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Title: Love and Treasure
Author: Ayelet Waldman
Narrator: Jonathan Davis, Paul Hecht
Format: Unabridged
Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
Language: English
Release date: 03-19-15
Publisher: Lamplight Audio
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical
Publisher's Summary:
Three men - an American infantry captain in World War II, an Israeli-born dealer in art stolen by the Nazis, and a pioneering psychiatrist in fin-de-siècle Budapest - find their carefully wrought lives turned upside down by three women. A mystery: Where does the worth of people and its treasures truly lie? What is the value of a gift when giver and recipient have been lost - of a love offering when the beloved is no more?
Critic Reviews:
"Waldman skilfully interweaves this striking and enigmatic object - a symbol, as the book progresses, of fatal bad luck - into an ambitious sweep of history." (New York Times)
"Love & Treasure is like the treasure train it chases: fast-paced, bound by a fierce mission, full of bright secrets and racingly, relentlessly moving." (Lemony Snicket)
Members Reviews:
I was disappointed in this novel and it became a chore
I was disappointed in this novel and it became a chore, instead of a pleasure, to read. The plot was rambling and the characters poorly developed. I found the three time periods disjointed and not nearly as well-handled as the author of âThe Last Painting of Sara de Vosâ.
The first part of the novel, describing Jack Wiseman and his moral dilemma with the contents of the Gold Train, was long-winded. I wanted to like Wiseman but his weakness turned me off â he offered no protest to the continual looting of the train and eventually succumbed to the temptation himself. Likewise I found his obsession with Ilona to be limp-wristed and I believe she also found him this way, otherwise she may have not left him and travelled to Israel. And her exit from the story did not feel complete â I was expecting her to reappear later in the story.
I also did not connect with the second part of the novel, with Wisemanâs granddaughter, Natalie Stein, and her search for the owner of the pendant. The art wheeler and dealer seemed to fall head over heels in love with her very quickly.
The third part of the novel began well. Here, I thought, the novel will take the reader finally to the climax and we will discover the owner of the pendant. However, this ownership was revealed quite early and, instead of developing the fascinating owner, the dwarf Gisella, her friend Nina somehow became the focus. I thought Gisella should have been the protagonist. As for Dr Zobel, he wavered between sexual predator and unconvincing kindly uncle. He was two-faced, on one hand telling Nina he agreed with her sentiments about the treatment of servant girls, but on the other, revealing that his sympathies really lay with the young men and had used a serving girl himself in his younger days.
Finally, it seemed a travesty that the reader knew Natalie had returned the pendant unwittingly to the rightful heir yet Natalie remained unaware of it.
too convoluted -- too long
Not my favorite read this summer ... I am an avid reader of all things connected to
WWII -- this is a let down -- the female protagonist is a disappointing cardboard cut out
The main threads get lost in the overall tapestry, which ultimately does not hold together that well at all.
Awkward, forced constructs and characters - yet ultimately a brave work
This is a very courageous, sweeping and ambitious novel by Ayelet. The novel has many aspects that are laudable - most obviously an imaginative re-working of the topic that non of us - Jew or gentile or whatever - should ever forget.
