Smoking Mirror: An Encounter With Paul Gauguin (Art Encounters) - Softcover

Rees, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0823048640 ISBN 13: 9780823048649

Publisher: Watson-Guptill, 2005

Synopsis

Rees, Douglas

About this title

About the Author:

Douglas Rees is the author of Lightning Time (0-1413-0317-4) and Vampire High (0-385-73117-5). He lives in San Jose, CA.
From the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8 Up–It is 1891 and Joe Sloan, a half-Mexican, half-American sailor from California, has recently disembarked in Tahiti. His friend Robert was murdered minutes after they arrived, and Joe is left with feelings of grief and revenge. To fulfill a pledge to his friend, he searches for and finds Tehane, the girl Robert loved. When Paul Gauguin arrives in the small village, Joe has several encounters with him; most of them involve insults and punches, but they become friends. Joe's relationship with Tehane also changes as they fall in love. But she, along with the rest of her village, doesn't trust the French artist, which causes a rift in their relationship. This novel is likely to lose readers. In the first three chapters alone, the author begins to develop several topics–the death of Robert, the death of the Tahitian king, the death of the Tahitian culture and way of life, Joe's despair and suicidal thoughts, his need for revenge, and the search for Tehane. Many of these plot threads have acceptable conclusions. Others seem to be dropped altogether. The initial encounters with Gauguin seem to be added as an afterthought, and dialogue with him is often stilted. When readers finally get to know the artist, in the second half of the novel, he becomes a more developed character. Overall, this story is not likely to sustain readers' interest.–Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL

About this edition

• Publisher: Watson-Guptill
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0823048640
• ISBN 13: 9780823048649
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176