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Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite
In Pictures of My Desire by Caroline Goldberg Igra, art historian Emily Wolf pursues her career in the high-stakes New York art world. She catalogues a collection from a reclusive sultan. Then she meets Nate Fried, an employee in an auction house, who is looking for a piece of Nazi-looted art to uncover the truth about his family. Nate believes that it is the only way for him to find closure and heal the wounds of Holocaust trauma in his family. His father committed suicide after dropping everything in search of a painting. Nate and Emily are attracted to each other, but can they build a healthy relationship when Nate is haunted by his past? Emily eventually gets entangled with Nate’s ex-girlfriend and gallery owner, Julia Newmark.
Caroline Goldberg Igra’s novel caught my attention with its skillful exploration of trauma. The idea that a painting can be the path to reconciling the past with the present was ingenious, and I followed the plot with keen interest. The author develops the relationships between the main characters as complex, cleverly establishing their romance and the quest for healing at the same time. I loved that the first-person narrative voice was so well-executed. It helped in underlining the makeup of the characters. Reading Pictures of My Desire made me feel as though I was involved in the troubles of the characters. The historical setting was done well. The author brought the works of Klimt and Renoir to life and linked them to the characters' desires, sense of loss, and memory.
