Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

I picked this book to read on my tablet. It was under historical fiction and I could see a picture of the Eiffel tower so I thought this would be a story based on the lives of the Impressionist painters in France. I am very interested in that style of painting and the lives of the painters, Van Gough, Degas ,Toulouse Lautrech and others and thought this would be an excellent read.

It was indeed a peculiar read. I should have guessed this as the subtitle of the book is A Comedy D'Art.It was entirely fictional with a capital F although each of the great painters do appear in the story.It is satirical, and funny in places; vulgar in other places and quite informative in details throughout the book.

The story tells of the magical qualities of the pigment , the sacred blue, hence the title. Each of the painters go somewhat mad or delusional when they use the sacred blue on their paintings lured on by always a beautiful woman. The book starts off with the suicide of Van Gough but asks the question,was it really suicide or murder??

I can't say I really enjoyed it although I did learn a lot about painting at that time. At least I think I did but you feel when you read it, that a big joke is being played on you .