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Blue Nude
In this sensual, intimate novel, prizewinning poet and bestselling author Elizabeth Rosner tells the engrossing and timely story of an artist and his model, and the moral and political implications of their relationship.
Born in the shadow of postwar Germany, Danzig is a once-prominent painter who now teaches at an art institute in San Francisco. But while Danzig shares wisdom and technique with students, his own canvases remain mysteriously empty. When a compelling new model named Merav poses for his class, Danzig, unsettled by her beauty, senses that she may be the muse he has been waiting for.
The Israeli-born granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, Merav is a former art student who discovered her abilities as a model while studying in Tel Aviv. To escape the danger and violence of the Middle East, she moved to California, where she found work posing for artists around the Bay Area. Now challenged by Danzig’s German accent and the menace it suggests, Merav must decide how to overcome her fears. Before they can create anything new together, both artist and model are forced to examine the history they carry.
Like a paintbrush in motion, Blue Nude moves back and forth through time, recounting the events that have brought Danzig and Merav together: their disparate upbringings, their creative awakenings, and their similarly painful, often catastrophic, love lives. The novel ultimately unites them in the present and, through the transcendent power of artistic expression, moves them forward to the point of reconciliation, redemption, and revival.
Using words to paint the landscapes of body and soul, Elizabeth Rosner conveys the art of survival, the complexity of history, the form of exile, the shape of desire, and the color of intimacy. Blue Nude is the narrative equivalent of a masterpiece of fine art.
Born in the shadow of postwar Germany, Danzig is a once-prominent painter who now teaches at an art institute in San Francisco. But while Danzig shares wisdom and technique with students, his own canvases remain mysteriously empty. When a compelling new model named Merav poses for his class, Danzig, unsettled by her beauty, senses that she may be the muse he has been waiting for.
The Israeli-born granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, Merav is a former art student who discovered her abilities as a model while studying in Tel Aviv. To escape the danger and violence of the Middle East, she moved to California, where she found work posing for artists around the Bay Area. Now challenged by Danzig’s German accent and the menace it suggests, Merav must decide how to overcome her fears. Before they can create anything new together, both artist and model are forced to examine the history they carry.
Like a paintbrush in motion, Blue Nude moves back and forth through time, recounting the events that have brought Danzig and Merav together: their disparate upbringings, their creative awakenings, and their similarly painful, often catastrophic, love lives. The novel ultimately unites them in the present and, through the transcendent power of artistic expression, moves them forward to the point of reconciliation, redemption, and revival.
Using words to paint the landscapes of body and soul, Elizabeth Rosner conveys the art of survival, the complexity of history, the form of exile, the shape of desire, and the color of intimacy. Blue Nude is the narrative equivalent of a masterpiece of fine art.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
10 people are currently reading
512 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Rosner
13 books137 followersElizabeth's newest book, "THIRD EAR: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening," will be published by Counterpoint on September 17, 2024. Like her previous book, it's a hybrid of memoir and interdisciplinary research. "SURVIVOR CAFE: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory" (Counterpoint 2017) features a compelling blend of personal narrative, interviews, and extensive research about the inter-generational aftermath of war, genocide, and violence. It was selected as a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award, and Rosner has been interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered" as well as in The New York Times.
Her third novel ELECTRIC CITY was published by Counterpoint in October 2014, and named one of the best books of the year by National Public Radio. Her full-length poetry collection GRAVITY was published by Atelier26 Books in fall 2014.
Ms. Rosner is the award-winning author of two previous novels: THE SPEED OF LIGHT and BLUE NUDE. The Speed of Light was the recipient of numerous honors, including the Harold U. Ribalow Prize and the Prix France Bleu Gironde; it was short-listed for the prestigious Prix Femina and selected for the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award. The novel has been translated into nine languages. Blue Nude was named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Elizabeth's writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Elle, The Forward, the Huffington Post, and several anthologies.
A full-time writer, Elizabeth taught literature and creative writing at the college level for 35 years, and continues to lead workshops and seminars at retreat centers and universities throughout the U.S. and internationally. She lives in Berkeley, CA.
Her third novel ELECTRIC CITY was published by Counterpoint in October 2014, and named one of the best books of the year by National Public Radio. Her full-length poetry collection GRAVITY was published by Atelier26 Books in fall 2014.
Ms. Rosner is the award-winning author of two previous novels: THE SPEED OF LIGHT and BLUE NUDE. The Speed of Light was the recipient of numerous honors, including the Harold U. Ribalow Prize and the Prix France Bleu Gironde; it was short-listed for the prestigious Prix Femina and selected for the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award. The novel has been translated into nine languages. Blue Nude was named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Elizabeth's writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Elle, The Forward, the Huffington Post, and several anthologies.
A full-time writer, Elizabeth taught literature and creative writing at the college level for 35 years, and continues to lead workshops and seminars at retreat centers and universities throughout the U.S. and internationally. She lives in Berkeley, CA.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
February 7, 2013
A model sculpts the air with her body. Unlikely subject for novel-length treatment, but in the hands of a poet, the relationship between body and absence, pose and pencil is elegant philosophy. The model, an Israeli raised on a kibbutz who is scarred by her army service, maps her new identity in the empty spaces defined by her stances. "Hers was the art of remaining present even as she disappeared. Inhabiting her body and dreaming her way out of it." The artist, a nachgeboren, from Germany is also haunted by absence: the bombed out ruins of his childhood; and equally, his emotionally hollowed parents, the ruins of the older generation steeped in Nazi ideology that must be crushed and hidden.
