A Piece of the World (2018) By Christina Baker Kline

 

When A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline was published in January of 2018, it went straight to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, and for two good reason: the author’s proven fan base from her #1 Bestselling book Orphan Train, and legions of art museumgoers wanting to know more about one of America’s best-known artists, Andrew Wyeth. 

Kline’s book is a fictional narrative built around the young woman pictured in Wyeth’s famous painting Christina’s World.  

Christina is the daughter of a Swedish sailor named Olson who leaves the sea to settle down with a farm girl.  Her family’s linage dates back to the Salem Witch Trials, one of her ancestors was the sentencing judge. To escape the shame of that fundamentalism, her predecessors changed the spelling of their surname and moved to rural Maine.  Christina will grow up on a farm along with two brothers. As they age, Christina will begin to feel the impact of a steadily worsening unknown congenital disease that will leave her unable to walk.  She will not get better, she knows it, and she knows the farm will forever be the extent of her world.

She will develop only one real friendship, that with a young woman named Betsy, whose family spend their summers in Maine.  When Betsy meets and marries Andrew Wyeth, he too will begin spending his summers in Maine.  Already a successful artist, Andy will need a studio to work in.  Betsy will introduce him to Christina, suggesting that he can use the third floor of the old farmhouse as his workspace.

That arrangements goes on each summer for the rest of their lives.  Wyeth, observing respectfully but not judging Christina medical condition and her farm family’s apparent poverty (they have no electricity or in-door plumbing). Some of Wyeth’s most famous paintings will be of the farm, her family and of her – including Christina’s World, which now is part of the Museum of Modern Art permanent collection.

When I finished this book, I wanted more.  There is not a movie of the book, at least not yet.  What I did find (on Amazon Prime Video) was a very good PBS documentary American Masters: Andrew Wyeth. 

Recommendation:  Definitely, book and the Wyeth documentary.