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The Deadly Mr Duckworth
Painting Death
Morris Duckworth has a dark past. Having married and murdered his way into a wealthy Italian family, he has become a respected member of Veronese business life. But it’s not enough.
Never satisfied with being anything short of the best, he comes up with a plan to put on the most exciting art exhibition of the decade, based on a subject close to his heart: killing. All the great slaughters of scripture and classical times will be on show, from Cain and Abel, to Brutus and Caesar. But as Morris meets stiff resistance from the director of Verona’s Castelvecchio museum, everything starts to unravel around him. His children are rebelling, his mistress is asking for more than he wants to give, his wife is increasingly attached to her aging confessor, and, worst of all, it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the ghosts that swirl around him, and the skeletons rattling in every closet. The shame of it is that Morris Arthur Duckworth really did not want to have to kill again. Tim Parks’ acclaimed Duckworth trilogy has been thirty years in the making. In Painting Death, he brings it—and his serial-killer alter ego—to a very fitting—and very funny—end.
Never satisfied with being anything short of the best, he comes up with a plan to put on the most exciting art exhibition of the decade, based on a subject close to his heart: killing. All the great slaughters of scripture and classical times will be on show, from Cain and Abel, to Brutus and Caesar. But as Morris meets stiff resistance from the director of Verona’s Castelvecchio museum, everything starts to unravel around him. His children are rebelling, his mistress is asking for more than he wants to give, his wife is increasingly attached to her aging confessor, and, worst of all, it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the ghosts that swirl around him, and the skeletons rattling in every closet. The shame of it is that Morris Arthur Duckworth really did not want to have to kill again. Tim Parks’ acclaimed Duckworth trilogy has been thirty years in the making. In Painting Death, he brings it—and his serial-killer alter ego—to a very fitting—and very funny—end.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published October 6, 2015
7 people are currently reading
428 people want to read
About the author
Tim Parks
121 books583 followersBorn in Manchester in 1954, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. In 1981 he moved to Italy where he has lived ever since, raising a family of three children. He has written fourteen novels including Europa (shortlisted for the Booker prize), Destiny, Cleaver, and most recently In Extremis.
During the nineties he wrote two, personal and highly popular accounts of his life in northern Italy, Italian Neighbours and An Italian Education. These were complemented in 2002 by A Season with Verona, a grand overview of Italian life as seen through the passion of football. Other non-fiction works include a history of the Medici bank in 15th century Florence, Medici Money and a memoir on health, illness and meditation, Teach Us to Sit Still. In 2013 Tim published his most recent non-fiction work on Italy, Italian Ways, on and off the rails from Milan to Palermo.
Aside from his own writing, Tim has translated works by Moravia, Calvino, Calasso, Machiavelli and Leopardi; his critical book, Translating Style is considered a classic in its field. He is presently working on a translation of Cesare Pavese's masterpiece, The Moon and the Bonfires.
A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, his many essays are collected in Hell and Back, The Fighter, A Literary Tour of Italy, and Life and Work.
Over the last five years he has been publishing a series of blogs on writing, reading, translation and the like in the New York Review online. These have recently been collected in Where I am Reading From and Pen in Hand.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 22, 2020
Kader’den sonraki en iyi kitabi bence... kurgu ve her zamanki gibi ana karakterin dusunce yapisi mukemmeldi... Hikaye’de kendisine de bir yer vermesi disinda cok begenerek okudum. Tabiki hikayenin yine Italya’da ve hatta benim yasadigim sehir’in de adinin gecmesi ayrica hosuma giden detaylar arasinda...
Ingiliz yazarlari okumayi seviyorsaniz Tim Parks kesinlikle listenizde olmasi gereken bir yazar.
Ingiliz yazarlari okumayi seviyorsaniz Tim Parks kesinlikle listenizde olmasi gereken bir yazar.
March 17, 2019
I don’t get it. Tim Parks is the author of masterpieces such as "Europa" and "Destiny", but with this book he has delivered something that is clearly beneath his level. Almost everything is faulty in this novel: it is almost immediately given away that protagonist Morris Duckworth is a serial killer, the various characters remain incredible caricatures, Parks grossly presents the typical Italian stereotypes, and - top of all - a portion of magical realism is injected through the dialogues of Duckworth with his deceased mother who 'lives' in one of his paintings. Very occasionally there are fragments of Parks' former stylistic brilliance, and the references to works of art about murder are intriguing, but that’s it for the positive things. I'm sorry, but with this ordinary murder story, Parks has disappointed me a lot.
