Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a series of vignettes chronicling the reverse history of a fictional Vermeer painting of the same name. Vreeland’s colorful portraits of Dutch life, from the wealthy to the poorest peasants, spanning several hundred years, are fascinating. I wouldn’t have minded delving further into each of the tales, and the only other thing that could have improved the book was if the painting, which plays a silent, starring role in each of the stories, really existed.

GiHB was enjoyable, but was a small disappointment after Vreeland’s breathtaking Luncheon of the Boating Party.

posted Jul 7, 2008 at 9:00PM

Reading "Vermeer"by Anthony Bailey was essential to grasping this book, fully . Loved it ! The middle chapters were extraordinary !

posted Nov 14, 2011 at 3:28PM

 Add a Comment