The friction of these two characters produces no easy resolutions, no facile art, not even the expected affair. The effects lie in the layers of violence which wrap memory and heritage, and channel perceptions in ways that lie just beneath conscious grasp. Pentimenti of violence, rather than the blunt and brutal headlines of 24 hour newschannels.
The friction of these two characters produces no easy resolutions, no facile art, not even the expected affair. The effects lie in the layers of violence which wrap memory and heritage, and channel perceptions in ways that lie just beneath conscious grasp. Pentimenti of violence, rather than the blunt and brutal headlines of 24 hour newschannels.
October 15, 2010
This book is as much a work of art as it is a book about art and artists. The language flows like water and the sum is much bigger than its parts. The book is very simple from the flow of plot but is packed with complexity and emotion behind the scenes. The book centers around two main characters, an artist and an artists' model. The artist, Danzig, is German and the model is Israeli and both have dark histories surrounding the Holocaust/WWII and the historical animosities between their cultures. Despite this darkness, the two are drawn to one another as artist and muse and the chemistry awakens Danzig's lost passion for producing his own art. Both of the main characters are facially calm and closed off but have a world of emotional history behind their calm exterior. "Smooth waters run deep" is a good label for both. I didn't find either of them particularly loveable but they were totally compelling. I read this book in a single day; somehow I just couldn't put it down. The author did an excellent job of bringing art to life and also bringing a fresh perspective and new life to a difficult subject matter that has been addressed in a million ways already.
August 4, 2019
You breathe in the subtle scent. With greater force now, for some part of you desperately hungers for more. Your body turns floppy, its strength moving inward away from the surface, into the soul.
Blue Nude invites you to meet your essence. Its elixir races through your veins to tantalize your slumbering aches, those lost behind your self-constructed mirror.
Poetic, seductive and secretly devourable, Rosner has woven a tapestry with life's deepest, darkest, most life-affirming threads, giving her readers not answers but questions, beautiful, effervescent questions.
Blue Nude invites you to meet your essence. Its elixir races through your veins to tantalize your slumbering aches, those lost behind your self-constructed mirror.
Poetic, seductive and secretly devourable, Rosner has woven a tapestry with life's deepest, darkest, most life-affirming threads, giving her readers not answers but questions, beautiful, effervescent questions.
October 11, 2010
Rarely comes a book so beautifully written that you feel as if you are reading the textual version of a breathtaking painting. This book is that type of book, lyrical prose pregnant with deep emotions and meaning. The main characters carry within them pain and sorrow, some that has been passed down from the choices their parents made long before they were even born.
This novel is a story of labels, accents and the struggle of identifying with the past. Both, Danzig and Merav had childhood's marred by loss and abuse. The Hitler world dominated both of their lives in different ways, but both felt the lasting pain that was left behind. Both attempted to escape through art, using their chosen mediums as therapy. The way that art is woven through the pages and into the fibers of Danzig and Merav is an art within itself. Everything is described as an artist would see the story, full of vivid imagery. The ending left me with a touch of desperation but with a overwhelming feeling of hope.
This novel is a story of labels, accents and the struggle of identifying with the past. Both, Danzig and Merav had childhood's marred by loss and abuse. The Hitler world dominated both of their lives in different ways, but both felt the lasting pain that was left behind. Both attempted to escape through art, using their chosen mediums as therapy. The way that art is woven through the pages and into the fibers of Danzig and Merav is an art within itself. Everything is described as an artist would see the story, full of vivid imagery. The ending left me with a touch of desperation but with a overwhelming feeling of hope.
December 8, 2009
This review originally ran in the San Francisco Chronicle:
A German artist and an Israeli model meet in a San Francisco classroom. That's the set-up for Berkeley writer Elizabeth Rosner's novel Blue Nude, which tracks the growing fascination that each has with the other.
Both are stuck on the peripheries of their careers. Danzig, a 58-year-old painter who once had considerable success, is blocked creatively and supports himself by teaching. Merav, who is half his age, studied to be an artist, but now works as a life model.
And both have chosen exile because of traumatic events. The death of a childhood friend and former lover in a terrorist attack impelled Merav to leave Israel. She packed "as little as possible in order to arrive in a new country without much memory of anything." Danzig's alienation from Germany began with a terrible loss in his childhood and was made worse by the ongoing battles with his father, a former Nazi, who opposed his art studies. Danzig felt a "desperate need to place an ocean and then a continent between himself and his past, his father and the Fatherland." He, too, believes that he "can forget anything and everything, a series of doors closed and locked behind him."
But the history of the countries they left keeps those doors from staying shut. When Merav learns that he's German, "she isn't sure she can manage to stay in the room. She's stunned by this almost primal response, her coiled readiness for flight." Later she will recall, "The poses she took in the first session were all in the shape of fear: a woman turning away from something threatening; a body in flight; the curled up shape of self-defense, protecting the heart, the belly." Danzig is not at all blind to this. When he learns her name, he reflects, "It is of course an Israeli name, so she is Jewish, as he had guessed. No wonder she will not look him in the eye." And so they begin a wary dance toward acceptance of each other.