February 23, 2017
2.5 stars
“Things are worth what you decide they’re worth.”
I met the Author at a book fair while he was presenting this book and he made it sound interesting. Besides, I lived in Verona (the city where it's set) and I wanted to see how a foreigner would depict it. So I started the book with some expectations...well, they were not met.
The plot seems far fetched, it is well written from a grammatical and authorial point of view, but as far as the development of both story and characters are concerned, I found them both lacking in depth and vision. The protagonist, Morris Arthur Duckworth, is experiencing a sort of "crisis" in his well planned life and it could have been explored and used in a much more profitable way. As the book proceeds the reader understands that something is off with his passion for killing and his family, but then the masonry and the church are thrown into the cauldron of political issues regarding Verona and bisexuality and it just leads nowhere. I never felt thrilled or eager to find out how actually things came to pass--Duckworth experiences a short term memory loss that might have created some suspense...but it didn't. I won't say that some moments are not interesting, quite the contrary, but that how the different pieces of the puzzle came together is not satisfying.
From the point of view of an Italian girl and a former Veronese, I had another issue or two. It's true that the Northern League is in control and they are xenophobic and anti immigration (to put it nicely), but not everybody there is either racist or an Hellas fan or both: most of the people living in that beautiful city are neither of those things. The policy of the city propels toward the closure of all frontiers, but most Veronese men and women know they owe their income to foreigners and would never want that happen. Hellas fans are something else entirely: they are a bunch of thugs who seem to think they matter if they are carting a pipe and menace everyone, but the truth is that a part from Sunday afternoons they do not actually believe everything they preach from the balustrades of the stadium. I am not justifying them, I loath the way they roam the streets and the nasty image of sport fans they show to younger generations, but every city has its own breed of hooligans and they are not the majorly of the population.
All in all I appreciated the witticism and satirical eye that are behind the novel, but to me they just remained there, in the background, not really affecting the plot or the vision of the entire book.
“Things are worth what you decide they’re worth.”
I met the Author at a book fair while he was presenting this book and he made it sound interesting. Besides, I lived in Verona (the city where it's set) and I wanted to see how a foreigner would depict it. So I started the book with some expectations...well, they were not met.
The plot seems far fetched, it is well written from a grammatical and authorial point of view, but as far as the development of both story and characters are concerned, I found them both lacking in depth and vision. The protagonist, Morris Arthur Duckworth, is experiencing a sort of "crisis" in his well planned life and it could have been explored and used in a much more profitable way. As the book proceeds the reader understands that something is off with his passion for killing and his family, but then the masonry and the church are thrown into the cauldron of political issues regarding Verona and bisexuality and it just leads nowhere. I never felt thrilled or eager to find out how actually things came to pass--Duckworth experiences a short term memory loss that might have created some suspense...but it didn't. I won't say that some moments are not interesting, quite the contrary, but that how the different pieces of the puzzle came together is not satisfying.
From the point of view of an Italian girl and a former Veronese, I had another issue or two. It's true that the Northern League is in control and they are xenophobic and anti immigration (to put it nicely), but not everybody there is either racist or an Hellas fan or both: most of the people living in that beautiful city are neither of those things. The policy of the city propels toward the closure of all frontiers, but most Veronese men and women know they owe their income to foreigners and would never want that happen. Hellas fans are something else entirely: they are a bunch of thugs who seem to think they matter if they are carting a pipe and menace everyone, but the truth is that a part from Sunday afternoons they do not actually believe everything they preach from the balustrades of the stadium. I am not justifying them, I loath the way they roam the streets and the nasty image of sport fans they show to younger generations, but every city has its own breed of hooligans and they are not the majorly of the population.
All in all I appreciated the witticism and satirical eye that are behind the novel, but to me they just remained there, in the background, not really affecting the plot or the vision of the entire book.
October 14, 2018
After a pause of nearly 20 years, Morris Duckworth returns to the fray of murder & madness in contemporary Verona. The two preceding episodes created by the lively pen of Tim Parks, were both very individual works of late 20th century crime fiction. (Cara Massimina {1990} & Mimi's Ghost {1995}). This 3rd instalment finds Morris as a successful, if complacent, businessman in his wife's inherited company in a 21st century Verona straining under the forces of new & potentially insoluble political, economic & social problems: 'fair Verona' it certainly ain't!
