INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“A must-read for anyone who loves history and art.” –Kristin HannahFrom the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World. “Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He … iconic painting Christina’s World.
“Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden.”
To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.
As she did in her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.
Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.
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A PIECE OF THE WORLD, like chicken soup, is food for the soul – smooth, satisfying, and healthy.
So many books on bestseller lists lately either focus on Nazi resistance during World War II, a murder mystery or nail-biting psychological suspense tale, or four friends from the sixties or the seventies or whatever. This book is historical fiction about Christina Olson, who was for many years the friend and muse of Andrew Wyeth, and the model for his iconic work, “Christina’s World.”
This Christina is inspirational – a handicapped woman who has no happy ending but finds meaning in someone else’s view of her. Given the relationship between artist and muse, it is even triumphant.
This book is about life in rural Maine in the first half of the 1900’s – specifically, the life of this woman who, at the age of three, develops a syndrome that is yet to be named but that makes walking painful and precarious. Christina wants to be part of the rest of the world, but between her family’s need and her own handicap, she is unable to leave her home. This home is the house pictured, along with Christina, in Wyeth’s masterpiece.
I found the author’s insight into life in rural Maine to be every bit as intriguing as her depiction of the creative process of an artist. We know Ms. Kline is a talented author; her ORPHAN TRAIN told us that. This book has a very different subject but the very same meticulous research and skilled writing.
Well worth a read!
A great book, her father was so unfair her life is so sad but it’s at a
Year when there was no cure for her but she struggled above it all
and survived through it all
The cover of book is a painting by Andrew Whye who was one of the
greatest of all times
He has a museum of his work near Philadelphia PA
Absolutely lovely. I started to dogear the pages with gorgeous writing on them, and about 1/3 of the book is now marked.
I really liked THE ORPHAN TRAIN, despite thinking that wouldn’t be my cup of tea. When this book came along for my book club, I figured I’d at least be able to get through it (historical fiction isn’t normally what I enjoy). I was mesmerized. Her writing is so concise yet rich. I saw everything in such detail, from visuals to emotions. Highly, highly recommend.
What a great read. Christina Baker Kline simply has a gift for storytelling. It read as if each word were put there for a purpose. You’re following the life of Christina Olson, human being and muse to artist Andrew Wyeth. This is historical fiction at its finest.
This is the story about one woman’s life in a seaside town in Cushing, Maine. Christina only goes to school until 8th grade, and comes down with debilitating muscular degeneration and becomes the caretaker of her parents and brothers. It’s a hard life but she is happy. She lives a long and near the end of her life a painter comes to town and rents a room in her farmhouse and it turns out to be the famous painter Andrew Wyeth. This story is the imagining of the author of how the world famous painting “Christina’s World” comes to be. It’s fascinating and compelling and a little bit of history.
OH. MY. GOSH.
BOOK. HANG. OVER.
I think this will last days; and just when I am about to get over it, I will be in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Library Book Club discussing this marvelous book and it will begin all over again. I am grateful for this book club [both for this months pick and last months pick] as I never would have picked this book up otherwise and would have missed out on one of the best books I have ever read.
This book is beautiful, and haunting, and lyrical. To quote my friend Joy, “It’s substantial but lyrical and light-moving at the same time.” It is, in my opinion, the perfect book.
This book tells the story of Christina Olsen and her childhood and then her time knowing Andrew Wyeth [up to the point that he has painted ‘Christina’s World’]. It is a moving story full of love and sacrifice and selfishness. It is a story of disappointment and of resentment and what comes from both those emotions. It is a story of friendship and companionship and non-romantic love and respect [that ultimately comes out in her relationship with Andrew Wyeth].
Andrew Wyeth has long been on of my favorite painters and I have loved ‘Christina’s World’ for years, but I don’t believe I ever knew the name of it, nor did I know anything of the story. Even though this was historical fiction, it was very well done and I believe did Christina justice.
I will be talking [and thinking] of this book for a long time; I am sure I will be shoving it into people’s hands [when they least expect it] and then talking about it over and over again after those people read it. To me, there can be no higher compliment to a book or author.