The risk of a premise like this one is that the novel can devolve either into sentimental melodrama, a kind of beauty-and-beast romance, or into a moralizing fable, in which the characters wear labels like Fear and Guilt as they move toward Reconciliation. Rosner is too good a writer to fall into either trap, and she avoids them here largely because of her sensitive and complex portrait of Merav, whose delicate balance of vulnerability and strength Rosner captures in her reflections on Merav's work as a nude model: "Anatomy is more than bones and muscles. Her body is an abstraction, a narrative designing itself in the air." When Merav poses, "She is unveiled down to bare skin, exposed that far, but the world inside her body, the universe of dream and sensation that lives beneath her bones stays covered. All of that belongs only to her."
Merav's attitude toward Danzig is shaped by the experience of her grandmother, Esther, which is told in the novel's prologue: Esther survived the Nazis because a Dutch farmer hid her in his barn; a German soldier discovered her there, but let her go because he was so struck by her beauty. Merav imagines how her mother and grandmother would protest about her posing for Danzig. She "silently talks back to them. Hadn't Esther once grudgingly admitted it was possible there had been a few good Germans? That soldier – wasn't he deserving of credit for saving her life? It's just there were never enough of the good ones, Esther would retort." The suspense of the novel hinges on Merav's trust that Danzig is one of the good ones.
Two of Danzig's former models became his mistresses, and he was a cad in his treatment of them, so we have reason to feel concern for Merav when she agrees to pose for him alone in his studio in Point Reyes. But the working out of the novel's central tension would be more compelling if Rosner had been able to make Danzig come off the page the way Merav does. He's set up too mechanically as the stereotypical cold and authoritarian German, who enjoys the fact that his students "jumped at the sound of his voice," and who overhears them calling him "The Kaiser." Rosner seems unable to make the kind of intimate imaginative connection with Danzig that she does with Merav. This is crucially evident when, in telling his story, she departs from his point of view – which she never does when telling Merav's story – to see events through the eyes of Danzig's sister, Margot, whose fate is the supposed key to his character.
Rosner's critically praised first novel, The Speed of Light, also dealt with the heavy weight that the past can impose on survivors. In that respect, it was more successful than Blue Nude, whose story is too frail to hold up the larger themes – the tragic history, the struggle to heal and to reconcile – that intrude upon it. But the grace of this novel is less in its totality than in its details, the insights and illuminations that abundantly reveal the author's intelligence and compassion. This is a writer whose promise here exceeds her achievement, but that promise is splendid.
A German artist and an Israeli model meet in a San Francisco classroom. That's the set-up for Berkeley writer Elizabeth Rosner's novel Blue Nude, which tracks the growing fascination that each has with the other.
Both are stuck on the peripheries of their careers. Danzig, a 58-year-old painter who once had considerable success, is blocked creatively and supports himself by teaching. Merav, who is half his age, studied to be an artist, but now works as a life model.
And both have chosen exile because of traumatic events. The death of a childhood friend and former lover in a terrorist attack impelled Merav to leave Israel. She packed "as little as possible in order to arrive in a new country without much memory of anything." Danzig's alienation from Germany began with a terrible loss in his childhood and was made worse by the ongoing battles with his father, a former Nazi, who opposed his art studies. Danzig felt a "desperate need to place an ocean and then a continent between himself and his past, his father and the Fatherland." He, too, believes that he "can forget anything and everything, a series of doors closed and locked behind him."
But the history of the countries they left keeps those doors from staying shut. When Merav learns that he's German, "she isn't sure she can manage to stay in the room. She's stunned by this almost primal response, her coiled readiness for flight." Later she will recall, "The poses she took in the first session were all in the shape of fear: a woman turning away from something threatening; a body in flight; the curled up shape of self-defense, protecting the heart, the belly." Danzig is not at all blind to this. When he learns her name, he reflects, "It is of course an Israeli name, so she is Jewish, as he had guessed. No wonder she will not look him in the eye." And so they begin a wary dance toward acceptance of each other.
The risk of a premise like this one is that the novel can devolve either into sentimental melodrama, a kind of beauty-and-beast romance, or into a moralizing fable, in which the characters wear labels like Fear and Guilt as they move toward Reconciliation. Rosner is too good a writer to fall into either trap, and she avoids them here largely because of her sensitive and complex portrait of Merav, whose delicate balance of vulnerability and strength Rosner captures in her reflections on Merav's work as a nude model: "Anatomy is more than bones and muscles. Her body is an abstraction, a narrative designing itself in the air." When Merav poses, "She is unveiled down to bare skin, exposed that far, but the world inside her body, the universe of dream and sensation that lives beneath her bones stays covered. All of that belongs only to her."
Merav's attitude toward Danzig is shaped by the experience of her grandmother, Esther, which is told in the novel's prologue: Esther survived the Nazis because a Dutch farmer hid her in his barn; a German soldier discovered her there, but let her go because he was so struck by her beauty. Merav imagines how her mother and grandmother would protest about her posing for Danzig. She "silently talks back to them. Hadn't Esther once grudgingly admitted it was possible there had been a few good Germans? That soldier – wasn't he deserving of credit for saving her life? It's just there were never enough of the good ones, Esther would retort." The suspense of the novel hinges on Merav's trust that Danzig is one of the good ones.
