The Lost Diaries of Frans Hals

An excellent premise for a novel. A package is found in a barn on Long Island, addressed to an Art Gallery that has been out of business for over 100 years. Inside are four notebooks, written in Dutch. The front flap attributes ownership to Franz Hals, the famous 17th Century portrait artist - considered one of The Dutch Masters. Is it real or is it a hoax? A present day Gallery is given the job of finding out. Peter Van Overloop, a grad student forever stalled on his dissertation, is given the task of translating them and asked to correlate what he finds with the known history of Holland and of Hals and to tell of anything that might prove it to be false. Everyone is so careful and reference is made to the fake Hitler diaries and how many careers that hoax ruined. No one wants to go out on a limb here. Our story wanders back and forth between Peter, his lack of acedemic interest and lack of employability, his blah relationship with his girlfriend and his tenuous living situation and Haarlem, Holland in the mid 1600s and the life of an underappreciated portrait painter. Hals' work is always in demand but he's very bad with money. Everytime you think he'd get a break, like the great ability to invest in tulips when the world is clamouring for them, just goes bad for Hals (everyone lost money in the crazy tulip speculation of the late 1630s.) The diary is extremely authentic sounding (from my diaristic perspective) and a joy to read. Hals is an engaging diarist in the spirit of Samuel Pepys (Pepys is possibly the world's most famous diarist. He wrote in the 1660s.) and the detail is enough to be interesting, but not so much as to seem contrived. There are some major issues that keep the diary's authenticity in question, and ... And that's where my review stops. I wouldn't want to spoil the plot for any future readers. This turned out to be a very enjoyable book. And I learned a lot about the real Franz Hals along the way.

I purchased this wonderful novel at a local library book sale. What a lucky day that was for me. From the first chapter, I fell under the spell of this marvelous storyteller, Michael Kernan. He draws us into the story of an impoverished 20th century New York grad student hired to translate and document the validity of a set of diaries found in a barn that were purportedly written by Frans Hals, a contemporary of Vermeer. As he translates the documents the young student becomes captivated by the humor and insight with which Hals tells his story .... ..and honestly so did I. Kernans writing is so alluring that upon finishing the story, I had an urge to book a flight to Amsterdam to view Hals paintings in person. If you are an art history buff or just like a well written, engrossing tale......add this book to your list of "Books I Must Read".

I can't believe I let this book sit in my "to be read" pile for two years. I was sucked into the story right away. I don't know anything about painting or the Dutch, but this book is fantastic! Very funny and wonderfully detailed. I am SO intrigued by the author's mixing of fact and fiction. Time to do some sleuthing of my own on the internet...

This book slowly seduces you into rooting for the diaries, the writer and the translator. Are the diaries by Frans Hals or not? You want them to be...but how could they be -- there is a separation of over 300 years! The author weaves an intricate pattern of present and past lives with the characters of Hals(?) and the translator. I read this in a week and just got SUCKED in. Buy and read if you like books with inserts from the past intermingled with the present.

We were amazed with wonder looking at his paintings in Amsterdam during a recent trip. This delightfully intriguing book combines factual historical events and people with a delightful story. Even if your interest in paintings consists of whitewashing the fence, this book will keep you page turning.