Broken Colors

by Michele Zackheim

"A profoundly original, beautifully written work, so emotionally accurate that it tears at the heart. I read it without stopping."-Gerald Stern Sophie Marks' path to artistic and personal fulfillment takes her from World War II England to postwar Paris and the Italian countryside. She leaves Europe in 1967 and spends the next two decades in the American Southwest. Acclaimed at last as an artist, she returns to England to confront the hidden memories of her childhood and test the possibilities of a renewed love, a passion ripened by maturity.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Historical Fiction, Literature, British Literature, Art

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

For many years I was a visual artist exhibiting in museum and galleries, both in the united States and Europe. Over time, random words began to appear on my canvases . . . then poems . . . then elaborate fragments of narratives. I began to think more about writing and less about the visual world. Finally, I simply wrote myself off the canvas and onto the lavender quadrille pages of a bright orange notebook. This, my first book, was Violette's Embrace, published by Riverhead/Penguin.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

One day, riding the subway home, a woman seated next to me made a comment about the book I was reading. We got to talking books, and I discovered that she is a published author. I asked her to recommend her favorite from her repertoire, and she offered this title. But for that conversation, I probably wouldn't have found my way to this book--which makes we fortunate that I both spoke with a thoughtful artist and read a lovely book. she wrote.

The first seventy-odd pages rocked me. I've read about the devastation some families suffered in World War II, and Zackheim makes you feel it for this character and her loved ones. The fallout from these events is intense and quite internal, and I appreciate how Zackheim walked through the main character's recovery without rush or melodrama.

In fact, Zackheim does an excellent job depicting how someone lives her life after experiencing traumatic happenings. After further reversals occur in the heroine's life, Zackheim jumps across large periods of time and describes how the heroine has continued her life and her art. The book follows the heroine into her later years, and I very much appreciated the way Zackheim showed that creativity and love do not wither by default with old age.

Altogether, this book captured my emotions and has held onto me since I put it down. I am quite glad that I ended up sitting next to Ms. Zackheim that day, and I thank her for the recommendation.

[Story · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful story about love, art, creativity and grief; marred only by terribly wooden dialog.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a many layered book...much like the paintings created by it's main character. It encompasses all of her life from chilhood through old age and illustrates (quite literally) how this woman moves through immense grief towards an open heart. It is clear from the vivid writing that the author is also a visual artist. I was inspired by the descriptions of the creative process at work and moved by the storytelling and humanity of the characters.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good story, poorly written.

[Kathy Gilbert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't think this book was all that well written, didn't hold my interest very well, story was kind of slow.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it in one sitting - wasn't ever not going to once I'd started. Loved this story of art, love and the journey of the central character, Sophie Marks as it follows her life from child to octogenarian. Loved the settings of Midlands, Paris, Umbria and South America. Fab characters and emotionally wrought in broken colours!

[Victoria Raun · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the writing flat and at times confusing, with a couple of historical errors (WWII did not end on V-E day, the NHS was not established during WWII.) The book is a great example of what not to do when "showing, not telling," in writing.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love her descriptive language.

[Linnea · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the storyline of the book, I found the writing rather lacking. It felt as though it had gone through some kind of filter, which separated the reader from the heart of Sophie's life.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent vacation read: an artist .... starting in Trentham, moving to Europe then New Mexico ... perfect for our road trip to the SW.

[Kelly (spaceandlines) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book without having heard of the book or the author before, which is relatively uncommon for me now. Having read it, I get why I haven’t heard of it before; it’s quite average. The story tells of the life of a painter, Sophie Marks, who spends her life chasing her passion and her loves across Europe and America. She was born in England and was raised by her artist grandparents who instilled in her a love for painting and colors. Her life is colored by tragedies and losses, at first caused by the World Wars, which at first makes her life a despondent and unmotivated one, and then by the Luca, a man she falls in love with but eventually leaves.

Marks’s life is so pocked with loss that, as a reader, I was left just praying for a break for the poor girl. Given the cards she was dealt and how those cards played out in her life, I don’t really blame her for living the way she did, but also just really wanted her to grab life by the metaphorical balls and just do something she wanted to do. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with what she did, but it was just quite frustrating to read about a protagonist who somewhat follows her passion, but gives up on her loves once she is faced with any amount of an obstacle. Even then, however, I really did enjoy the story; pretty much all the characters are given a fullness to them, they are not flat and provide a very rich addition to the narrative.

shameless self promo: full review at https://spaceandlines.wordpress.com/2...

[Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book completely at random while strolling through my local library. The only reason it even caught my eye was because it was published by the same editor that published The Elegance of the Hedgehog (an excellent book, by the way) in English.
I had been half hoping to read an uplifting novel, and was completely satisfied for about the first 40 pages, but then it took a dramatic turn down the road of depression. This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the plot; I really did. I would almost go so far as to say that it was almost the best part of this book. The other contender for this position would have to be the writing style. It really shows that the author is a visual artist because of how vivid her descriptions are, and one truly does feel like one can see what the author and the characters are seeing. Also, this book has a very clear design aesthetic. All of the colors mentioned are very similar, certain people that the main character is attracted to are described with sort of the same point of view (if that makes any sense at all).
My only complaint about this book, which is actually fairly major and awards it the 3.5 stars (which only show up as 3) is the fact that I wasn't particularly crazy about the main character. As the book continued, I came to like her less and less (save for maybe the last 20 pages), and I eventually found myself branding her a curmudgeonly old woman. Admittedly, she had been through some pretty major trauma that i could never begin to imagine, but I felt like after a little while she just stayed in denial too long refusing to face her problems (instead deciding to run away from them, but eventually arriving at new ones). It was a tad irritating.
Also, *spoiler alert*, I was deeply disturbed by the fact that she felt so much attraction towards Luca's son, Nico who was easily 50 years her junior. I personally thought the whole part where she's sort of falling in love with him only served to show how deeply lonely and lost she was.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't get the title. I get that the story is of an artist and of the "breaks" in her life. I get that the story is about finding, losing, finding, losing, finding. Love. I get that it's about endurance: the endurance of Nature, the endurance of Art, and the endurance of Love. I liked the story. I liked the ways in which it evolved across the pages and the words and their constructions that helped it do so. I liked Sophie and Eli and Claire and Luca and Nico. I liked that the conflicts (not to say the big one, WWII, that is the cause of so much of Sophie's inner and outer griefs) were resolvable in the terms set by Nature, Art, and Love in the terms, if you will, of those grand ideas as Sophie and her companions of the roads of the story envisioned and made use of them. I liked all of the colors and strange, to me, methodologies of Sophie's artistic ventures. I liked the resurgence, if you will, that is portrayed by Sophie's surviving "child" Nico's art that seeks to explores the mystery of timelessness, of endurance. I liked the story well enough to ignore the title. Maybe I'll wake up one morning and suddenly "get" it.

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. It had all the ingredients that should have made it a success. But Sophie became merely frustrating, and her aging wasn't realistic. I felt I was reading a young woman's idea of what it's like to get older.
The writing was flat and unengaging.
The author was historically and internally inaccurate which was irritating. For example, she clearly states that Sophie has white hair, then several pages later, refers to her hair as silver and grey, and finally says that she still has a lot of black in her hair. Small details like this throw me out of a story...
She also states that the buildings in Paris were damaged by explosions enough in WWII that Sophie and others were able to harvest the damaged stones. Paris was certainly not bombed in that war- though there may have been some minor damage otherwise to the buildngs.
I realize this is just nitpicking, but I might have overlooked them in a better-written book.

[Anntracy51 · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it's so refreshing to read about women artists, there was something I didn't quite like that I couldn't quite put my finger on. So, please bear with me while I explore my review here on the page (similar to the way women 'think' while talking). The characters all seemed a bit shallow to me. Zackheim had a good idea with the times her characters go through, giving us a little different look at history through the lives of people but I felt that her writing fell a bit flat. She probably wouldn't like my digital paintings either ;~D

[Jon Stout · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I most enjoyed about this book was the interpenetration of visual art and literary art. The novel is very visual, and is about the life of a painter, so that plot developments are talked about in terms of acquiring a new style or medium, and artistic resolutions also help resolve personal struggles in the life of the main character. The author, whom I have heard read her work, is both a visual artist and a writer, and I like the way she explores the artistic process in life in general.

[Ilaria]

La lunga e tormentata esistenza di una pittrice, attraverso un secolo e due continenti, alla ricerca della verità della sua arte e di un amore perduto e mai dimenticato. Lo stile di scrittura risente inevitabilmente dell’immaginario visivo, com’è naturale in un romanzo scritto da una pittrice. Tutto è visto e descritto attraverso una tavolozza di colori; non solo le descrizioni del paesaggio, ma anche quelle dei personaggi sono vere e proprie ipotiposi.

[Marty Crandall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject and story, but the writing was too "descriptive/flowery/airy" for my taste. The 20 year jump near the end of the book was unfortunate. I was involved enough in the characters that I would have rather been included in the 20 years that were left out rather than read the cliff notes though the voice of the son.

An arty book about arty people.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing that I really admire is the ability to move through time. This book spans the course of one woman's life and isn't afraid to jump across years and years. But it still feels so cohesive.

And, OF COURSE, I love books about fake art and here is a really good one. If you liked AMERICAN PAINTER EMMA DIAL or THE SWAN THIEVES check this out as well.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to Like Sophie Marks more. Of course the tragedies that occurred in her life were so mind numbing, that it was difficult for her to ever get past them. Somehow, many of the characters seemed flat or contrived. The details of the art and the beauty of the places she lived kept me turning pages.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an original amalgamation of words covering a range of topics: the bitterness of loss, finding selfhood/healing through artistic pursuits and the enduring qualities of true love. It is as fresh as a newly painted canvas but as familiar as portions of your favorite book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The character is complex enough that at times I thought I was reading a biography instead of a novel. Also, descriptions of the character painting are interesting instead of sounding like instructions from a cookbook.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

please read this. a surprise how good it was .. Thoughful, well done and a tear jerker. Its a great history of WW 2 and the effect it has on lives and familes. The main character is so fragile yet finds love again in her 80-s..

[Meagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I completely agree with another reviewer who said that she wanted to like the book but the writing seemed flat. I thought that the writing could have been much more vividly, and the style was missing an engaging spark.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best written book in terms of poetic prose,
but the story is interesting and the main character interesting to follow thru her life. Sad at times, ocassionally funny.

[Hulananni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should have known from the title...book is replete with "colorful" descriptions that left me bored. I imagine an artist or decorator would find it a great read.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful story over the years of how cercumstance and choices can change outcome. Also how stubborn can affect outcome.

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Might have been a good read, but just not my thing. Don't want to waste my time on anything that doesn't grab me from the first page.

[Amey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend. Given to me by Elizabeth Blau. It's hard to put down.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those books that felt like the new characters were only introduced to create new tragedy, but once I accepted that fact I was able to enjoy the beauty of the story and the settings.