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Read The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (2005)

The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (2005)

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Rating
3.86 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0060731435 (ISBN13: 9780060731434)
Language
English
Publisher
harpertorch

The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (2005) - Plot & Excerpts

This particular story was a little hard to follow, but funny and informative as usual. And talking about "as usual", just about every Bernie Rhodenbarr book I've read so far can be summed up in a few sentences...Bernie: *burgles some unlucky bastard*Some unlucky bastard: *turns up dead*Ray: Darn it, Bernie, you've never been a violent man, why start now?Bernie: I'M AN INNOCENT BOOKSHOP OWNER.Ray: Just confess already. Oh, and I want half of what's in your wallet, your shoes and your puppy. Just kidding, you don't have a puppy.Random women: *throw themselves at Bernie*Carolyn: I need a drink. Also, do you think the waitress might be gay?Bernie: What I think is I need to find the real killer. So I'm gonna make several vaguely described phone calls and break into some vaguely described places to do mysterious things.Random women: *throw themselves at Bernie*Bernie: Well, I'm done with the phone calls and the random women. Time to throw some light on this!Everyone: *gathers in one place*Bernie: So I'm an innocent bookshop owner who's been framed for murder, right? But I've managed to figure out the real murderer using my mad deduction skills and a little breaking-and-entering. And the murderer is sitting right over there!Murderer: HOW DARE YOU.Bernie: Look, here is some false evidence that I planted in your appartment, but it doesn't matter that it's false because my bluffing made you confess anyway. I'm awesome. Also, still just a bookshop owner. What's a burglar?Carolyn: Bernie, you child of a dog, I really need that drink.That's it, every single book summed up. You're welcome.That said, I'm still going to read all of them. Interesting mysteries, witty narration and a great example of male/female friendship - what else do you need? Oh, and Bernie is definitely up there in the top 5 of my favorite literary characters, even with all the women hanging off him. He's a darling.

Argh. I erased everything I wrote. So, the second try is going to be briefer.This entry in the series is worth a full "4". No reverse points-shaving to get a "3.7" or similar up to the next whole star. Good plot, good character interactions, good writing. Bernie robs, thinks he is in the clear and then life gets very, very complicated.Multiple homicides, a cat-napping, and a few close body doubles make this a very good book. We get a few secondary characters back into the series and some fine antics all around.But today I wish to talk about the "nugget" of facts that the author weaves into each tale. Some (like Bogart and Ted Williams) were already personal favorites. Others are familiar but less closely know (Kipling). Here, the subject is Piet Mondrain and his paintings.I knew next to nothing about the man and his works when starting this volume. Now, I know more and am intrigued by the descriptions of his art. He was like Edvard Munch in that he painted several variations on the same theme. although part of a "school" at the start of the 20th Century, he set himself apart by his methods and his works.As I've written before, I enjoy these integrations of history and culture into the books. In this case very much so. Enough to plant a full "4" ranking on a book in which it was easy to predict some of the side plot resolutions. Clean, fun, and well-written: the hallmark of this series in print (and living color!)

What do You think about The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (2005)?

I'll admit, while I'd enjoyed the last couple of Burglar books, they didn't have the zip of the first two. The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian cured that whipfast.Block is, in my experience, fantastic. I'm more of a Scudder guy, but the Bernie series is fun for a light read. This entry may have the best dialogue of any of the books I've read of Block's, Scudders included. Sharp, fast, characters whipsawing barbs to and fro--there are several scenes, as a reader, where I felt in the presence of a master artist, kind of like some of the painters mentioned in the narrative. Block sizzles this book through your eyeballs. It is simply so much fun. The characters aren't all that new, but if you've read to this point in the series, you're comfortable with them in a way that lends history and stays out of the way as the lines fly like throwing stars. Block weaves enough freshness into both the new and the familiar cast that it's a joy to experience. The only place Mondrian fell flat for me was the last couple of chapters. Block has a way of letting Bernie tell us he's doing things, but hiding his actual machinations until it's time for the big reveal. That's okay, I suppose, but he combined this with a trope he's used at least once too often in this series, which made the last bit of the novel a confusing three-card Monte of a finish that left me frustrated and disoriented. It's too bad because everything up to the finish was so well done that it seemed a magic trick of its own. Despite the ending, I'm refreshed and ready for more Bernie. Block is an admirable talent that just keeps giving and giving.Recommended for all fans of fun reads and any mystery fan who can put up with a blurred solution.
—Matt Allen

Little by little, I'm chipping away at this series featuring New York bookstore owner and occasional burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr - and every one has been a treat. The ending of this one, the fifth, I believe, had my head in a bit of a spin trying to keep all the lines in the Mondrian paintings straight (pun intended), but it was one of the most enjoyable so far.Bernie is approached by a wealthy gentlemen who wants an appraisal of the old books in the library of his swanky apartment. While he's there, Bernie notices a Mondrian painting on the wall. As is customary in these books, at least one person ends up dead (in this case, the wealthy gentleman) and the painting is missing, and because Bernie's fingerprints are all over the man's apartment - legitimately - Bernie gets accused of the murder. Complicating matters is that Bernie's friend and sometime burglaring cohort Carolyn becomes a victim herself; one of her two beloved kitties is catnapped, and the ransom is a Mondrian painting that's hanging in a local museum. Coincidence? I think not.
—Monnie

The fifth Burglar book is, as we've come to expect from Block, an absolute pleasure to read from start to finish. The series is very much a by the numbers affair with your basic plot reused from one book to the next - namely the burglar must prove that he didn't murder somebody whilst keeping the fact that he was stealing something very valuable out of the equation - but it's all of the surrounding detail that our supreme storyteller adds to things that make it the delight that it is. Bernie is a charming rogue, full of witty repartee and useless information trotted out to demonstrate Block's love of research in to a particular field - in this instance primarily the work of the artists in the De Stijl movement - whilst he manages to draw a handful of interesting and deftly painted characters in to his orbit, several of whom reappear from book to book almost as frequently as Bernie himself, whilst some even manage to resist framing him, hiring him or sleeping with him. In true whodunnit style we are once more treated to the roundup as Bernie reveals which of the major players did the deed (although I'm unsure whether Poirot would have planted evidence, with the help of Japp, in order to draw a confession) and in true Block in Burglar Bernie mode half of the suspects haven't even been featured in the novel to this point. I love the arrogant, tongue in cheek nature of such a move, it's thoroughly in keeping with the tone of the book and the attitude of his protagonist to casually deconstruct genre expectations.
—Tfitoby

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