Two of Danzig's former models became his mistresses, and he was a cad in his treatment of them, so we have reason to feel concern for Merav when she agrees to pose for him alone in his studio in Point Reyes. But the working out of the novel's central tension would be more compelling if Rosner had been able to make Danzig come off the page the way Merav does. He's set up too mechanically as the stereotypical cold and authoritarian German, who enjoys the fact that his students "jumped at the sound of his voice," and who overhears them calling him "The Kaiser." Rosner seems unable to make the kind of intimate imaginative connection with Danzig that she does with Merav. This is crucially evident when, in telling his story, she departs from his point of view – which she never does when telling Merav's story – to see events through the eyes of Danzig's sister, Margot, whose fate is the supposed key to his character.
Rosner's critically praised first novel, The Speed of Light, also dealt with the heavy weight that the past can impose on survivors. In that respect, it was more successful than Blue Nude, whose story is too frail to hold up the larger themes – the tragic history, the struggle to heal and to reconcile – that intrude upon it. But the grace of this novel is less in its totality than in its details, the insights and illuminations that abundantly reveal the author's intelligence and compassion. This is a writer whose promise here exceeds her achievement, but that promise is splendid.
October 16, 2010
Did you ever read a book that was so good, that you read it twice, back to back? Such was the case for me with Blue Nude, by Elizabeth Rosner. A short novel, just 200 pages, but a fantastic book that completely wowed me.
The story is about two artists -- initially strangers whose lives, past and present intersect after a chance meeting. Danzig is a 58 year old German-born painter. He was born days after WWII to a cold and abusive father and a submissive mother. Danzig and his sister Margot were witness to the cruelties of their father, who although never fully revealed, appeared to play a significant role in the elimination of the Jews during the war. To cope with the ways of his demanding father, at an early age, Danzig found comfort in painting and art.
"Still, his father always found ways of tormenting him, made sure he was given jobs to do before he was allowed to eat his meal or play or read a book. He was inspected for cleanliness in the mornings before going to school, and he was sent to bed without food if he ever left a job half finished--or worse, if he had said he had done something when actually he hadn't"........................."He was on his own, and his father was the enemy, and it was all very clear and without alteration."
After tragedy strikes, and only unhappy memories remain, Danzig leaves Germany for America. He moves to San Francisco to pursue a career in art. He works as an art professor at the Art Institute in San Francisco.
Merav, is a young, Israeli born woman who makes a living as a nude model. When she finds work posing for Danzig's art class, she is careful not to speak fearing that Danzig will pick up on her accent, as she has with his. Merav, too, has had her share of tragedy, and years later the nightmares still haunt her. There is an unspoken interest by the two that keeps them connected. She feels at peace while posing for Danzig's class. For Danzig, in Merav he finds his creativeness returning after 5+ years. He asks her to pose for him privately in his studio. Merav is totally in her comfort zone when posing for art students........
"She felt like a swallow, dipping and soaring at twilight. She felt her body touched without being touched".
"Sometimes Merav thinks that modeling is one of the ways her physical life resembles that of her childhood on the kibbutz."
With out giving too much of the story away, I'll just say that I was completely taken by this story. The writing is beautiful, the characters so well fleshed out; I felt deeply for both of them. A redemptive story about the power of the human spirit as each individual tries to cope with the demons of their past. Blue Nude, is a story you will not easily forget.
Originally published in hardcover by Ballantine in May 2006 and reissued in 2010 in paperback by Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster). I can't believe that this wonderful book has not received more accolades. Do yourself a favor and read this book, you will be glad you did.
The story is about two artists -- initially strangers whose lives, past and present intersect after a chance meeting. Danzig is a 58 year old German-born painter. He was born days after WWII to a cold and abusive father and a submissive mother. Danzig and his sister Margot were witness to the cruelties of their father, who although never fully revealed, appeared to play a significant role in the elimination of the Jews during the war. To cope with the ways of his demanding father, at an early age, Danzig found comfort in painting and art.
"Still, his father always found ways of tormenting him, made sure he was given jobs to do before he was allowed to eat his meal or play or read a book. He was inspected for cleanliness in the mornings before going to school, and he was sent to bed without food if he ever left a job half finished--or worse, if he had said he had done something when actually he hadn't"........................."He was on his own, and his father was the enemy, and it was all very clear and without alteration."
After tragedy strikes, and only unhappy memories remain, Danzig leaves Germany for America. He moves to San Francisco to pursue a career in art. He works as an art professor at the Art Institute in San Francisco.
Merav, is a young, Israeli born woman who makes a living as a nude model. When she finds work posing for Danzig's art class, she is careful not to speak fearing that Danzig will pick up on her accent, as she has with his. Merav, too, has had her share of tragedy, and years later the nightmares still haunt her. There is an unspoken interest by the two that keeps them connected. She feels at peace while posing for Danzig's class. For Danzig, in Merav he finds his creativeness returning after 5+ years. He asks her to pose for him privately in his studio. Merav is totally in her comfort zone when posing for art students........
"She felt like a swallow, dipping and soaring at twilight. She felt her body touched without being touched".
"Sometimes Merav thinks that modeling is one of the ways her physical life resembles that of her childhood on the kibbutz."
With out giving too much of the story away, I'll just say that I was completely taken by this story. The writing is beautiful, the characters so well fleshed out; I felt deeply for both of them. A redemptive story about the power of the human spirit as each individual tries to cope with the demons of their past. Blue Nude, is a story you will not easily forget.
Originally published in hardcover by Ballantine in May 2006 and reissued in 2010 in paperback by Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster). I can't believe that this wonderful book has not received more accolades. Do yourself a favor and read this book, you will be glad you did.
