Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
I was vaguely disappointed with this until about halfway through. For some reason, I think I was expecting something a little bit more Austen-esque. Social setting highlighting the character flaws and strengths of a group of people and the society in which they live. Particular interest given to the central couple and their immediate family/peers. Instead this novel was rather stark in it's character portrayals. The only character you really get to know is Griet, the maid who is the subject of Vermeer's painting 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' (for the purposes of the novel, that is). This focus works to illustrate her isolation and sense of dislocation as she leaves her pro-*test*-('")ant family home and goes to work as a maid in the home of the very Catholic Vermeer family. I found that I was quite interested to know more about Vermeer's work after reading the book. Chevalier discusses colour and lighting techniques with just enough detail to be interesting. I am quite interested to see the film of this book now. (any excuse for a movie night with the girls)

Scarlett Johannsen plays Griet, and (hold onto your hats Mr Darcy fans) Colin Firth plays Vermeer. That sort of fits in my mind, both age-wise and in the way they act. I looked up the paintings mentioned in the book, and it was quite fun to look at them and know the characters that had been described from them. I found it a very easy read as well. Probably that single central character made it like that. The fact that Griet narrated the book kept the language simple, since she was a largely uneducated maid. Not too much of a plot to keep track of. It did a pretty good job of taking me into 16th century Dutch life, but I did find myself wishing some of the themes it touched on (pro-*test*-('")antism vs catholicism for one example, the poverty of Griet's family for another) were explored a little more.

I think that's what bothered me - that there was heaps of potential for the book to be deeper but it didn't quite get there. Even the complexity of Vermeer's family - wife, mother-in-law, house full of kids (including that nasty little one) could have provided more insight into Dutch family life of the time, but you didn't really get to know any of those characters well. Why was the wife so insecure? Why was that one child so nasty? etc. Still, I did enjoy it and the artistic aspects of the story.