The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg is about Amedeo Kaplan. He had moved from New York City to Malo, Florida with his mother. His parents are divorced and his father is an artist, so Amedeo knows a great deal about art and its history. Amedeo meets William Wilcox and his mother, who are the liquidators for Amedeo's neighbor, Mrs. Zender. Mrs. Zender is a colorful character. She is the last heir of the Tull family. The Tulls owned hundreds of acres of timberland in northern Florida and southern Georgia. Mrs. Zender's mother was an Italian and highly controlling of her daughter. She organized most of Mrs. Zender's life. Mrs. Zender was a minor opera star in Europe and local celebrity in the 1940s and 1950s. She knew Alexander Calder, Simone de Beauvoir, James Jones, Karl Eisenhuth, and Harper Lee. She is vain, smart, funny, demanding, and generous. She believes in the old class structure. She dresses up in costumes every day and she is used to having servants. She informs Amedeo that a person must remain ninety percent secret to even their friends. William Wilcox is aloof, quiet, smart, and nice. Amedeo tells William that he would love to discover something that has been lost for a long time. While cleaning the library, Amedeo discovers a drawing of a nude called The Moon Lady by a dead Jewish Italian artist named Modigliani. Mrs. Zender informs Amedeo that it was a wedding present from her Austrian husband. She keeps the drawing hidden and shows no interest in keeping it. He takes the drawing to his house and researches it. Amedeo's godfather, Peter Vanderwaal, is the Director of the Sheboygan Art Center. The art center is hosting an exhibition of art banned by the Nazis. Adolf Hitler wanted to be an artist but was not admitted into art school because his art was not modern enough. Hitler developed a strong dislike of modern art. When Hitler became the leader of Germany, he banned Modern and African Art. He banned art by Jewish, homosexual, and insane artists. Hitler banned Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, and Georges Braque. At the opening of the exhibit that Amedeo is attending, Peter's mother shows them Peter's father's autobiography. Peter's father, John Vanderwaal, grew up in Amsterdam, Holland and was raised by his older homosexual brother and his partner at their art store. One day, a Nazi officer arrived at John's brother's art shop; the next day John's brother was sent to a work labor camp. In a photo that Mrs. Vanderwaal shows them, Amedeo sees the The Moon Lady. What is Mrs. Zender's connection to John Vanderwaal's story?
I give The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World a nine. E.L. Konigsburg has the talent to make unexciting events fascinating. This is a rare skill. If a reader has enjoyed E.L. Konigsberg's other books, then the reader will truly enjoy this book. Konigsburg has a very similar writing style in this book to her other works. When I was in the eighth grade at school, I wrote a report on Konigsburg. Since then, I have felt that she is one of the best young adult realist novelists alive today. I found this book particularly interesting because I had just visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and I saw art by Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, who are all named in this novel.
Reviewer Age:16
Reviewer City, State and Country: Urbana, Illinois United States of America