September 16, 2010
From my book review blog Rundpinne . These are my words and opinions and belong solely to me.
"Beautiful, poetic and written in a lyrical manner, Blue Nude by Elizabeth Rosner is an astonishingly brilliant novel about love, loss, and healing. Danzig is a German-born painter struggling day-to-day teaching others to paint, while he himself cannot. Will Merav, an Israeli born model who arrives in his class to pose, become the muse he has been looking for to reconnect, heal and resume painting? Both chose San Francisco in an attempt to move as far away from their respective memories as possible, yet can one ever escape one’s memories? Rosner’s writing carries many themes pertaining to the arts, especially composition and how something is always being composed, a painting, a song, the self, and a delicate balance of non-verbal communication. The pure beauty of Rosner’s words will mesmerise the reader, especially as she speaks of how nothing is accidental, that balance, harmony and unity, words applicable to an art class as well as life, constantly transform everything around us. Artist and model are each trying to escape their respective pasts, to compose themselves, to find their inner muse and to fill their canvases. Blue Nude is a poetically sensual novel of life, memories, beauty, and redemption. Without hesitation, I recommend Blue Nude to all readers and sincerely hope book groups choose this remarkably beautiful book. I eagerly await Rosner’s next book and intend to read her previous novel The Speed of Light." -Jennifer
"Beautiful, poetic and written in a lyrical manner, Blue Nude by Elizabeth Rosner is an astonishingly brilliant novel about love, loss, and healing. Danzig is a German-born painter struggling day-to-day teaching others to paint, while he himself cannot. Will Merav, an Israeli born model who arrives in his class to pose, become the muse he has been looking for to reconnect, heal and resume painting? Both chose San Francisco in an attempt to move as far away from their respective memories as possible, yet can one ever escape one’s memories? Rosner’s writing carries many themes pertaining to the arts, especially composition and how something is always being composed, a painting, a song, the self, and a delicate balance of non-verbal communication. The pure beauty of Rosner’s words will mesmerise the reader, especially as she speaks of how nothing is accidental, that balance, harmony and unity, words applicable to an art class as well as life, constantly transform everything around us. Artist and model are each trying to escape their respective pasts, to compose themselves, to find their inner muse and to fill their canvases. Blue Nude is a poetically sensual novel of life, memories, beauty, and redemption. Without hesitation, I recommend Blue Nude to all readers and sincerely hope book groups choose this remarkably beautiful book. I eagerly await Rosner’s next book and intend to read her previous novel The Speed of Light." -Jennifer
August 12, 2018
A near-perfect novel. Succinct but so immersive I could effortlessly access the inner world of each character. It explores inter-generational guilt, the legacy of war, identity, art, forgiveness and letting go. I loved it.
March 17, 2012
So thrilled to be taking this off of my "currently reading" shelf after a year!
I put off starting this book for various reasons along the way, but in the end I enjoyed it overall. It's pretty apparent from the get go that Rosner is a modernist (she lists Virginia Woolf and Michael Cunningham among her inspirations, as if one couldn't pick up on that from the strictly stream-of-consciousness POV points.) I love modernism too, and I thought it really served the middle of this story. I love how we went backwards, not forwards in time to better understand these characters. I also really appreciate how deftly Rosner pulled off the Danzig/(Third Reich) Germany and Merav/Israel comparison, because obviously this is a hugely sensitive subject. She sought to explore how these two characters came to San Fransisco to escape the tensions within themselves vs their national origins, but obviously Israel is under real threat from her neighbors whereas the Germans had to make up threats to justify genocide. So true to a modernist style Rosner had two people die in place of her protagonists--Merav's childhood friend and lover, Yossi, was killed in a terrorist attack, and Margot, Danzig's sister and truly the most modernist construction in the book, pretty much took her life for Germany's sins. (On a related note while reading Margot's chapters I realized I'd had very little education into how regular German citizens fiercely embraced their society's view of patriotism during WWII. I rather wish that Yossi would have had some POV chapters, too, which could have better explored the Israeli sense of patriotism from someone who chose to stay in the army.)
Where it didn't work so much for me was at the beginning and the end--"the present" part of the story where Merav and Danzig meet each other and supposedly form some kind of relationship that touches upon both of their national and personal pasts. ...except that during all those times that Merav posed for Danzig they never learned more about each other than the identities of Israeli and German; they both remained locked in their own heads, pouring over narrative that was better covered in the middle. Obviously this is a very visual book with beautiful descriptions, particularly because it is about art. And I appreciated the fact that Merav reminded Danzig of his sister, the first "blue nude" he saw whom he also referred to as "M." But none of this was explored in a very conclusive and satisfying way. As much as I love modernism, the final act in particular deserved something a bit more concrete.
I put off starting this book for various reasons along the way, but in the end I enjoyed it overall. It's pretty apparent from the get go that Rosner is a modernist (she lists Virginia Woolf and Michael Cunningham among her inspirations, as if one couldn't pick up on that from the strictly stream-of-consciousness POV points.) I love modernism too, and I thought it really served the middle of this story. I love how we went backwards, not forwards in time to better understand these characters. I also really appreciate how deftly Rosner pulled off the Danzig/(Third Reich) Germany and Merav/Israel comparison, because obviously this is a hugely sensitive subject. She sought to explore how these two characters came to San Fransisco to escape the tensions within themselves vs their national origins, but obviously Israel is under real threat from her neighbors whereas the Germans had to make up threats to justify genocide. So true to a modernist style Rosner had two people die in place of her protagonists--Merav's childhood friend and lover, Yossi, was killed in a terrorist attack, and Margot, Danzig's sister and truly the most modernist construction in the book, pretty much took her life for Germany's sins. (On a related note while reading Margot's chapters I realized I'd had very little education into how regular German citizens fiercely embraced their society's view of patriotism during WWII. I rather wish that Yossi would have had some POV chapters, too, which could have better explored the Israeli sense of patriotism from someone who chose to stay in the army.)
