abrahamjpalma

This journal is starting to look a little thin since Frugal Friday and the Covid open post both went to once a month, and so I've decided to try something a number of readers have suggested from time to time: little potted reviews of books I've read recently that might be of interest. "Old Prose" will be the label for these, if you want to search for them. 


This inaugural review goes to Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art by Joshua Knelman. Why am I reading about art theft? Well, Ariel Moravec, the heroine of my series of occult detective novels, has already gotten tangled up in one case that involved stolen art (The Carnelian Moon), and in the story I'm writing right now (The Greater Key), the Macguffin at the center of the case is a letter, maybe authentic, maybe forged, that might just pass on some of the lost secrets of Giordano Bruno's system of magical memory. 

This kind of research is essential in good fiction, and is too often neglected by novice writers. Knowing something about a subject that comes up in a story is essential to capturing the sense of reality that makes a novel convincing and gripping. Partly it's that anybody who knows something about a subject will be able to tell at a glance if you're faking it, but there's more to it than that. Reality is more richly textured than your imagination, and borrowing bits of texture and detail from reality to fill out the products of your imagination makes for more vivid scenes in fiction. 

Knelman's book is a good source for this sort of texture and detail because he's a journalist in the modern mold, as interested in the personalities he meets and his own experiences while researching his book as in the facts of the matter. The facts are intriguing enough. The short form? The art industry is among the most corrupt economic sectors in modern life, full of theft, forgery, insurance fraud, money laundering, and the like. Most deals are cash, most transactions go unreported, and many collectors, dealers, and auction houses are perfectly happy with illegal activities. Art crime accounts for an estimated US$6 billion in criminal transactions every year, and a lot of it ties into other criminal enterprises as well. 

If you want detailed statistics and analysis of the field, Knelman's not your source, but as a lively narrative with colorful characters and plot twists, it stands comparison well with the better sort of mystery novels and true-crime books. I give it four out of five stars. 

Several of you noticed that my main blog, ecosophia.net, was offline for a little while and still has some hiccups. I'm in the process of transferring it to a new host, and the usual e-hiccups have occurred. The new hosting firm assures me that everything should be up and running again shortly. If anything untoward happens, I'll post here. 

In the meantime, welcome to the Long Descent. ;-)