Michael Angelo & the Stone Mistress

As a fan of  Canadian author Steve Moretti, who has reviewed a number of his books on this blog, (most recently Moretti's Tchaikovsky novel, Pyotr here ), I was eager to read and review his latest, Michael Angelo & the Stone Mistress.

                             

 

 

  I also expected this novel to be primarily historical fiction dealing with the life and achievements of the great Italian Renaissance artist, architect and poet Michelangelo Buonarroti.  I was surprised to discover that this wasn't the case. Although Michelangelo does appear in Michael Angelo and the Stone Mistress, he actually isn't the central character of the novel at all.  The protagonist of this Moretti book is photographer Michael Thomas who experiences a paranormal link to Michelangelo during the period when he was working on the Pietà.  

                            

                                              The Pietà

I'm not generally a fan of contemporary narratives when they take place in familiar contexts.  I always prefer the unusual.  So I was more engaged by the contemporary content when Michael Angelo and the Stone Mistress shifted to Italy.  I was also more interested in the Italian characters.  I found Nonna, the grandmother, especially engaging.

I also enjoyed the presence of five year old Adeena Stuart, a protagonist in a number of other Moretti novels.  In this novel Adeena is a small child.  She is portrayed as a child prodigy who is already displaying her prodigious musical talents.  Although I have never encountered a musical child prodigy in real life, I have seen them perform on television.  I wasn't surprised to learn that Adeena is one of them.

Moretti apparently believes that Michelangelo was gay, and that this aspect of his personality was suppressed in early biographical accounts. He mentions the poet Vittoria Colona in this novel implying that she was trotted out as proof of  Michelangelo's heterosexuality.  The Wikipedia article dealing with her calls her relationship with Michelangelo "a passionate friendship".  Of course, we in the modern world, can't know the nature of Michelangelo's sexuality with any certainty.

 This is the first book in a series about Michael the photographer. So I can't be certain whether Michelangelo or his work will play a role in any future books in this series.   I will enjoy finding out the direction  that Steve Moretti will go with Michael's paranormal gift in the next installment.