Where it didn't work so much for me was at the beginning and the end--"the present" part of the story where Merav and Danzig meet each other and supposedly form some kind of relationship that touches upon both of their national and personal pasts. ...except that during all those times that Merav posed for Danzig they never learned more about each other than the identities of Israeli and German; they both remained locked in their own heads, pouring over narrative that was better covered in the middle. Obviously this is a very visual book with beautiful descriptions, particularly because it is about art. And I appreciated the fact that Merav reminded Danzig of his sister, the first "blue nude" he saw whom he also referred to as "M." But none of this was explored in a very conclusive and satisfying way. As much as I love modernism, the final act in particular deserved something a bit more concrete.
October 11, 2010
Danzig is a 58 year old washed up German artist who teaches his techniques at an art institute in San Francisco. Merav is young and a former Israili soldier turned model moves to California to forget about her past. She ends up filling a substitute position and ends up in Danzig’s art class as the muse. They are both trying to forget about there past it’s what brings them together.
It is a well written and fast paced novel. It has sexy art work, secrets, failed relationships, hope, World War II, guilt, Holocaust story, and forgiveness. Lets just say this novel has a bit of everything!
This story brings together the past and present with deep awakenings for both Danzig & Merav.
I like the way Rosner writes. Her words just flow and you could set the scene in your mind.
Rosner is another author that I would add to my first read list. This novel is short 200 pages it’s not a hard read at all. Also, at the end it has a Reading Group Guide which I thought was cool.
Review link: http://www.onceuponatwilight.com/2010...
It is a well written and fast paced novel. It has sexy art work, secrets, failed relationships, hope, World War II, guilt, Holocaust story, and forgiveness. Lets just say this novel has a bit of everything!
This story brings together the past and present with deep awakenings for both Danzig & Merav.
I like the way Rosner writes. Her words just flow and you could set the scene in your mind.
Rosner is another author that I would add to my first read list. This novel is short 200 pages it’s not a hard read at all. Also, at the end it has a Reading Group Guide which I thought was cool.
Review link: http://www.onceuponatwilight.com/2010...
November 7, 2011
This book was simply amazing. Rosen has a way with words. She has spectacular mastery over imagery and manages to sculpt each sentence carefully and lovingly, but naturally and forcefully at the same time. The subject matter is poignant as well. Danzig, a German painter, meets Merav, an Israeli artist and art model. No, they don't fall in love despite their differences, and no, it isn't simple. Inner struggles are revealed, but only to us, the readers. The characters remain distant and shielded. Reading Blue Nude is like looking at a series of Egon Schile drawings or paintings. Her novel leaves a lasting impression that twists you somewhere deep inside, staying with you from the moment you pick it up till long after you finish it. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
December 1, 2010
Such a moving work of fiction! It explores, with gentle yet intense clarity, the ways in which two characters' personal histories emerge out of a haunting silence into the safe space created through their work together. A fierce German artist and the beautiful, young Israeli artist who has become his model negotiate a charged landscape of grief, fury, and despair, to see whether transformation is possible in the quiet, powerful realm of artistic creation. I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Rosner's writing -- she creates characters that are wonderfully round, real, and compelling; she creates stories that matter.
May 29, 2011
Sometimes here in the US we forget what constant warfare in Europe did to the populace, their children born during the war, and after. It's easy to acknowledge the scale of things such as the Holocaust, and not have to think about the repercussions for your family and their children and their children's children.
This book brings that back home, by having as main characters an older German artist (born just after the war) and an Israeli model (two generations after the war). A sexy, hypnotic, and intense look at the ideas and legacies of World War II. (Yes, I said sexy. I stand by that.)
This book brings that back home, by having as main characters an older German artist (born just after the war) and an Israeli model (two generations after the war). A sexy, hypnotic, and intense look at the ideas and legacies of World War II. (Yes, I said sexy. I stand by that.)
February 29, 2012
This was really a 4.5 for me. I enjoyed the way the author went back and forth in time and the reader uncovered the characters lives and connections in alternating layers. The juxtaposition of model/artist and their relationship/need for each other was an interesting sensual and emotional way to relate Danzig and Merav and their approaches to art. I loved the ending where Danzig's and Merav's feelings of emptiness (their personal blank canvases) were pushed towards a kind of completion, a feeling of wholeness (the beginning of a completed work).
October 1, 2010
this was such a good book
September 16, 2010
I found myself completely engrossed in this novel. It's one of those books that you fly through because you can't put it down. Elizabeth is a writing genius!
January 15, 2018
A beautifully written book, lyrical and poetic, combining current day actions with past personal histories. It does jump around in time, not following a straight narrative at all, or a single character, which can be a little difficult to follow at times. But overall, it was a pleasure to read.