Morris has become something of an art lover - though for his own idiosyncratic reasons - & offered the opportunity to organise & curate a controversial exhibition, wickedly named 'Painting Death' , he jumps in to the sinister waters of a dark river of violent art, human foibles, sexual passions & sheer madness! Murder is only the half of it! Blood will flow & a cast of corpses will play their parts in a complex & tortured plot which amuses too, with its observations & criticisms of Italian moral hypocrisy & staggering, cultural vanity.
As an Englishman, I myself spent several years in a city 20-odd miles to the east of Verona, in the beautiful & far less dangerous, jewel of the Veneto, Vicenza! There still exists a strong antipathy between these close cousins, who share a similar dialect & religious conviction; I can well enjoy the atmosphere of ancient rivalries & well understand how the infamous Montagues & Capulets came
to serve as symbolic families, intent on revenge & retribution! Morris has absorbed a similar mentality, & this expertly-wielded dagger of a novel pierces the stylish facade of modern Italian life. It's really red in tooth & claw!
Tim Parks dissects it all with a dispassionate surgeon's precision, even acknowledging the protagonist's son, Tonbridge School's, Mauro's passion for his local football club, Hellas Verona (& a sly dig at my team, lowly, cat-eating Vicenza!). But it's more Hell as Verona, as evil motives & intrigues win out yet again, leaving the reader exhausted but still alive!
Wonderful stuff for all italophones (italotelefonini?). As someone once said (about Lord Byron?) 'An Italianised Englishman is the Devil incarnate!'
(Tim even has a joke at his own expense, appearing, as it were, off-stage, as an ex-pat English art critic, with a good eye for a picture...& a joke about East Croydon too...where I write this with my tongue firmly in my cheek...we have some great parks too, though the trees are losing their foliage as rapidly as Tim is losing his hair!).
Morris has become something of an art lover - though for his own idiosyncratic reasons - & offered the opportunity to organise & curate a controversial exhibition, wickedly named 'Painting Death' , he jumps in to the sinister waters of a dark river of violent art, human foibles, sexual passions & sheer madness! Murder is only the half of it! Blood will flow & a cast of corpses will play their parts in a complex & tortured plot which amuses too, with its observations & criticisms of Italian moral hypocrisy & staggering, cultural vanity.
As an Englishman, I myself spent several years in a city 20-odd miles to the east of Verona, in the beautiful & far less dangerous, jewel of the Veneto, Vicenza! There still exists a strong antipathy between these close cousins, who share a similar dialect & religious conviction; I can well enjoy the atmosphere of ancient rivalries & well understand how the infamous Montagues & Capulets came
to serve as symbolic families, intent on revenge & retribution! Morris has absorbed a similar mentality, & this expertly-wielded dagger of a novel pierces the stylish facade of modern Italian life. It's really red in tooth & claw!
Tim Parks dissects it all with a dispassionate surgeon's precision, even acknowledging the protagonist's son, Tonbridge School's, Mauro's passion for his local football club, Hellas Verona (& a sly dig at my team, lowly, cat-eating Vicenza!). But it's more Hell as Verona, as evil motives & intrigues win out yet again, leaving the reader exhausted but still alive!
Wonderful stuff for all italophones (italotelefonini?). As someone once said (about Lord Byron?) 'An Italianised Englishman is the Devil incarnate!'
(Tim even has a joke at his own expense, appearing, as it were, off-stage, as an ex-pat English art critic, with a good eye for a picture...& a joke about East Croydon too...where I write this with my tongue firmly in my cheek...we have some great parks too, though the trees are losing their foliage as rapidly as Tim is losing his hair!).
October 22, 2022
This is the third novel in a series, all centering on Morris Arthur Duckworth, an Englishman in Verona, and is a satirical take on murder, life in Italy, Catholic beliefs and hypocrisies, and a rollcall of classical and modern paintings of murder scenes. Duckworth is an immoral man, ever likeable while comically obnoxious, who has built up his wife’s business into a large concern and is as a result very rich and influential. However, he’s never become fully at home in Italy, and where he himself is hardly innocent – having killed seven people, and despatching another two at the end of the novel – he looks down his nose at dysfunctional aspects of Italian life – the graft, the nepotism, the confraternities and their dirty practices. He is very vain, keeps a Libyan mistress, and while he cares for his family (wife and two grown children) in his fashion, what counts for him now is his obsession with art works depicting violent deaths. He plans to co-curate an international art exhibition at the municipal museum, in Castelvecchio, partly made up of his own art collection. Most scenes are either biblical or depictions from martyrs’ lives, but there are exceptions such as Sickert’s Camden Street Murders. I read this in 24 hours, being sick in bed, and the feverish pace of the book and my own temperature were too much. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. The odd Italian word or phrase is thrown in without translation.
