The Marriage Portrait

3.5/5. it was beautifully written and made uncomplicated by a reduced cast of characters, but some of the most impactful characters were little more than cardboard cut outs—sofia the nurse, jacopo the apprentice, disinterested mother eleonora, even the comically evil nunciata and clelia. because we see everything from very young lucre's perspective, it makes why we know so little, but lucre prides herself in being able to read people in a very unnatural way. so i would have liked more dimension for the cast whose decisions drastically continued to impact lucre's life. i also generally got annoyed with how comically evil nunciata and clelia were, how pointless their mistreatment of lucre was, and how (with elisabetta) their motivations and actions never seemed in harmony. the nonlinear nature of this book though was a shock. normally i have an extreme distaste for nonlinear storytelling, but the way the scenes were pieced together was so cohesive and instantly relevant per scene. so i have to give my appraisal to an author who actually used nonlinear storytelling to improve their story, rather than drag it out.