The Painter of Battles: A Novel [Hardcover]

The Painter of Battles reads like a treatise on war and art; the two are evenly matched in this novel, but each in a way puts a fingertip down on the tension of the story, rendering it incapable of the taut hum that Pérez-Reverte's books have sung with in the past. The cover blurb and snippet of dialogue, along with my love for another of the author's books, compelled me to pick this one up, but after wading through what felt like at the time a heavy-handed first chapter, I wasn't hooked. No, that came later, but still my interest ebbed and rushed like the water against Andrés Faulques' tower.

There is no doubt that The Painter of Battles is a strong and sad novel with plenty to say about the intensity of war and the elusive quality of life, how art struggles to capture something so fleeting. It was only after I read each chapter that I truly appreciated what was being said, that an image would startle me, or a theory prompt me to consider how limited my view is of the very small piece of world I reside in. And it was only after finishing it that the story and tension seemed secondary to all that.

Whether you'll enjoy The Painter of Battles is entirely dependent on what you are looking to gain from it. If you want intrigue and fast-paced action, you won't find it here. If you want a considerable amount of introspection and don't mind sitting down to paragraphs that last for two pages or more, give it a try. In the end, all I can say is this: Take the time to let it settle and sift it through your thoughts, your own memories, photographs you've taken and ones you've seen, and only then decide what the novel meant to you.

Past readers of Arturo Perez-Reverte should be aware that this book is much different from his earlier work. The story follows what may be the last days of retired war photographer's life. Falques has secluded himself in a tower to paint a mural of past battles when he is interrupted by a ghost from his past, a past subject of one of his photographs. The man, Ivo Markovic explains that the photograph has tragically altered his life, leading to his incarceration and torture and the destruction of his family. Markovic further explains that he has studied and followed Falques and ultimately intends to kill him.
From this introduction, the book proceeds with Falques and Markovic retelling their stories of the wartime horrors they experienced and Falques painting and reflecting upon the nature of his oeuvre. Falques also remembers his time with his lover Olvido, whose dead body he photographed, said act being coincidentally witnessed by Markovic. It is the circumstances surrounding this photograph that most intrigues Markovic and drives the story to its eventual conclusion.
While the author writes very well, there is little to enjoy in this book. The main characters serve primarily to relay stories of wartime atrocity, cruelty and brutal violence. The recurrent theme is the evil and corruption of human nature with the subtext of the Olvido-Falques romance being the ephemerality of life. The ugliness at the core of this novel cannot be hidden, no matter how good the writing is. Further, there is no real progression to the plot. Markovic shows up, numerous stories are exchanged leading up to the story behind Olvido's death which heralds the ending of the novel. There is no real suspense because the Olvido's death is forecast early on as the climax of the novel. The primary emotion of the novel is best described as numbness, seen in Falques self-medication and Markovic's fixation, and it extends to the reader as well.
Overall, readers of the author's past work should not go into this expecting another Club Dumas or Fencing Master. This is a far more serious and personal work( the author was a war journalist for many years) that is numbing in its violence and emotional disconnect. It is effective at being unsettling, perhaps intentionally so, but it fails in entertaining, again perhaps intentionally so.

The Painter of Battles is a beautifully written word picture encompassing everything from "the Butterfly effect", to art history lessons, to a morality homily on the futility of war and the evil that man bestows on his fellow man.

Perez-Reverte draws you into the story as he meticulously recounts (probably from his own experiences as a war journalist) example after example of the insanity of war and examines the cruelty and finality of its outcome. In essence, Perez-Reverte gives us and in depth look at the nature of man who he perceives as possessing an in-born inescapable evil that he has, utilizing his superior intelligence, refined through the centurys into an art form.

This story of two men, inescapably linked by a war, a chance encounter and a photograph, and the culmination of those events is mezmerizing. As the story progresses, their relationship becomes almost symbiotic in nature.

This is definitely not your "run of the mill" novel and Perez-Reverte is not your run of the mill writer. His fluent prose and evocative observations will fill your mind and soul like a fine dinner satisfies your hunger. Perez-Reverte has created his own "Butterfly Effect". By writing this book, he has effected the perception of his readers.