Danzig is an artist who has lost his inspiration to paint and is teaching art students technique with models. He is grumpy and aloof and seems to have almost no friends. Slowly we learn that he grew up in Germany, born immediately after WWII, and did not have a happy childhood, explaining some of his dissatisfaction with his life.
Merav is a fabulous model, much in demand with artists all over. She grew up in Israel, her grandmother telling her stories of being a holocaust survivor. Life in Israel is not easy for anyone, and when Merav is in the army she realizes it is not the life for her. She emigrates to CA and finds herself doing less art and more art modeling.
This is not an action book, but a story of thoughts and feelings and inner dreaming. Slowly we come to understand the main characters, more is revealed as to how they became they way they are, what and who influenced them, and how they have come together, muse and artist.
Danzig is an artist who has lost his inspiration to paint and is teaching art students technique with models. He is grumpy and aloof and seems to have almost no friends. Slowly we learn that he grew up in Germany, born immediately after WWII, and did not have a happy childhood, explaining some of his dissatisfaction with his life.
Merav is a fabulous model, much in demand with artists all over. She grew up in Israel, her grandmother telling her stories of being a holocaust survivor. Life in Israel is not easy for anyone, and when Merav is in the army she realizes it is not the life for her. She emigrates to CA and finds herself doing less art and more art modeling.
This is not an action book, but a story of thoughts and feelings and inner dreaming. Slowly we come to understand the main characters, more is revealed as to how they became they way they are, what and who influenced them, and how they have come together, muse and artist.
September 21, 2010
BLUE NUDE BY Elizabeth Rosner is a historical fiction set in San Francisco and Point Reyes in the 21st century. It is well written and fast paced. It has secrets, truths coming to light, sexy art work, muse, artist, failed relationships, a former Israili soldier, a German Nazi descendent, despair, fear, hope, World War II, Holocaust story, guilt, and forgiveness. A German washed up artist and a former Israili soldier/model learn redemption, reconciliation and forgiveness together. Merav, the former Israili soldier turned model and the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor becomes Danzig's muse. Danzig, a washed up German artist whose post war inheritance brings him to Merav while he is a teacher at an art institue in San Francisco. This story brings together the past and the present with profound awakenings for both the artist and the muse. This is a touching story of pain and survival. This book was received for review and details can be found at Simon and Schuster and My Book Addiction and More.
April 3, 2011
I bought this on a whim from a clearance bin at Books-A-Million. I didn't have high expectations - in fact, I was unsure if it qualified as romance or fiction.
That being said, I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the lyrical, sometimes uncomfortable nature of the prose. That is how I prefer my "literary" fiction prose, after all. It flowed and swept across continents, reminding us of the discomfort of broken ideas and broken hearts, of old prejudices and new ones, of war and pain and creativity and angst. It reminded me a lot of James Bradley's WRACK, which I maintain as one of the best books ever written. I think BLUE NUDE had a lot of potential, but was too short, wasn't fleshed out enough to quite make it there. Though, on the other hand, towards the end of the "Past" section, it felt as though the author was trying to stretch it out. It worked, but it seemed like a clear attempt at more words.
Overall, very good - I read it in about three hours total - and certainly a welcome departure from typically heartwarming chick lit.
That being said, I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the lyrical, sometimes uncomfortable nature of the prose. That is how I prefer my "literary" fiction prose, after all. It flowed and swept across continents, reminding us of the discomfort of broken ideas and broken hearts, of old prejudices and new ones, of war and pain and creativity and angst. It reminded me a lot of James Bradley's WRACK, which I maintain as one of the best books ever written. I think BLUE NUDE had a lot of potential, but was too short, wasn't fleshed out enough to quite make it there. Though, on the other hand, towards the end of the "Past" section, it felt as though the author was trying to stretch it out. It worked, but it seemed like a clear attempt at more words.
Overall, very good - I read it in about three hours total - and certainly a welcome departure from typically heartwarming chick lit.
September 24, 2011
Regarding Barry S.'s comment...
He has a right to his opinion, of course, but...
Barry apparently seeks idealism rather than realism. Look around. The walls are dripping with relationships that don't go anywhere. Look at the divorce rates. I had no problem, relating to the book at all, and there are plenty of people like me who, on some level, seek love but don't know how to give or receive it. Or they attach so many conditions to it that love is blurred beyond recognition.
It would be nice if everyone had a clear, uncontaminated concept of the ideal relationship (for them) so that characters in books could show us the path to success or illuminate and flag routes to frustration and failure, but in my experience the reverse is more the norm. It's a jungle out there, and most people, young people especially, are groping in the dark and bumping into each other, hoping for the best.
He has a right to his opinion, of course, but...
Barry apparently seeks idealism rather than realism. Look around. The walls are dripping with relationships that don't go anywhere. Look at the divorce rates. I had no problem, relating to the book at all, and there are plenty of people like me who, on some level, seek love but don't know how to give or receive it. Or they attach so many conditions to it that love is blurred beyond recognition.
It would be nice if everyone had a clear, uncontaminated concept of the ideal relationship (for them) so that characters in books could show us the path to success or illuminate and flag routes to frustration and failure, but in my experience the reverse is more the norm. It's a jungle out there, and most people, young people especially, are groping in the dark and bumping into each other, hoping for the best.
