Literary as well as suspense readers will find The Syphilis Artist disturbing, engrossing, and compelling; rich in its portrait of a Norwegian artist who creates more than art (“The evil that men do, that lives after them.”) as his legacy.-Diane Donovan The Midwest Book Review
The Syphilis Artist
Per Olav Verås
Vanguard Press
978-1800162297 $15.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook
“I know she watches me.”
The Syphilis Artist is a novel of mystery and social isolation that follows the life of Norwegian artist Andreas Olav Hansen as he pursues his art and questions his obsession with Mia Miraja. She seems like a fantasy dream until she shows up on his doorstep in real life to break into his isolated world and introduce vast changes to his art and psyche.
The story opens with a vivid dream of the author flying over a destroyed town as a blackbird who then transforms into a vision of himself as a boy hiding, with a girl, from her destructive, approaching mother.
As events unfold both in reality and in the narrator’s visions and mind, it quickly becomes evident that a force of evil is an undercurrent in his world, as much as obsessive love. Descriptions of violence and deranged responses to life evolve as the circumstances of this nameless artist’s isolation come to life: “The way the little virus crept up on us, the little, mischievous thief. Now that a year has passed, like a day…An odd mischief because its awakening led me to this place, this old farmhouse. The way I wait out these minutes and hours, the way time passes.”
As hallucinations, reality, and responses to dreams and life emerge, readers interested in literary stories of mystery, isolation, and suspense will find much to think about, especially during these modern times of pandemic angst.
Per Olav Verås creates a character who is, in a sense, the Everyman of artists everywhere…an artist whose sketches pepper the story, and whose dreams of past, present, and future coalesce as the tale unfolds.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of The Syphilis Artist lies in its buildup of events as the narrator seeks to “press the rewind button” on his life while navigating the treacherous waters of sanity, insanity, and love.
As Mia leads him to new revelations about his past, her identity, and their future, a sense of passion gone awry draws readers ever closer to the heart of evil’s creation.
To say that this story is a mystery or suspense piece would be to do it an injustice. While these genre fans will gain much from the evolving story, it’s the literature reader interested in psychological and interpersonal introspections who will best appreciate the many literary devices Per Olav Verås employs as he follows his character down the rabbit hole of truth and illusion.
Literary as well as suspense readers will find The Syphilis Artist disturbing, engrossing, and compelling; rich in its portrait of a Norwegian artist who creates more than art (“The evil that men do, that lives after them.”) as his legacy.
The Syphilis Artist 