Scathing review of The Swan Thieves

You might remember author Elizabeth Kostova from that Dracula book, The Historian. While the plot of The Historian was engrossing, that woman definitely could have done with an editor (or a team of seven). Alas, she hasn't found one (or one who will stand up to her) in the interim between The Historian and her latest, The Swan Thieves.

I read The Swan Thieves recently while home sick with a cold: OK, in my defense, I ran out of books at home and it was the only thing on the Express reads shelf at work when I stopped by on the way to the doctor's office. It wasn't bad, so much as just plain LONG. I was heartily sick of everyone's problems half-way through. More than I was sick of the art history talk, even.

Writes the reviewer from the NYT, reprinted in the National Post blog: "Absorbing so much blather about paintings you'll never see is like slogging through a scrapbook of social columns recounting parties to which you've never been invited."

Hee hee.

Someone buy Kostova a red pen, already!