February 27, 2019
Bibliografisch adres boek:
T.PARKS, De kunst van het moorden, De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam, 2014, 350 blz.
Auteur: Tim Parks
Biografie auteur:
Timothy Harold Parks is een Britse novellist, vertaler, auteur en professor in de literatuur. Hij is geboren in Manchester op 19 december 1954, is opgegroeid in Londen en heeft gestudeerd aan Cambridge en Harvard. In 1981 is Parks verhuisd naar Italië waar hij nog steeds woont met zijn drie kinderen.
Hij heeft 14 novellen geschreven, waaronder Europa, Destiny en zijn meest recente, In Extremis die allen in een half dozijn landen zijn gepubliceerd.
Tijdens de jaren negentig schreef hij twee persoonlijke non-fictie boeken over het leven in Noord-Italië, Italian Neighbour en An Italian Education. Andere non-fictie werken omvatten de geschiedenis van de de Medicis in het Venetië van de vijftiende eeuw, een essay over gezondheid, ziekte en meditatie en zijn meest recente boek, Out of My Head, On the Trail of Consciousness.
Naast zijn eigen geschreven boeken, heeft Parks werken vertaald van Moravia, Calvino, Calasso, Machiavelli en Leopardi. Zijn boek Translating Style, die de Italiaanse vertalingen van de Engelse modernisten analyseert, wordt gezien als een klassieker in zijn domein.
Momenteel is hij aan het werken aan een vertaling van Cesare Paveses meesterwerk, The Moon and the Bonfires.
https://timparks.com/ (24 februari 2019)
T.PARKS, De kunst van het moorden, De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam, 2014, 350 blz.
Auteur: Tim Parks
Biografie auteur:
Timothy Harold Parks is een Britse novellist, vertaler, auteur en professor in de literatuur. Hij is geboren in Manchester op 19 december 1954, is opgegroeid in Londen en heeft gestudeerd aan Cambridge en Harvard. In 1981 is Parks verhuisd naar Italië waar hij nog steeds woont met zijn drie kinderen.
Hij heeft 14 novellen geschreven, waaronder Europa, Destiny en zijn meest recente, In Extremis die allen in een half dozijn landen zijn gepubliceerd.
Tijdens de jaren negentig schreef hij twee persoonlijke non-fictie boeken over het leven in Noord-Italië, Italian Neighbour en An Italian Education. Andere non-fictie werken omvatten de geschiedenis van de de Medicis in het Venetië van de vijftiende eeuw, een essay over gezondheid, ziekte en meditatie en zijn meest recente boek, Out of My Head, On the Trail of Consciousness.
Naast zijn eigen geschreven boeken, heeft Parks werken vertaald van Moravia, Calvino, Calasso, Machiavelli en Leopardi. Zijn boek Translating Style, die de Italiaanse vertalingen van de Engelse modernisten analyseert, wordt gezien als een klassieker in zijn domein.
Momenteel is hij aan het werken aan een vertaling van Cesare Paveses meesterwerk, The Moon and the Bonfires.
https://timparks.com/ (24 februari 2019)
April 5, 2020
Sorry, didn't get on with this at all. Probably a mistake to read the last part of a trilogy first (I didn't realise that till too late), but I found it opaque and obtuse. The only thing I liked about it was that it depicts the life of an Englishman living his life in continental Europe, something I can relate to. The dichotomy of wanting to retain your indigenous identity in order to stand out (assuming the Veronese LIKE Brits, and they seemed to here: Parks of course does (did?) live in that city, so he knows what he's writing about), and blending in with your adopted culture and surroundings in order to integrate and be accepted.
Duckworth of course has two ways of integrating himself (or rather, of finding common ground). One: art history and appreciation (Italy is arguably the cradle of European fine art, historically at least), and, secondly, Catholicism. (Italy is DEFINITELY the cradle of that).
So I liked the interplay of cultural mixes going on, and I liked Parks' sardonic tone, but if I don't get the plot, I can't cope, so I put it down about two thirds of the way through...
Duckworth of course has two ways of integrating himself (or rather, of finding common ground). One: art history and appreciation (Italy is arguably the cradle of European fine art, historically at least), and, secondly, Catholicism. (Italy is DEFINITELY the cradle of that).
