The Muralist by B.A. Shapiro

The Muralist

By B.A. Shapiro

The theme for book club this month was visual arts and I found myself completing an unheard of (for me) third book! It helps that I had them all sitting on my Goodreads list. The third one, The Muralist, by B.A. Shapiro kept me up last night until after midnight because I simply could NOT put it down. I had to finish it.

I feel like I've actually learned a little bit about abstract art appreciation from this novel. The main character is a young abstract painter named Alizee Benoit. Though she is a fictional character, she works with many people in the book who are historical figures including the abstract artists Mark Rothko and Lee Krasner, in the Works Project Administration, the WPA. They paint murals.

Eleanor Roosevelt actually plays a part in the story as Alizee gets to meet her and convinces her to get the administration to fund a couple of abstract murals. Then Alizee contacts her for more personal help.

The book is set in late 1930s and early 40s. Alizee is Jewish and her family is stuck in Europe, her parents having died when she was young in a laboratory explosion. She has not been political but starts working with a group trying to get more visas for immigrants.

It's a very good book but emotionally difficult. Her uncle is detained, leaving the rest of the family on their own, in France and her cousin almost killed. There is little she can do, but she tries. 

Breckinridge Long, the assistant secretary of state in control of all American visas, lies about how many visas were given out, being anti-Semitic and an isolationist. Alizee sets to work with a group determined to discredit him, even as she begins to create murals that speak to her fear for her family in France.

However, the story begins in modern times with a niece of Alizee, Danielle, as she tries to piece together what happened to her aunt, who disappeared in the early 1940s. Danielle’s story is quickly dwarfed by that of Alizee as we are pulled into the years before the involvement of the U.S. in World War II.

This was a deeply engaging and moving book. Characters are well developed and the story is fast paced while giving deep and interesting details. I will be looking for more of this author’s work in the future. I would give it 5 stars.