This book drew me as an artist thinking it would be more about Wyth, but what it does is brings you into the characters on the receiving end of knowing the artist. The lives and how they intertwine and the story of a brother and sister living in their simple ancestral home in Maine. Great book and a more interesting story that I expected!
Favorite Quotes:
Sometimes a sanctuary, sometimes a prison, that house on the hill has always been my home. I’ve spent my life yearning toward it, wanting to escape it, paralyzed by its hold on me. (There are many ways to be crippled, I’ve learned over the years, many forms of paralysis.) … You can never escape the bonds of family history, no matter how far you travel. And the skeleton of a house can carry in its bones the marrow of all that came before.
It is a terrible thing to find the love of your life, Christina… You know too well what you’re missing when it’s gone.
The day we bury her is dreary: a colorless sky, gray-boned trees, old sooty snow. Winter, I think, must be tired of itself.
… I put my hand over his, and he lays his other hand over mine. I feel the way I do when I lose something – a spool of thread, say – and search for it everywhere, only to discover it in an obvious place, like on the sideboard under the cloth.
My Review:
This was my first exposure to Christina Baker Kline’s talents and I became an instant devotee. The writing was emotive and often tinged with melancholy, lushly descriptive, thoughtfully observant, cunningly crafted, and intricately detailed. A fascinating mix of fact and fiction, I have since spent far too much time Googling Christina Olson and Andrew Wyeth’s iconic artwork. I was immediately immersed in this beautifully and insightfully written book from the first person POV of Christina, a girl/woman with few options and limited mobility. Christina lived her entire life in the same house with her slightly odd family in small-town rural Maine and had continued to live under extremely harsh conditions without indoor plumbing, running water, or electricity, long after others in her area were enjoying these luxuries.
Christina was possibly the most obstinate woman of her time. Unsteady on her weak limbs following an life-threatening and undiagnosed illness at the age of three, she despised pity, denied most offers of assistance despite frequent mishaps and injuries from falls, refused to seek medical assistance when offered, and in her later years when her legs were no longer of use to her she steadfastly refused to use a wheelchair and drug herself by her elbows, up and down stairs and even across fields to visit her neighbor. I ached for her and wanted to pop her in the back of the head at the same time for her stubborn pride.
Beautiful back story on the woman from Andrew Wyeth’s painting – Christina.
Loved this book so much that I visited the Wyeth museum and Christina’s house while on a trip to Maine. The week after I returned from Maine the author did a book talk at a local theater. She spoke about her connection to the setting and her sense of responsibility to the actual people in the book. The story of the relationships of these gentle, caring, lonely, and tragic characters touched me.
Excellent – involved Christina’s World painting by Andrew Wyeth. Interesting book with many historical people and places.
Really enjoyed this short novel about the subject (sort of) of Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World,” a painting that fascinated me when I was a girl. The book is also set in one of my favorite parts of the planet, and in fact I’d already visited the Olson House, but now I’d like to see it again. It’s not a true biographical tale, according to the author, but it has the ring of fictional truth, at least: a moving portrait of a woman maintaining her dignity in a world that undervalues single women and people with disabilities (and also people with very little money). It’s an interesting look at the painter, too. Recommended if you enjoy pathos, books about art, the Wyeths, Midcoast Maine, or else anything I’ve mentioned so far.
This book is about the woman in the foreground of Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Christina”. It’s a heart-breaking look at a disjointed family and their closeness. The characters are so real and believable it was difficult for me to remember it was a work of fiction—based on a true story, of course. This is the first book I read by Kline, but I’ll read others for sure. The writing is so fluid and precise, the storyline captivating, and the characters flawed in their perfection. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Loved this book!!! My favorite of that year
Great Story.
This view into a life was art was so interesting.
I have always loved this particular Andrew Wyeth’s painting, so I was fascinated to read about the subject of the painting.
I loved this book. I’m a painter but believe anyone would enjoy the descriptions of the creative process found here. Plus, Wyeth’s work is so well known and easy to access, it is an added bonus to look at the paintings this story celebrates. Subtle, beautifully developed principal characters.
Beautifully written historical account of a family drama. I loved the book .
Loved this book and learning more about the Wyeths