October 8, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed Blue Nude. The story is compelling because it looks at aspects of WWII from the interesting perspective of a German man born after the war but whose family lived through it, as well as the perspective of a modern-day Jewish woman, two perspectives with which I am not familiar. As with her first novel, The Speed of Light, the author tells the story from the perspectives of the different characters. She also moves back and forth between past and present, revealing aspects of the characters gradually and creating suspense. The book also piqued my interest so that I looked up historical information and information about Jewish culture.
I can't wait to get my copy of Electric City!
Thank you, Elizabeth.Blue Nude
I can't wait to get my copy of Electric City!
Thank you, Elizabeth.Blue Nude
August 2, 2010
Survivors of tragedy must see everything forever after through different eyes, and this book starkly demonstrated this. The two main characters, Danzig and Merav, have both suffered the loss of loved ones through war,Merav directly and Danzig indirectly. Both are emotionally and artistically stunted, neither character generated much warmth of feeling in the reader, and maybe that was intentional on the part of the author. The overriding feeling in the novel was one of stark emotion, and maybe because they were both artists, every detail was minutely examined and dramatized, which made the reading a little difficult.Their meeting and ultimate cathartic painting session frees something in each of them.
January 22, 2012
Liked the attempt that was made to tell the story in a backward manner with flashbacks in the middle and bookending 'Present' sections. Parts of the story were touching, other tragic. Truth is, Michael Ondaatje's 'The English Patient' was written in a similar fashion and 1000x more effective. Easy read with difficult themes, gets you thinking in any case. The Prologue is very exciting, but by the end of the book, unless you read it in one sitting, it's hard to place the connection (I didn't read it that quickly due to reading too many other nonfiction things in between). More of a novella I think since it's so short. But when I hunted down the section to make sure my hunch was correct, it's an effective tool. An epilogue reminder wouldn't have been perfect.
June 4, 2015
This book is a gem!
Stunningly sensual, emotional novel about guilt, desire, and forgiveness.
Blue Nude takes modern history's greatest atrocity and expresses its consequences- and a hope for redemption- in the lives of two people thrown together by accident.
Born in the shadow of postwar Germany, Danzig is a once-prominent painter, now teaching art in San Fransisco.He finds himself unable to create. When Mirav, an Israeli-born grand-daughter of a Holocaust survivor, becomes Danzig's model, both realize they must face the wounds of history that each of them carriesBringing together the past and present of Merav and Danzig, the story moves forward and backward in times and place: from a California art studio to the ruins of Berlin and back again.
Stunningly sensual, emotional novel about guilt, desire, and forgiveness.
Blue Nude takes modern history's greatest atrocity and expresses its consequences- and a hope for redemption- in the lives of two people thrown together by accident.
Born in the shadow of postwar Germany, Danzig is a once-prominent painter, now teaching art in San Fransisco.He finds himself unable to create. When Mirav, an Israeli-born grand-daughter of a Holocaust survivor, becomes Danzig's model, both realize they must face the wounds of history that each of them carriesBringing together the past and present of Merav and Danzig, the story moves forward and backward in times and place: from a California art studio to the ruins of Berlin and back again.
April 7, 2015
I am not surprised that the author of this novel is also an award-winning poet because this work was extraordinarily poetic. The story flows beautifully, with the compelling tale being told with amazing, breath-taking, attention-holding descriptions of everything from the people to the scenes to art and more. It was very interesting reading about the artist who was born in Germany after the war, the son of a Nazi soldier, and had to grow up under the shadow of being a citizen of a country that was involved in such atrocities, and the model, a Jew born and growing up in Israel, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, and who had to adjust to having to be a soldier in the Israeli army when she came of age in the 90s.
March 5, 2011
An amazingly lyric novel about two people whose families were on either side of the Holocaust. One a German artist, whose parents were Nazis, the other an artists' model whose parents were Jewish. They brush up against each other in a subtle, understated way: She poses for him. Each provides a meditation, a mandala, about the war. Without saying what they are thinking and without some classic expectations, the two each help the other resolve some piercing questions about their identity, their history, their future, and the journey of healing. NOT an historical novel, but a literary one. Highly recommended for readers of literary fiction.
March 11, 2008
I'm completely fascinated with books centering on art, and this one was no exception, starring an art professor and the young woman who comes to be his model and muse. I loved the cultural tension here, highlighted by devastating events from history, and I adored the character development present in at least one of these individuals. One of them will not be making the same mistake this time, that's for sure. I need to obtain this book and keep it so I may read it over and over in the future. It's just beautiful!
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September 24, 2010A German art teacher with a past; a life model from Israel..and how their meeting disturbs and ultimately provides resolution and healing. There are some powerful images in this book and I was especially affected by the story of the artist's sister, born before the war, and conscious of her father's participation in the war on the wrong side, and the artist, born after the war, and totally rejecting of his country and his parents.
November 22, 2010
An enjoyable, poetic novel about an older German-American art professor who has been blocked and unable to paint for 5 years and the young Israeli model/artist who poses for him and reinspires him. So much of the story is about painting, so I thoroughly enjoyed that. It's a quiet, small book, beautifully written with wonderful character develeopment. It's inspiring, with themes of self-discovery and finding freedom from difficult pasts.
January 5, 2011
Only on page 52 but already drawn in. Upon completion I will say that it certainly held my attention because I read it in two days with little reading time. The jumping back & forth through time was a bit distracting to me although I see why she did it. I also don't enjoy reading about suicide since my life has been touched by that particular tragedy and I don't need any reminders as I already think about it too often.
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