“Portrait of an Unknown Lady” by María Gainza:
Translated from the Spanish by Thomas Bunstead, this is a novel about a high society con artist in 1960s Argentina. It is a narrative told through layered impressionistic vignettes by the narrator, an auction house employee in Buenos Aires, specializing in the verification of authenticity of art works, who is attracted to the sadness and strangeness of others.
The book tries to create a feeling for the life of a woman who seemed gifted to forge paintings and make a living off them. What are her motives, her motivation, what was her life, what is her link to the community of artists who gathered in bars in Buenos Aires or in a run-down hotel?
Despite sometimes interesting, philosophical musings on art, forgery or authenticity the book left me strangely untouched, nothing really resonated within me. That might be my shortcomings not that of the writer, but still, no lasting impression was gained.
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