So I liked the interplay of cultural mixes going on, and I liked Parks' sardonic tone, but if I don't get the plot, I can't cope, so I put it down about two thirds of the way through...
March 28, 2020
Ik denk dat ik over de eerste helft van het boek drie keer zolang heb gedaan dan over de rest. Na 100 pagina’s van langdradige zinnen en ellenlange beschrijvingen zijn we amper 1 dag verder in het leven van Morris Duckworth. Ik had er eerlijk gezegd bijna de brui aan gegeven tot het in deel 2 meer vaart begon te krijgen. Maar ook hier krijgt Tim Parks de meubelen niet meer gered. De humor die er werd beloofd is amper te vinden, en het verhaal hangt met haken en ogen aan elkaar. Ik herinner mij niet wie mij deze schrijver had aangeraden, en dat is misschien maar best, want ik vond er niet veel aan.
April 16, 2022
Maybenot as satisfying as the earlier novels in this series, Morris seems to have mellowed slightly, and lost some of his vile, biting edge that he had when we first meet him.
There are some great meta moments where the author namechecks himself, which did give me a bit of a giggle, and overall this winds up the series well. Mo's family have grown and are causing him troubles, by just existing and this is great. Overall, it is nice to just return to the Verona of the Duckworths.
There are some great meta moments where the author namechecks himself, which did give me a bit of a giggle, and overall this winds up the series well. Mo's family have grown and are causing him troubles, by just existing and this is great. Overall, it is nice to just return to the Verona of the Duckworths.
May 24, 2023
Biraz DaVinci Code tadı vermiş. Kader'deki yoğun dram veya Avrupa'daki espirili tarz yok. Film uyarlaması çıkar bundan aslında.
Read
November 19, 2014
Mysterie zonder spanning
Wie Italië zegt, zegt Tim Parks. De al ruim dertig jaar in Italië wonende Britse schrijver draait zijn hand niet om voor weer een boek over zijn passievolle gastland. Of het nu gaat over Italiaanse manieren, over het ondoorgrondelijke spoorwegennet of over een Veronese seriemoordenaar op oorlogspad: de pen van Parks weet niet van stoppen.
In De kunst van het moorden gaat Parks op weg met de hoofdpersoon die hij in twee eerdere romans al heeft geïntroduceerd. De Engelsman Morris Duckworth, inmiddels een gewaardeerd lid van de aristocratie in Verona, voelt zich nog altijd een buitenstaander in de Italiaanse machismo maatschappij. Hij is getrouwd met een nazaat van steenrijke wijnbouwers en heeft een indrukwekkende kunstcollectie aangelegd.
Moordkunst
Duckworth is ook een pathologische moordenaar. Tim Parks laat voorzichtig doorschemeren dat hij al een reeks slachtoffers heeft gemaakt, allemaal vanwege liefdesperikelen of zakelijk gewin. Door het hele boek heen blijven deze doden – in het hoofd van Morris – in gesprek met hun moordenaar. Dat is een aardige vondst maar zij wordt zo ver doorgevoerd dat het de gang van het verhaal behoorlijk verstoort.
Een verhaal dat verder geheel gedomineerd wordt door de obsessie van Duckworth: een tentoonstelling samenstellen van kunstwerken die allemaal 'moord' als thema hebben. Niet het sterven of de dood, maar het moment van toeslaan: als de gruwelijke daad op het punt van uitvoeren staat. Hij kan putten uit zijn eigen kunstverzameling, waar een aantal vervalsingen tussen zitten, maar hij wil ook wereldwijd grote musea om bruiklenen te vragen.
Losse eindjes
Het opvoeren van die tentoonstelling is een prima concept dat Parks tot in de uithoeken van deze roman laat doorwerken. De afzonderlijke schilderijen worden veelvuldig aangehaald en beschreven. Duckworth wil de klassieke werken, waarop men elkaar naar het leven staat, via de officiële museumkanalen van Verona verzamelen. Vanaf dat moment begint de tegenwerking van de museumdirectie en de alomtegenwoordige kerk.
De kunst van het moorden is geschreven als 'spannende roman'; het predikaat 'thriller' zou inderdaad teveel eer zijn. Tim Parks strooit kwistig met losse eindjes die op geen enkele wijze tot de grote lijn van het verhaal gaan behoren. Hij is meer geïnteresseerd in de geschiedenis en de afkomst van de 'moorddadige' schilderijen dan in het verloop van het mysterie.
