Review: Leonardo's Swans

You'd think that with less than a month until my wedding, I wouldn't have much time for reading but I've managed to find time here and there for it. And as often as I try to run away from it, I think historical fiction will always have a place in my heart; in fact, I'm afraid the majority of things I've read this year could be classified as such. Thankfully, Leonardo's Swans was one of the best of the genre! It was a delight to read.

Genre: novel, historical fiction

Plot: The story begins not exactly in media res but more like at the very end of the plot, with Isabella D'Este Gonzaga remarking to her dead sister Beatrice about how far they have both fallen in the days of French-occupied Milan. From there the story jumps back nearly 20 years, when both the girls are very much alive and competing with one another for attention, political clout, and art in the high Renaissance period of Italian art.

What makes this story jump off the page is its painstaking attention to political detail. Too many times--such as in the book that immediately jumped to mind when thinking of this title, The Birth of Venus--books about this time gloss over the intricacies of politics in favor of a "slice of life" look at the heroine's family/house/servants, etc. Not so with this book. These women are the most powerful in Italy at that time and are privy to all the secrets and intrigues of the politics of the day.

Also, I think it says much about author Karen Essex that even though she reveals how it all plays out in the end on the first page, she still manages to imbue her work with suspense and surprise.

Structure: This was actually a little sloppy in my opinion, and probably the one thing that keeps this book from achieving all 5 stars from me. First off, the chapter titles (which is always a tedious device to me anyway) were all, I assume, taken from Tarot cards. But without any explanation, this was just a guess on my part (and I assume on the part of my fellow readers). Second, these chapters were ENTIRELY too long, and had too many "breaks" within them. Third, there were these very random "excerpts" from Leonardo's notebook which REALLY bugged me. I have no way of knowing how authentic these excerpts are (although they seem to be legit), but more bothersome, they seem to have little if any bearing on the actual story. Instead of enhancing the plot, which is what a nicely placed quote can usually do in a book, these either blatantly repeated the story thus far or were completely unrelated. In short, these random little boxes didn't add to the book and I would have much preferred it to be written without them.

Execution: As I said, the plot was executed with perfect precision. You all may not know this, but at one time I was an art history major and so I was particularly attentive to the details of the paintings mentioned. On this count, Essex was clearly one of the most superior authors I've ever read. She described the works accurately and with an eye to the theoretical/esoteric discussions I was familiar with as an art history major, but did so with a natural air that never felt cumbersome. Also, her characters were fully realized and had great depth to them, which is always a good thing. I was especially pleased with her portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci, who fell somewhere between the benevolent grandfather of Ever After and the crazy conspirator of The Da Vinci Code (man I hate that book).

Now the title I have to disagree with, but that's a personal nit to pick I guess.

Theme: 15th century Italy, Leonardo da Vinci, Ludovico Sforza

Read this if you love art history or political novels (like Tom Clancy or Ian Fleming, I would imagine although big fans of theirs might disagree). Also, I imagine if you enjoyed Tasha Alexander's work you would like this, too.

4 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Stealing Athena
Kleopatra
Pharoah

If you liked this, you might also like:
Tasha Alexander's Emily Ashton novels
Sarah Dunants's The Birth of Venus
Robert Alexander's Rasputin's Daughter