Michael White (7) (1956–)

I have to admit to reading this memoir / travelogue / journal of obsession with my Kindle open beside me, in order to call up images of the paintings White describes so luminously. As a person with neither education about nor particular interest in fine art, his detailed deconstruction and rapturous descriptions of Johannes Vermeer’s paintings would have been just so many facile but empty phrases without a physical representation for me to fall back on.

The impetus for White’s determination to see all Vermeer’s extant work is never fully explained; perhaps it cannot be explained. Obsessions frequently make no sense to anyone except to the person in their thrall. Even his ultimate satisfaction and acknowledgement of the end of his obsession have to be taken on faith by the reader.

For all of that, it’s an often moving work, as he describes the life journey that set him off on this epic quest. As a talented poet, White is at home in the language of the inner self, and exquisitely in tune with the internal meaning of that which we perceive with our eyes but truly understand only with our hearts.… (más)

This was a melancholy book. It was sad. It was rather gloomy. It was poignant and moving. It was about love. It was about marriage - successful and failed. It was about art - Vermeer in particular, but also about the art of other Dutch Masters of the day. It was about obsession. It was about losing oneself and finding oneself. It was about travel. It was all packed into 178 pages.

I didn't realize that this book was as much about marriage, searching for oneself, disappointment, and art as it was about travel. Therefore, I expected it to be more about art than it was. Let me assure you that it was about art. It was not a book for art critics, but rather it was about the, almost obsessive, drive to learn more about what Vermeer was trying to do with his painting and how that played on the frayed emotions of the author.

The author stumbled onto his quest when he literally fled his home and went to Amsterdam for a long weekend just to see the art museums. One look at the Vermeer painting "The Milkmaid" and fell in love - or maybe obsession - with Vermeer. He made it to that one museum and once viewed his first Vermeer he almost totally ignored the other paintings in the museum. He was seized by an intensity in that viewing that astonished him. This intensity translated into a quest to see all of the Vermeer paintings that he could. The book chronicles his trips to three cities - New York, London, and twice to Amsterdam to see Vermeer paintings. At the time, the author was involved in a gut wrenching divorce that he did not want and was seeking peace of mind. Vermeer's paintings quieted his mind, and provided an emotional outlet for the author's examination of love in all its forms as portrayed by Vermeer.

The book was also a travel book. The author's quest took him to museums in the U.S., the U.K., and the Netherlands. He chronicles those travels and the experiences that went with them in the book, but always the main focus was on the Vermeer paintings. The book does make the reader want to take on some kind of similar quest - the search for peace and the chance to view some beautiful objects in depth.

The book was nominated for a National Book Award in 2015 and it is certainly worthy of that nomination. I recommend this book for art lovers and for travel book lovers.… (más)