Has anyone else read it? It is by Tracy Chevalier and is a fictional account of the girl in the famous Vermeer painting. I am lousy at describing art, but trust me, you prolly know the painting.
I haven’t finished it yet, so please no spoilers. I was just wondering if anyone else here had read it and what you thought of it.
I enjoyed it utterly. I love dutch painters, and I like reading historical fiction about The Netherlands because that’s where my mom’s family is from. But even if that weren’t true, I’d have liked the book.
I nearly wore the book out turning back to stare at the cover over and over, trying to imagine a living, breathing Griet from that picture.
I put Chevalier’s new book on my holiday list! Hoping to get it and hoping it’s just as good.
I should have known you had read it and liked it, Cranky. 
Let me know what you think of her next book. With this one, I was hooked from the first few pages. I love her style.
Read it, loved it and recommended it in one of the whatcha reading threads here.
I enjoyed Girl with a Pearl Earring, although I found it a little quiet and depressing. I know it’s hard to build a story from just a single painting, but sometimes the book felt a little too much like sitting and staring at the painting for hours.
If you like this type of story, I highly recommend Headlong by Michael Frayn, another book based on a painting (actually a series of paintings).
I just read it last week, and I must say, I wasn’t very impressed. I never felt like I got to know Griet, or why she behaved the way she did. The author only gives tiny glimpses inside her head, and I wanted more than that. The historical aspects were really neat, but the character development was lacking.
Me too Cranky! And my ear just ached in sympathy for her. I really adored this book. I liked the fact that it was lean and spare. It was a case of what is not said is as important as what is. Particularly the master/servant relationship is interesting to contemplate. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the Catholics.
More than anything, though, I truly loved the idea of a story behind a painting. Breathing life into a work of art is an awesome achievement of the imagination.
Having never heard of the book, I really did think this was a personal ad from someone English-impaired.
(But I’m glad I clicked on it. Maybe I’ll check out the story now.)
Hated it. Thought it amounted to little more than a collection of notes for what MIGHT have been a good novel with a lot more work. Finished it only to see if it was really as bad all the way through; it was.