Someone I know said "Bluebeard" was the Vonnegut YOU (and by YOU he meant everyone) didn't like. He couldn't have been more wrong. A lot of people say a book really spoke to them, mostly so they can sound smart, but this is one of those rare occasions where I can truly say this book spoke to me. Though it was written over twenty years ago it felt like it was written for me right this moment. (I've mentioned before in other reviews how important timing is in these things. See "On the Road" and "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.")

Bluebeard is the story of Rabo Karabekian and it follows the nonlinear storytelling found in other Vonnegut novels like his classic "Slaughterhouse Five." Starting in the present of 1987, Rabo is an old man on Long Island who lives alone in a mansion after his wife died. A younger widow named Circe Berman (who writes controversial young adult books under the handle Polly Madison) appears on Rabo's private beach one day and soon takes up residence in Rabo's house. She convinces him to write his autobiography.

His autobiography begins in California in the late `20s. The son of Turkish Armenians who fled the slaughter of their village, Rabo trains to be a cobbler like his father but discovers he has a talent for drawing. His mother convinces him to write to a famous Russian Armenian named Dan Gregory who's become a famous artist known for his realistic illustrations. (His popularity at that time make him kind of similar to Norman Rockwell, except he's a jerk. Maybe Rockwell was a jerk too. I have no idea.) Gregory's wife Marilee takes notice of Rabo's talent and eventually brings him to Gregory's home in New York. Rabo rides out the Depression under Gregory's mean-spirited teachings, falling in love with Marilee and "Modern Art" (Picasso and his ilk) at the same time.

In time Rabo becomes a lesser-known member of the modern art movement in the `40s and `50s, hanging out with Jackson Pollack and Terry Kitchen and other well-known people who invariably commit suicide. Worse yet, many of Rabo's paintings are destroyed by a very shoddy product so that he seems doomed to be completely forgotten. That is except for a very special item in his former studio, a potato barn on the grounds of his mansion.

For me, as something approximating an artist of the written word, much of Rabo's problems were similar to ones I've faced. I'm certain many artists whether they work with a canvas or clay or marble or paper or words or what have you have felt the frustration and despair at the world failing to take notice of our "gift." But the lesson for any artistic type I gleaned from Rabo's story follows the adage of "Do what you love." Or the more accurate way to put it might be to say, "Do what you care about for the people you care about."

That said, I think this is a great book to read if you're an artist of any sort. If you're not, then you'll probably still be entertained by Vonnegut's witty prose, but you won't get as much out of the reading. You're probably the YOU the person I knew was thinking about.

That is all.

February 25, 2008

Vonnegut's Funniest

One of my favorite by Vonnegut because he lightens up...a little. The King of Cynicism and Glumness relaxes a little and gives the faux autobiography of a failed modernist painting. Along the way, Vonnegut sends up the modern art movement and the commercialization of creativity and the arbitrary valuation of everything. Not nearly as harsh or bleak as most of his work and it ends with on very sweet uplifting note. Since it is atypical of Vonnegut, read this after you've read Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's Cradle and one or two others.
May 30, 2007

Bluebeard

I am a fan of Vonnegut. This novel brought wonderful feelings of happiness, connection, desire to participate, be included into the circle of friendship, fragile and pure world of poor bohemian artists. I thing this book is the best book that he wrote. BLUEBEARD is a ready, well-defined movie scenario or a play for the theater. The characters touched my heart. I love them all, especially, Rabo. In short, when I feel down or sad I take Vonnegut's BLUEBEARD and read it. My spirit rises from sadness to the joyful non-reality of Rabo's clear, captivating world of humanity and art of living.
November 04, 2006

A Beautiful Book

That's the best way I can describe this book: simply beautiful. The story is very funny, sad, yet touching. And of course, you're dying to know what's in the potato barn. That revelation is one of the nicest surprises that a book has ever given me and is what really left me with a lasting impression. It's surprising that Vonnegut could write something so heartfelt compared to his other books, but I guess that just shows what a great author he is. For all the fun he pokes at modern society, Vonnegut actually provides some hope for a change in this book.
April 10, 2006

A Thrill for both my Meat and Soul!

While Breakfast of Champions remains my all time favorite, Bluebeard ranks a close second. The story is a witty and poignant autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, a WWII vet and artist friend of Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock. In a way that it seems only Vonnegut can, sad, depressing characters are interwoven with a satirical wit that produces a cunning commentary on American culture. Like most Vonnegut books, whenever I attempt to convey the plot to a friend (who is unaware of his writing style) they say something like, "oh - that sounds so depressing!" Yet, Vonnegut writes with a trenchant wit that digs below just the character's emotions, to the culture and influences that create such actions.

The most intriguing aspect of the plot is Vonnegut's satire on various art movements, as well as the art market. Rabo was initially trained by a horribly haughty painter who painted in a realist style. Upon returning home after WWII, Rabo rejected his tutor's style and became friends with Jackson Pollock and Terry Kitchen (who I had never heard of before, but googled and found that he was a fluxus artist-?). His actions caused his marriage to disintegrate and his two sons to disown him.

Similar to his personal life, his paintings, made out of Sateen Dura Luxe, also disintegrate and fall apart, thus destroying his artistic career. His paintings were solid layers of the Dura Luxe on canvas, with small pieces of tape added. While his career and personal life were in shambles, Rabo ended up a very wealthy man. In return for money, his artist friends gave him many of their paintings (which they considered worthless at the time). His enormous collection of Abstract Expressionist paintings was the largest in the world. At the time he is writing his autobiography, Rabo is an old man living alone in a big, empty house in Long Island. While he has given up painting, he has one big secret locked in the potatoe barn behind his house.

What makes the Abstract Expressionist works so famous and revered? While Rabo's abstract work, which he clearly has no attachment to, is shown in museums and art history classes, he admits that his most beloved painting will be adored only by the laymen and "common people." Created in a realistic style he says - "It isnt a painting at all! It's a tourist attraction! It's a World's Fair! It's a Disneyland!" Bluebeard satirizes this adoration of "famous" works, forcing you to question and ponder the various definitions of art, and how one work becomes more famous than another.

I absolutely loved when Rabo would talk about his "meat" vesus his soul. "My soul didn't know what kind of picture to paint, but my meat sure did."
April 02, 2006

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

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