed him to the grave a month later. Her life could not exist without his. Is that fair?? Is it love that compelled him to devote his existence to hers?? or a sense of duty?? Her other siblings went on to life "normal" lives, but he made a choice, or felt an obligation, to stay behind. There is a story there too.
As far as the painting, I'm not a student of art. I know if something appeals to me & hands down this painting would never hang in my home. I feel bleakness and despair when I view it. I guess that's why art is subjective?? I can't help but feel life is full of tragedy, why would one voluntarily hang more of it on their walls...
This woman Christina, of very limited mobility, thru art (& now literature) has transcended the boundaries of the property she was born and died on. The perfect demonstration of the power of art. There are many such stories around the world without an Andrew Wyeth to memorialize them tho. Maybe that's another takeaway from the book.
3.5 stars
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