Blue Nude Book Review

Blue Nude
Author: Elizabeth Rosner
Pages: 208 pgs
Reading Level: Adult
Published: September 14th 2010

Danzig is a 58 year old washed up German artist who teaches his techniques at an art institute in San Francisco. Merav is young and a former Israili soldier turned model moves to California to forget about her past. She ends up filling a substitute position and ends up in Danzig’s art class as the muse. They are both trying to forget about there past it’s what brings them together.

It is a well written and fast paced novel. It has sexy art work, secrets, failed relationships, hope, World War II, guilt, Holocaust story, and forgiveness. Lets just say this novel has a bit of everything!

This story brings together the past and present with deep awakenings for both Danzig & Merav.

I like the way Rosner writes. Her words just flow and you could set the scene in your mind.

Rosner is another author that I would add to my first read list. This novel is short 200 pages it’s not a hard read at all. Also, at the end it has a Reading Group Guide which I thought was cool.

Synopsis: Born in the shadow of post-war Germany, Danzig is a once prominent painter who now teaches at an art institute in San Francisco. But while Danzig shares wisdom and technique with students, his own canvasses remain empty, for reasons he doesn’t understand. One day, he and his class begin sketching a new model, a young woman named Merav, the Israeli-born granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and herself a former art student. Danzig is immediately taken with her exceptional beauty, sensing that she may be the muse he has been missing. Challenged by Danzig’s German accent, Merav must decide how to overcome her fears. Before they can create anything new together, both artist and model are forced to examine the history that they carry. 

Blue Nude recounts the events that bring Danzig and Merav together, including their disparate upbringings, their respective creative awakenings, and their similarly painful, often catastrophic, love lives. Using words to paint the landscapes of body and soul, Rosner conveys the art of survival, the complexity of history, the form of exile, the shape of desire, and the color of intimacy. Blue Nude is the narrative equivalent of a masterpiece of fine art.