Simon de Pury

The Auctioneer was a dreadful book. I instantly hated Simon de Pury. This book was 95% name dropping, and 5% meaningful content. I had no illusions that the art world was steeped in rich people wanting to make good investments, but this book made me feel ill about what happens to good art. I will say that de Pury does seem to legitimately love art, but that is where my admiration of him ended. Also working against this book is the format it follows. I knew nothing about de Pury, and to be dropped into the middle of his life without any sort of introduction was jarring.… (meer)

I am sorry to say that I really did not care for this audiobook. I thought that the subject would be really interesting- it was anything but. It seemed to be a mishmash of stories with no real point. There was a tremendous amount of name-dropping done. Unfortunately, I recognized very few of them. The author alternately bragged and put on his humble suit. It was tiring and not terribly interesting. Making the audiobook more unpleasant was the narrator. He read rather emphatically and that was tiring as well. I also did not like hearing Van Gogh referred to as Van Goff. Several of the narrator's pronunciations were annoying.

Would not recommend, I am afraid. But thanks to LT Early Reviewers Program for the chance to dislike it first. (they can't all be winners)… (meer)