Parker of Parkes
Als de museumdirecteur onder compromitterende omstandigheden wordt vermoord en Morris Duckworth als mogelijke dader wordt opgepakt, begint Parks de controle te verliezen. De kardinaal, de huisvriend, de Libische maîtresse, de conservator, de meestervervalser, de zoon en de dochter, ze hebben allen een rol in deze geschiedenis maar nergens wordt duidelijk wat ze werkelijk bijdragen aan de kluwen van geheimzinnigheid die de schrijver opwerpt. Het enige 'drama' speelt zich op nogal overdreven wijze af in het hoofd van de opportunistische Morris Duckworth:
Als er tenslotte ook nog 'een Britse schrijver genaamd Parker of Parkes' op het toneel verschijnt, is het genoeg geweest. De kunst van het moorden is een vreemde eend in de bijt van Tim Parks; hij kan duidelijk niet uit de voeten met het thrillergenre. Te uitvoerig en te ingewikkeld geschreven om in een sterke plot te kunnen transformeren. Parks moet vooral over Italië blijven schrijven, als relatieve buitenstaander weet hij feilloos de eigenaardigheden bloot te leggen, maar zich verre houden van misdaad en spanning.
http://www.8weekly.nl/artikel/11959/t...
@8WEEKLY/André van Dijk
Wie Italië zegt, zegt Tim Parks. De al ruim dertig jaar in Italië wonende Britse schrijver draait zijn hand niet om voor weer een boek over zijn passievolle gastland. Of het nu gaat over Italiaanse manieren, over het ondoorgrondelijke spoorwegennet of over een Veronese seriemoordenaar op oorlogspad: de pen van Parks weet niet van stoppen.
In De kunst van het moorden gaat Parks op weg met de hoofdpersoon die hij in twee eerdere romans al heeft geïntroduceerd. De Engelsman Morris Duckworth, inmiddels een gewaardeerd lid van de aristocratie in Verona, voelt zich nog altijd een buitenstaander in de Italiaanse machismo maatschappij. Hij is getrouwd met een nazaat van steenrijke wijnbouwers en heeft een indrukwekkende kunstcollectie aangelegd.
Moordkunst
Duckworth is ook een pathologische moordenaar. Tim Parks laat voorzichtig doorschemeren dat hij al een reeks slachtoffers heeft gemaakt, allemaal vanwege liefdesperikelen of zakelijk gewin. Door het hele boek heen blijven deze doden – in het hoofd van Morris – in gesprek met hun moordenaar. Dat is een aardige vondst maar zij wordt zo ver doorgevoerd dat het de gang van het verhaal behoorlijk verstoort.
Een verhaal dat verder geheel gedomineerd wordt door de obsessie van Duckworth: een tentoonstelling samenstellen van kunstwerken die allemaal 'moord' als thema hebben. Niet het sterven of de dood, maar het moment van toeslaan: als de gruwelijke daad op het punt van uitvoeren staat. Hij kan putten uit zijn eigen kunstverzameling, waar een aantal vervalsingen tussen zitten, maar hij wil ook wereldwijd grote musea om bruiklenen te vragen.
Losse eindjes
Het opvoeren van die tentoonstelling is een prima concept dat Parks tot in de uithoeken van deze roman laat doorwerken. De afzonderlijke schilderijen worden veelvuldig aangehaald en beschreven. Duckworth wil de klassieke werken, waarop men elkaar naar het leven staat, via de officiële museumkanalen van Verona verzamelen. Vanaf dat moment begint de tegenwerking van de museumdirectie en de alomtegenwoordige kerk.
De kunst van het moorden is geschreven als 'spannende roman'; het predikaat 'thriller' zou inderdaad teveel eer zijn. Tim Parks strooit kwistig met losse eindjes die op geen enkele wijze tot de grote lijn van het verhaal gaan behoren. Hij is meer geïnteresseerd in de geschiedenis en de afkomst van de 'moorddadige' schilderijen dan in het verloop van het mysterie.
