A review by alundeberg
El pintor de batallas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

3.0

A short novel with deep meditations of art, war, life, and humanity. It asks what are the responsibilities of those who photograph war-- are they merely bystanders or do they affect the action? And what of the results of the photos? What impact do they have? This also asks how we portray war in art-- what story are we telling. The author is a very learned man who makes many allusions to many works of art, wars, and literature. It got exhausting after awhile trying to keep up, and it didn't help that some of the paragraphs were pages long.