http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/16/fiction5
In the frame
A mischievous tale of high art and low intrigue entertains Gregory Norminton
- Gregory Norminton
- The Guardian,
- Saturday August 16 2008
- Article history
The convergence of high art and the low skulduggery of those who wish to get at it is nothing new in contemporary narratives, from Tom Stoppard's Arcadia to Michael Frayn's Headlong. The Bellini Madonna, a first novel by academic and critic Elizabeth Lowry, may not break new ground, but is a lively addition to what might be considered a sub-genre: one finely suited to exploring ambiguities of interpretation and the elusiveness of the past.
The Bellini Madonna
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If there is a criticism to be made of Lowry's ambitious and accomplished novel, it lies in its obvious debt to Vladimir Nabokov. With his erudition and empathic blindness, Lynch is an Irish cousin to Humbert Humbert and Charles Kinbote, while his arch style seems in thrall to the brisk alliteration, descriptive conceits and mannered cadences of Nabokov's equally deceived narrators. Yet if Lowry does not always emerge favourably from the comparison that she seems to invite, this is hardly to her shame: not many authors would.
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· Gregory Norminton's Serious Things is published by Sceptre.