A review by lesserjoke
The Painter of Battles by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

2.0

This was kind of a strange book, about a former war photographer who gets tracked down in retirement by a soldier he once photographed who now blames the man for ruining his life and says he's come to kill him. The two men proceed to have a series of philosophical conversations on topics like art, violence, chaos theory, and free will, all interspersed with flashbacks to the photographer's time with a lover whose death led him to quit the business. This concept has potential, and the flowery language in the book provides some vivid imagery, but I often felt as if I was grasping after oblique points that were obvious to the two characters but not to me. Maybe that was intentional on the author's part, as the two men repeatedly discuss how someone who has not seen the horror of war firsthand cannot truly relate to it. But it's hard to really love a book that shuts you out like that.