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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Good historical info
Christina Olson was the muse, if you will for Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World, which depicts a female of indeterminate age situated in tall grass, half-reaching, half-crawling toward an unremarkable farmhouse on a hill spreading before her. The farmhouse, one can learn, was located in Cushing, Maine, as was Christina Olson. In A Piece of the World, author Christina Baker Kline has imagined the backstory for Christina, complete with decades of physical and emotional hardship, creating a complex, and frankly fascinating character.
Although there are similarites between Kline’s work here and such fictionalized biographies as The Paris Wife or The Aviator’s Wife, Olson was a relatively unknown woman, and Kline was therefore freer to invent a backstory for her that fits hand-in-glove with the harsh-but-lovely Maine landscapes she paints so clearly. (No pun intended.) In fact, in making a quick search for Olson in my own efforts to learn more about her and separate fact from fiction, I learned only that she likely suffered from a degenerative neurological disorder, one formerly thought to be a form of muscular dystrophy. Kline obviously had lots of room to imagine.
Kline’s prose, like that of her previous novel, Orphan Train, is rich, crisp, and highly readable. She has again created a multi-dimensional character who is alternately maddening and worthy of deep sympathy, and has written a book set at a quiet time in history, if you will, no wars, no depressions, just regular folks doing their best to get on with their lives. This is a wonderful work of fiction, beautifully crafted and highly enjoyable.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2017/06/a-piece-of-world.html.)
“The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance”
This is a fictionalized account of Christina Olsen of Cushing Maine, the inspiration for Andrew Wyeth’s most famous painting Christina’s World. Baker Kline did a massive amount of research on Olsen, a spinster living in rural Maine, who chose, or possibly was chosen to, to care for her family.
Disabled early on by a severe illness,now believed to be Charcot- Marie- Tooth syndrome, an inherited nerve disorder, Christina literally becomes the “chief cook and bottle washer” on her family homestead. She wants more, but is early on taught that she isn’t able to be anything more that that. She isn’t allowed to go to secondary school. The man she loves is insincere as she is not acceptable as his wife. Despite her growing pain she runs a house, caring for both parents and her dying grandmother. Her younger brothers run off to see the world. Her older brother, much more fit than she, gives up his own dreams to be the dutiful son, burying both his parents and running the farm they fought so hard to keep.
Later, the son of N C Wyeth, Andrew, himself disabled, begins to use the farmhouse as a seasonal studio, refining his starkly realistic style there. He and Christina forge a friendship as she learns how people see the whole person. Wyeth’s Christina’s World is seen as a masterpiece of 20th century realism, and the foremost MOMA scholar has written it is more a psychological profile than an actual portrait. This reviewer thinks of it as one of her favorite pictures which she first saw woven into a daily soap opera story as a tween and had a copy in her office most of her career.
I am amazed at the work this author has done, having researched historical characters for my own work. I found I wanted to kick most of the men portrayed in the story for their self-centeredness. But then, I had to look at this story through eyes of Christina Olsen’s times; where the men worked outside the home and the women cared for them. This is a fantastic book, one of my top choices for 2018. I want to share it with everyone but keep it for myself. Highly recommended 5+/5
[disclaimer: I won this book from a#GoodReads giveaway and have chosen to review it]
Good
Interesting, kept my interest through the entire book.
Interesting and imaginative. Won’t be disappointed
A little slow in the beginning, but once I knew the main character, I wanted to keep reading.
The behind scene of an artist and the painting
I am a fan of Andrew Wyatt so this book was interesting from the start. I know it was not exactly true but just the same…I kept at it. I have the painting print of Christina and I thought maybe the story line was somewhat true.
A well written novel about Christina Olson, the model for Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth. Her life was very difficult and somewhat tragic yet her story was uplifting at the same time it was sad. Having seen a lot of Wyeth’s paintings, it was a good companion to his story. Well worth my time.
Not exactly historical fiction because it was so well researched but just an engaging book about a well known painting, artist. Fantastic!
Very well written novel with interesting characters and thoughtful subject matter.
Very well written, based on real people and events.
An old-fashioned love story when times were simpler
Excellent. Character development fantastic.
I looked forward to reading this book because I so loved Orphan Train. It is obvious that Christina Baker Kline is a talented writer and meticulous in her research. I love how she takes a real life event and brings it to life.
This book tells the story behind a famous painting by Andrew Wyeth called “Christina’s World”. The characters come to life, thus bringing the painting itself to life. I will definitely be heading to the MOMA next time I’m in NY to see the painting with a new appreciation for it!
While I enjoyed reading this story, I couldn’t give it 5 stars because it didn’t quite reach the high bar set by Orphan Train. However, this is a book I would highly recommend.
Very interesting look at a small world and a large personality
This is one of the best books I have read recently. Beautifully written–undestated.
I enjoyed learning about the background of an Andrew Wyeth painting I have always found intriguing and delving into the day to day existence of a disabled, but determined young woman in an isolated setting in rural Maine.
A very interesting, compelling story. Flawed characters, but the main character- Christina is a very sympathetic protagonist. Loved reading about how Andrew Wyeth just “went there” to paint …. how he was just drawn to that place. Very well written.