Blurb

Spanning three hundred years of art history, The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession tells the stories of those with an insatiable hunger for creation – those who may sacrifice friendships, careers, romance, and even their own happiness in pursuit of a vision.

Weaving art styles such as Cubism, Surrealism, and the Baroque into his prose, Jake Kendall has crafted a vivid and inventive collection. Each story is complemented by a black and white illustration, drawing out the visually evocative nature of the writing and offering readers a unique artistic delight.

Review

I was a bit nervous to read this book as, although I appreciate art and have a “recognition on sight” for many artists’ works, I worried this would not be enough to just enjoy the stories, that I might have to break off to do further reading. I was wrong. A couple of times, I even recognised the artist/painting before it was fully revealed.

This wonderful collection comprises seven short stories and a longer short story, The Vanitas. The author has managed to depict separate, individual voices in each one. They are all different points of view and each feels complete in itself.

The eight stories, whilst all centred around artists, their art and obsession, illustrate clearly and brutally, the consequences of the artists’ single mindedness on those around them, be they loved ones, friends, acquaintances or strangers brought into their sphere.

In one story, a whole city is caught up at varying levels. In another, the truth and horror of the event the artist has chosen to depict gets lost as he glorifies what happened, much to the horror of the two survivors he seeks to include.

It is difficult to write about the individual stories without giving them away so will keep it general. It is also difficult to write about the book as a whole, but better than giving spoilers.

One of the stories is about nature’s gift of the sunrise and the description is echoed gloriously in the colours of the book cover.

There are different themes across the stories – despair, abandonment, hope, pride, greed, poverty, vanity, love (including the unrequited sort), power and powerlessness. For me, one of the overarching themes of the book as a whole is to take in what is around you and not take what you have for granted if / when you decide you need to search for something more, unless of course what you have is not actually yours.

This quote from Earthly Delights struck a chord with me: Free will had been bestowed upon beings too flawed to choose restraint, and it had made them most unworthy stewards. Whilst in the context of the story it is referring to humans and our planet, more specifically I also related it to the obsession of those artists in blinkered pursuit of their vision, to the detriment of those who love them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and will be looking out for more of Jake Kendall’s work in the future.

Thanks to @NeemTreePress and @The_WriteReads for the proof copy in order to write this review.