This one does not disappoint. I had seen the movie and loved it some years ago and being invested in Tracy Chevalier's books this year, I resolved that now is the time to read the book. I can easily see why this is Tracy's most popular work. I could feel myself in Holland relating to a life of a maid who is on the bottom rung of the ladder, who has no rights and is in every way denied. The hopelessness, the futility, the self-denial that existed among the lower classes in 17th century Holland was very aptly portrayed through Griet, a servant girl hired to work in the household of the famous Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. Very little is known of Vermeer's private life and even less about the subjects he chose to paint. With little to go on, Tracy Chevalier has succeeded in cleverly crafting a story surrounding Vermeer's famous painting of a girl with a pearl earring bringing 17th century Holland to life. In her true style, Tracy uses a few words yet she says so much. If you read this book you will never again look at this painting and not believe that this is Griet, a simple servant girl who yearned and whose heart was carried into a world she would never belong in. One cannot also fail to empathize with Vermeer, a master of his art, who like so many other artists, lived at the mercy of his patron who commissioned his work and bridged the gap between Vermeer's talent and his ability to earn a living and provide a roof over the heads of his family. It would be easy to walk away from a book with such depressing life issues feeling heavy of heart but Tracy Chevalier manages to achieve the opposite by giving our heroine a small moment of victory and justice at the end which makes Griet's reconciliation with the inevitability of her life a good and plausible choice.
One problem though, the book has totally ruined the movie for me. Watched it again after I finished the book and found it rather inadequate.
