BECAUSE THE DEVIL TRULY IS IN THE DETAILS... MEET THE MINIATURIST

I am always slightly dubious about books that are touted everywhere as the best book of the year. I am not entirely sure where this doubt comes from either. I mean when it comes to films, I can sort of see why – the films that are touted the most are, more often than not, Hollywood productions. I love a good Hollywood production in its place, but the problem with them tends to be that once you have seen a couple you have seen them all. You can pretty much draw out the story ark with your eyes closed, fifteen to twenty minutes into the film. Not always, but pretty much. I am trying to read more this year (one of my many New Years resolutions) and I am quickly finding that maybe I should put that prejudice to one side when it comes to literature. I mean it’s the same thing with film reviews really, you just need to find the critic who thinks along the same lines as you do and follow their advice (if you are indeed of the advice following sort in these matters). I bought this book in a train station, in the face of limited choice and the prospect of a long time spent with potentially nothing to do if I didn’t buy something. It turned out to be a very happy choice.

The book was inspired by a museum piece. One I have actually seen but had completely forgotten the existence. The miniature house of Petronella Oortman, that can be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam today. (Click HERE to access the web page for it!)  It is, for all intents and purposes a dolls house. This one, built in the late 17^th century, is thought to be an exact replica of her house with accurate furniture, if on an absolutely tiny scale. The cabinet itself is inlayed with silver and tortoiseshell and in its day, would have cost the equivalent of tens of thousands of pounds. For her debut novel, Jessie Burton has taken the cabinet, the name of its owner and her husband, and woven a story. By her own admission, the story is not biographical but a work of pure fiction.

The Petronella Oortman of Jesse Burtons fictional universe is a young girl of 18. She has been brought up in the country and comes from a good family. Well, a family with a good name but that, alas, has fallen on hard times. This is why, when a marriage is arranged for her with a wealthy merchant in Amsterdam, even though the merchant is rather older than her, Petronella jumps at this life-changing opportunity. But from the minute she enters her new household, she is very quick to realise that all is not what it seems in this family and it is going to take her all her ingenuity to get to the bottom of the many secrets in the closet. The miniature cabinet is a wedding present from her strangely distant husband and conversely, it is when Petronella begins to furnish this little house with the aid of a miniaturist that the most mysteries come floating to the surface… The more the little house is filled, the more questions concerning the great house appear… What is truly going on in the Brandt household. And how does the miniaturist come into all of this…

One little note in starting writing about my own views. The blurb on the back of the book hints at a supernatural element in the book. If that put you off ultimately picking up the book, rest assured, the role of the supernatural in the book is minimal. We are definitely and categorically NOT in the domain of dolls coming alive and speaking. And I mean, sorry if that WAS what you were looking for – but its better you know what is what before you actually buy the book, no. No, the mysteries that Burton examines are by and large linked to the human mind and soul. In a word, it made me think of how many secrets and unknowns can be kept in the confines of one house without the outside world so much as suspecting what is ACTUALLY going on. There may be multiple reasons for keeping the secrets ranging from a sense of privacy to a fear of prosecution and persecution by society (justly or not), but it reminds one, with a slight shudder in this case, that we never really know what is going on behind the closed door of a house, even though it may well be the house of our nearest and dearest. Or sometimes even our own.

And if the story is not strictly biographical to the cabinet and its owner, it is definitely a very well researched window into Dutch life in the 17^th century. Burton writes engagingly and with clarity, drawing us right into a world lost today, quite foreign to a lot of us and yet, on those pages completely alive. It is partly for this reason that the story is told completely from the perspective of petronella. The big theme of the book is discovery, we discover the city and its rules of social life. I mean, to pick up the surgeon’s scalpel for a minute, metaphorically speaking, if Nella was a city girl she would know these things and that would make the descriptions given for our benefit that much more cumbersome and out of place. But the fact that she has to know all of this makes the story and the descriptions flow. We know why they are there, and incidentally we profit from them too. In the same way, suspense is held all through what is, in essence a mystery story. And I love a good mystery.

It just goes to show what a truly wonderful thing artistic inspiration is. A museum exhibit, seen by hundreds every day, can inspire one extraordinary person to write a beautiful novel with its presence alone. When researching this article I came across an interview with Jesse Burton where she seems to be hinting at the continuing adventures of the characters in the book… It’s an interesting idea – but a dangerous one. The way the book finished was beautiful in itself, I am hoping that this idea was not born out of the greed to milk this book even further – it is quite beautiful as a whole in itself. Burton is clearly a talented writer who will regale us with many more original tales without falling into the trap of sequels… Oh well… Only time will tell.