She searches the mantelpiece, beneath Jack’s painting of an egg, and the bowl where they display an egg gathered from the chicken coop behind their Greenwich Village townhouse. The Gallery is a great read and a memorable story. Recommended.As he lay dying, Theodora Tenpenny’s grandfather Jack muttered something about a treasure “under the egg.” Theodora, 13, thinks this means that Jack-a thrifty, unknown artist-left a means of providing for Theo and her unreliable mother. The ending is far too rushed for my taste, and I’d have liked another few pages explaining how things came to be, but the prologue and epilogue really help pull the whole story together, tying off the final loose ends and providing a satisfyng finish. The mystery is correspondingly complex and thrilling, slowly building to a hectic climax. The adult characters are however equally complex and flawed, their facades whittled away as the novel progresses. My only qualm would be that at times she comes across as slightly all-knowing, falling prey to the children-are-smarter-than-the-adults trope. A child in a world of adults, she is at once innocent and wise beyond her years. Martha is sharp and resourceful, an excellent narrator and a character you can root for. It is very well written, capturing the grandeur, and also poverty, of the 1920s. The central theme is the ease at which truth can be distorted and this concept is explored across various subplots. While the author’s note clarifies a few things, it too opens many new points for discussion. Hinting rather than explaining, Fitzgerald encourages you to do further research into a great number of topics. It’s a book that never dumbs things down or becomes too didactic. All these disparate topics are well balanced and the novel never strays too far from the realm of believability.
It’s half mystery, half historical fiction and combines historical events, literary references, art history, mythology, religion, sexism, prejudice, insanity, family issues, and politics. The Gallery is a mature, smart, and engaging read, straddling the line between middle grade and young adult.
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