Parker of Parkes
Als de museumdirecteur onder compromitterende omstandigheden wordt vermoord en Morris Duckworth als mogelijke dader wordt opgepakt, begint Parks de controle te verliezen. De kardinaal, de huisvriend, de Libische maîtresse, de conservator, de meestervervalser, de zoon en de dochter, ze hebben allen een rol in deze geschiedenis maar nergens wordt duidelijk wat ze werkelijk bijdragen aan de kluwen van geheimzinnigheid die de schrijver opwerpt. Het enige 'drama' speelt zich op nogal overdreven wijze af in het hoofd van de opportunistische Morris Duckworth:
'Er waren momenten waarop de realiteit met zo'n enorme chemische intensiteit borrelde en bruiste, dat er maar twee keuzes leken te bestaan: gaan liggen onder het reeds zoevende blad van de guillotine, of een kalashnikov pakken en iedereen in de buurt neerknallen.'
Als er tenslotte ook nog 'een Britse schrijver genaamd Parker of Parkes' op het toneel verschijnt, is het genoeg geweest. De kunst van het moorden is een vreemde eend in de bijt van Tim Parks; hij kan duidelijk niet uit de voeten met het thrillergenre. Te uitvoerig en te ingewikkeld geschreven om in een sterke plot te kunnen transformeren. Parks moet vooral over Italië blijven schrijven, als relatieve buitenstaander weet hij feilloos de eigenaardigheden bloot te leggen, maar zich verre houden van misdaad en spanning.
http://www.8weekly.nl/artikel/11959/t...
@8WEEKLY/André van Dijk
April 3, 2017
okurken bahsi gecen eserlere bakmak lazim..
April 29, 2016
British ex-pat Morris Duckworth is a man with a troubled past. He has moved from London to Verona, Italy as a young man and has murdered and married his way to a certain success. He's a wealthy industrialist with a rich wife, two kids, a mistress, and a deep love for art. He also has a group of ghosts - seven, I think - who are the murder victims he has dispatched on his way to prosperity. And even though he has murdered them, they are quite fond of him. In the years following their deaths, they have advised him and, in some ways, comforted him. Morris can rationalise each one's murder and they are a merry group - Morris and his departed.
British author Tim Parks introduced Morris Duckworth back in the early 1990's in "Cara Massimina", as a young man-on-the-make in 1980's Verona. Morris is a young man with an undistinguished past in Britain and a seemingly equally undistinguished future in Italy. But circumstances - and luck and the incompetence of the Italian police and judicial systems - turned Morris's life into a success. And as he settles into the last part of his life, he decides he wants to both give back to his adopted city and honor his own peculiarities by putting together an art exhibit about murder. Sounds like sort of a bad topic for an exhibition, but Tim Parks, in his new novel, "Painting Death", brings Morris's life full circle.
There are many venal characters in "Painting Death", in particular the Catholic clergy, the local politicians, and the principals in the Veronese art world. The greediness and hypocrisy shown by these characters rival anything in Morris's own murderous past. Morris just wants to give the world a picture of murder - as depicted in great art, from all eras - and then...what, retire? Go live with his mistress? Give up his wealth? Who knows...and readers can supply their own interpretations to Morris Duckworth's motives and actions.
Morris Duckworth - as drawn by Tim Parks - is smart, greedy, not used to suffering fools gladly, and, for the most part, lovable. Even his victims love him. They might get exasperated with him, but love him they do. Maybe they think their murders were necessary - who knows. After three books in the Duckworth series, Tim Parks "knows" his characters. He joins them together - the dead and the undead - to give the reader an enjoyable look at a man, a family, a city, and a bunch of paintings, in a modern-day morality play. (You don't have to read the previous books in the series to "get" "Painting Death". I read the first one - "Cara Massimina" - but haven't read the second one yet. But if you start with "Painting Death", please note there are two characters called "Massamina" {or "Mimi"}. One is a ghost of Morris's first love and the other is Morris's daughter. It's a bit confusing...)
British author Tim Parks introduced Morris Duckworth back in the early 1990's in "Cara Massimina", as a young man-on-the-make in 1980's Verona. Morris is a young man with an undistinguished past in Britain and a seemingly equally undistinguished future in Italy. But circumstances - and luck and the incompetence of the Italian police and judicial systems - turned Morris's life into a success. And as he settles into the last part of his life, he decides he wants to both give back to his adopted city and honor his own peculiarities by putting together an art exhibit about murder. Sounds like sort of a bad topic for an exhibition, but Tim Parks, in his new novel, "Painting Death", brings Morris's life full circle.
There are many venal characters in "Painting Death", in particular the Catholic clergy, the local politicians, and the principals in the Veronese art world. The greediness and hypocrisy shown by these characters rival anything in Morris's own murderous past. Morris just wants to give the world a picture of murder - as depicted in great art, from all eras - and then...what, retire? Go live with his mistress? Give up his wealth? Who knows...and readers can supply their own interpretations to Morris Duckworth's motives and actions.
