January 14, 2020
The Saginaw Art Museum Book Club meets the second Tuesday of each month from 4-5pm. Enjoy small refreshments (and wine) while discussing the latest book with ardent bibliophiles and casual readers.
Luncheon of the Boating Party
by Susan Vreeland
With her richly textured novels, Susan Vreeland has offered pioneering portraits of artists’ lives. As she did in Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Vreeland focuses on a single painting, Auguste Renoir’s instantly recognizable masterpiece, which depicts a gathering of Renoir’s real friends enjoying a summer Sunday on a café terrace along the Seine. Narrated by Renoir and seven of the models, the novel illuminates the gusto, hedonism, and art of the era. With a gorgeous palette of vibrant, captivating characters, Vreeland paints their lives, loves, losses, and triumphs so vividly that “the painting literally comes alive” (The Boston Globe).