There is an assumption
that those attending Monthly Book Group meetings have read the book. Sometimes
members find little more than unintended humour in it, but almost always there
is something. Often the proposer shows that there is more than the member
realized. Sometimes another member provides enlightenment. Commonly the doubts
of the first 50 pages are dispelled or put into perspective. No such
reservations were associated with “A Name in Blood” by Matt
Rees (2012). There was a sense that folk had enjoyed the read. They were
relaxed rather than enquiring or confrontational.
The proposer introduced
the author as having made a name for himself by writing crime novels set in
Palestine. Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammet had influenced him. “A Name
in Blood” was, however, not chosen by the proposer because of these earlier
works, but rather as a whim in a bookshop, and why not?
To write the book Rees
learnt to paint, studied the artist who inspired the book, visited galleries
throughout the world and was taught sword fencing. What he then produced was a
novel about power, love, duplicity and patronage.
His use of language was effective and sometimes shone.
Thus the artist,
Michelangelo Merisi (called Caravaggio after his home town) first sees the
female he would come to love:
“The soles of her
bare feet were turned upward as she leaned forward to brush. They were soiled
in such striations of black brown and grey that he could taste the dirt on his
tongue”.
To add to the
significance of this vivid sentence, Caravaggio saw her when he was visiting a
Cardinal in Rome and she was his menial employee.
The proposer
particularly liked the challenging conversations between the artist and his
patrons. These were superficially the idle creation of the author. However,
nothing can obscure the contrast between the sacred subjects he was
commissioned to paint and, the actual works, which for the papal aristocracy of
the late Renaissance were almost heretical. Often he used prostitutes as models
for sacred subjects, and did little to disguise their earthy appearance, or
indeed their identity. Caravaggio was revealed in his works to be brave to the
point of folly, but saved by his sincerity and his genius. Rees was thus on
sure ground when he explored Caravaggio’s art through invented conversations
between a sophisticated religious elite and a rebellious artist.
We had descriptions of
Rome in this period: the beauty,
the sin, the grace, the vulgarity and the cruelty. The proposer enjoyed all
this and everyone agreed.
We were then invited to
comment. What was the title about? Was this literally to do with the signature
on a painting? Or possibly, it was
thought, to reflect the gradual change from the innocence of youth to the braggadoccio
of the adolescent to the imminent prospect of death, which dominates the later
chapters of the novel. As to the life of Caravaggio, the group discussed his
paintings, noted that he fell out of fashion for a long period, and only
re-emerged in the 20th century as a true great.
What of the detective
in Mr Rees? DNA tests suggest Caravaggio was buried in Porto Ercole, so was he
in fact on the return journey to Rome? Why did the Knights of Malta cooperate
if Rees was to blame one of their number – Roero - for executing a great artist
in return for the release of the rather doubtful Fabrizio? Why was the death
not investigated by one of the artist’s important friends? This prompted one of
our members to raise doubts about historical novels. Is your problem whether
simply to read the novel and judge it as such or check it against historical
record? “It is not just my problem, it is the problem” was the
reply. The group discussed this and with reference to Walter Scott and his
successors as exponents of this genre. The conclusion was that we make our own
choice. Did this book ring true? Yes. Let each of us decide if there is a need
to know more.
The early work of the
artist was contrasted with the later. The sexual preferences of the artist may
have been important to some at the time, but not to all. Derek Jarman’s film
from 1986 was referred to, but he had an agenda. Caravaggio’s early work had a
homoerotic quality, but his later work was religious, with messages not of a
sexual nature.
What, belatedly, of the
characters? The main relationship is between Caravaggio and Lena. He is
presented with the classic “behave and live with me, or go off and die”. The way
he goes off and dies could have been taken from an Italian opera. We have the
wager on the outcome of the tennis match, the numerous scenes where he is urged
to pay the debt, the elegant development of the feud until a duel with Ranuncio
becomes not foolish but necessary. Having been engulfed in this he does not see
Lena to try to explain. He flees. This sets up the remainder of his life.
And details? Do we
appreciate his work less than those four centuries ago? Yes. However, the
proposer was of Italian extraction. Did he understand the work better than we
did? Possibly, but we all have to understand the Bible and Greek and Roman
myths to understand so much of European culture.
The proposer drew our
attention to a place name in the book whose shared surname will lead some to
rename his house as such in future. We noted that the camera obscura was used
to help portrait painting. We also read about the make up of a tennis ball of
the period, which was self indulgent, as was the detail in the duel scene. One
member thought that the lack of semi colons made the prose too staccato. Did
the lead in the paint make Caravaggio “hyper”? Possibly.
It was hard to focus on
the novel itself, as opposed to the art, history, religion etc, and if we
digressed from Matt Rees the novelist, who cares! We enjoyed ourselves.
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