Morris Duckworth - as drawn by Tim Parks - is smart, greedy, not used to suffering fools gladly, and, for the most part, lovable. Even his victims love him. They might get exasperated with him, but love him they do. Maybe they think their murders were necessary - who knows. After three books in the Duckworth series, Tim Parks "knows" his characters. He joins them together - the dead and the undead - to give the reader an enjoyable look at a man, a family, a city, and a bunch of paintings, in a modern-day morality play. (You don't have to read the previous books in the series to "get" "Painting Death". I read the first one - "Cara Massimina" - but haven't read the second one yet. But if you start with "Painting Death", please note there are two characters called "Massamina" {or "Mimi"}. One is a ghost of Morris's first love and the other is Morris's daughter. It's a bit confusing...)
August 13, 2015
I so enjoyed the previous instalments in the life of Morris Duckworth so I was certainly looking forward to the third one.
There were times when it was well written and times when it was seemingly unedited, awful prose. The plot was far fetched - Masonic conspiracy theories, football hooliganism etc. Had it been consistently well written the incredulous elements of the plot would have washed over us.
But all told this was still a very readable and delicious story in places, but ultimately a little bit disappointing. The author even inserted himself into the plot in some strange post modern gesture.
There were times when it was well written and times when it was seemingly unedited, awful prose. The plot was far fetched - Masonic conspiracy theories, football hooliganism etc. Had it been consistently well written the incredulous elements of the plot would have washed over us.
But all told this was still a very readable and delicious story in places, but ultimately a little bit disappointing. The author even inserted himself into the plot in some strange post modern gesture.
August 26, 2016
This is jolly good fun, and what I like most about it is the relish with which Parks tells the tale of the loathsome multiple murderer Morris and those who fall foul of him. A fine author enjoying himself makes for a good read. Anyone who has lived in Italy will enjoy his perceptive insights and understand his glossing it as "the beautiful nightmare". Lest this all sound too frivolous, I should add that Parks is as moralistic a writer as Martin Amis, though with a lighter touch. Unusually, the main "goodies" turn out to be youngsters: the anti-hero's two brats and his inexplicably loving lover. Enjoy!
January 23, 2015
El final para mí decepcionante ha hecho que no le dé cinco estrellas, pero el resto del libro se las merecía de sobra. Tim Parks ha sido todo un descubrimiento, un autor de raza capaz de reírse de sí mismo y de sus compatriotas británicos tanto (o tan poco) como de los italianos entre los que convive desde hace décadas. Su capacidad de observación, de sátira y de comprensión forman una mezcla inigualable e irresistible. Sencillamente genial.
May 17, 2015
Vermakelijk, maar ook niet heel veel meer dan dat. Roman over een kunstliefhebber annex moordenaar in Verona. Mooie setting, maar het kostte me veel moeite een beetje in het vehaal te komen. Uiteindelijk is dat wel gelukt, en vind ik het knap hoe de schrijver toch sympathie weet te wekken voor deze niet heel erg "likable" hoofdpersoon. Het einde wist me wel te boeien, goed bedacht. Het geheel gewoon niet zo hoogstaand, maar het was leuk leesvoer voor tussendoor.
February 18, 2015
Of all the Mor-reece books, this was somehow the first I read and also the most enjoyable. Are the ghosts real? Does Mor-reece ever get what we think he deserves? Or what he thinks he deserves? I liked him more when he has cash and standing, and I like that he was more of a puppet on the strings than the games he plays in the other books.
November 4, 2014
What a piece of crap. Simply terrible.
June 13, 2015
Simply not that good.
February 21, 2015
schlocky, overblown and ridiculous but entertaining and kept me reading. Although the end stretched the bounds of credulity to the extreme!
March 6, 2016
Onderhoudend boek. Naar het einde vergroot de ongeloofwaardigheid van het verhaal dermate dat het in elkaar stort. De titel sprak me aan, het verhaal viel tegen.
August 15, 2015
quick, quirky novel about Morris Duckworth and his comfortable life in Italy falling apart.
March 27, 2017
A masterfully written book. Such humour, such wit, can't remember the last time I was glued to a murder mystery and myself speculating about the murder.
And the plot twist in Act-II, was just 'killer'!
Woefully under-appreciated, it seems.
And the plot twist in Act-II, was just 'killer'!
Woefully under-appreciated, it seems.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews