Book Review: "Perspectives" by Laurent Binet

I've been meaning to read this book. I've seen it around and of course, because it is about the Medici, what better way to give myself a little treat than to buy the book. My bank account hates me but I don't care. Honestly, I didn't know what I was going to think of this because before reading the novel, I had absolutely no idea is was an epistolary text. Sometimes, this structure can be a bit odd when you're trying to focus on character voice, but I think the author did an excellent job of making it as engaging as physically possible. And of course, I adored this book...

We have a whole host of characters in this book and I'm not going to go through all of them but the basis of the book concerns a painting that was made of a rather vulgar topic which features the face of the daughter of Cosimo I de Medici (no, not that one, the other one) on the main figure. Of course, the young woman is absolutely mortified but the thing that is more strange than that is the fact that the painter was found dead some time later. He had been stabbed but, it was ruled as a suicide. Of course, nobody really thinks it is a suicide and so, Cosimo keeps the painting locked away and sends his 'trusted' Vasari to go out and investigate.

If there was anything stupid to do in Medici-ruled Florence it would be to trust anyone. The author does an excellent job of showing the reader how absolutely everyone and their next door neighbour gets sold down the river for money and power. I thoroughly enjoyed how much research the writer would have had to do to make this as believable as possible and avoid it looking like a parody of history.

The book is also based on a strange legend which seeks to explain why Maria (the daughter in question) died before she could get married at 17 years' old. This involves a horrible death after having a secret affair with a man named Malatesta de' Malatesti. But the accounts of this have never been proven though it makes for a great story. She was of course, engaged to the Duke of Ferrara but after her death, her younger sister was committed to him. Of course, the Duke is known for not being a great human being, immortalised as a brute and probably a wife-killer in the poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning in which the Duke explains how his last wife died to a new, prospective wife.

Apart from this, we have people trying to steal the portrait which is hidden deep in the Medici household. We have political alliances made and broken. We also have letters to the great Michelangelo in the last years of his life concerning that of the portrait and of course, the strange death of the painter. One thing I found quite interesting is the fact that there was someone trying to steal the painting but then, there was a powerful woman (I'm not saying who because it'll be a spoiler) who wanted to know exactly where it was in the house and so, advised the daughter (the one featured on the portrait) to tell a 'character' where exactly it was within the house so that they could make it disappear and she could 'elope' another 'character'. It just feels like there's a lot of gossip here and nobody is being exactly truthful about why they want the painting and what they want to do with it exactly. Whilst Eleanor begs her husband to get rid of it via burning, there are many people who whisper the name of Savonarola throughout the palaces of Rome, Florence and Tuscany.

But more than anything else, after that entire read - the final chapter is a masterpiece. The way it is written just absolutely floored me.

All in all, this was a fantastic book. I loved the way the characters' voices all seemed unique and yet, they kept truthful to the time. There's a lot of explanation about why certain dates and times are the way they are. There's also a diary which comes from the painter himself about what he ate on a daily basis, if you'd like to know. All of this, within a frame narrative - makes for an extremely entertaining read.