Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780385502610
ISBN number: 0385502613
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: February 18, 2003
Publishing house: Doubleday
Release Date: February 18, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 1040996
Studio: Doubleday
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Product Description:
A missing painting by a legendary suicide provides the key to John Ed Bradley’s mesmerizing novel of New Orleans–a city where art, sex, and race link the city’s decadent past with its decaying present.
The mysterious Levette Asmore was a legend in New Orleans even before he apparently threw himself off the Huey P. Long Bridge in 1941 at the height of his creative powers. Widely regarded as the finest and most original painter ever produced by the American South, Asmore won fame for a series of portraits depicting beautiful young women with whom he was rumored to be sexually involved. And while a certain promiscuity was long tolerated in the old, benighted city, there was no hiding Asmore’s secret past in the dark heart of Depression-era Louisiana. When a newspaper reported that the WPA mural he was painting laid waste to sexual taboos and the prevailing racial order, Asmore was ordered to whitewash the masterpiece before the public was allowed to see it. Weeks after doing so, he was dead.
New Orleans, present day. A young journalist named Jack Charbonnet and the woman he desperately wants, painting restorer Rhys Goudeau, discover that Asmore might not have destroyed his infamous mural after all. If they can find the painting and restore its damaged surface, it promises to answer the riddle of Asmore’s violent death and reveal the reasons for his tortured life. The mural also will be worth millions–more than any other art object ever created by an artist from the region. But to save the painting Goudeau and Charbonnet must outmaneuver their rapaciously greedy rivals in the small but wealthy world of Southern art collectors.
What starts as a comic novel of manners quickly deepens to one of tragic consequence as Charbonnet begins to realize that the Asmore mural–and the frantic hunt for it–are not just about reclaiming a valuable work of art. Rather, the painting represents the murky and troubled history of the South itself, where a legacy of racial intolerance has destroyed its greatest artist as well as his most important creation.
Novelist John Ed Bradley, himself a passionate collector of Southern regionalist paintings, uses his insider knowledge and years of research to create a masterful portrait of the city where he lives and its obsession with the past. In the story of the doomed Asmore, Bradley has written of a time in the South when painting had little to do with decoration and an artist courted death with every stroke of the brush.
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Rated by buyers 
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I had never heard of John ed Bradley when I picked up this book but I was absolutely delighted with every page. It is a haunting and lushly romantic story about an artist whose abundant talents and extraordinary charm couldn't compensate for the fact that he lived in an era with a dichotomous attitude about people of other races. Bradley writes with a deft hand about art and his story is rich with the scents and sounds of New Orleans, a city I love, but there is a haunting mournfulness in this tale that is both sad and seductive.
I especially appreciated his passages about the WPA murals, a particular interest of my own.
Bradley's characters are likeable and fully human and his prose is rich. The scene toward the end of the book where the paintings are found reminded me of the scene in A.S. Byatt's "Possession" when Christobel's letters are discovered in the doll's cradle. This is a very rich book and Bradley is a writer of considerable skill.
Rated by buyers -
Although there were bits & pieces of this excellently entertaining novel about which one could possibly say, "Well, that was kinda predictable", there were many more bits with neatly surprising twists. *Restoration* is cleverly written, as if the author respects his potential readers. New Orleans lends a swell backdrop. I intended to save this book for an upcoming trip, but was going to let myself just read the very first few paragraphs, for a little preview. One thing led to another & now I've finished it & what can I take to read? Maybe I'll just take Restoration anyway, & try to pretend like it's my very first time!
Rated by buyers 
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I feel I must be because I think Restoration is one of the disapointing books I have ever read. I am a big fan of Louisiana Lit and of Mr Bradley but this book stinks. The plot plays out like an airport novel, the characters are left as mere sketches - Rhys Goudeau in particular - and the central image, that of a multicultural embrace on a lost mural, is plain corny and obvious from the get-go. The sentences jar on the page they are so badly written and Jack's monologues on painting don't read as people as would actually speak. The representation of New Orleans is highly touristy and sounds like it was written by an outsider consultng maps and travel guides. Mr Bradley has taken the subjects of New Orleans and the South's racial past and condensed them to a set of trite cliches worthy of a made-for-tv movie. Nothing new or remotely interesting was said about either area. I can't believe that the same author who moved me to my very soul in the elegant, mysterious, totally astounding Tupelo Nights, wrote this book. I won't give up though. I have ordered another of his books and hope Mr Bradley will make me smile again soon.
Rated by buyers -
This was my very first book by this Author but I am sure it WON"T be my last. This was a GREAT BOOK! It's the type of book you do not want to put down but then are very sorry when you finish it. New Orleans is where my heart is even though I don't live there. I visit twice a year and always buy all the New Orleans Fiction I can find when I am there. This book was my luckest find on my last trip. Now I can go to Amazon to search out other books by this Author. Other readers may want to try O'Neil DeNoux & Julie Smith.
Rated by buyers -
In John Ed Bradley's novel RESTORATION, Jack Charbonnet and Rhys Goudeau window-shop for antiques along Magazine, then stop in for a bite to eat at Casamento's just off Napoleon Ave. You can, too. Like this ex-Times-Picayune columnist and his art-restorer crush, you can also get a Ferdi Special, covered in "debris," at Mother's Restaurant at the foot of Poydras Street. While cruising around in the French Quarter, you could also come across a painting by artist Noel Rockmore hanging in some bar. However, no matter how hard you look, even in the gem-like New Orleans Collection of Art on Royal, or the venerable New Orleans Museum of Art ensconced in City Park, you will not find a picture by bohemian artist Levette Asmore, famous for his female portraits and an infamous WPA mural. You see, just like Jack and Rhys, Levette is fictional.
Some time ago, Bradley got involved with the endeavor to salvage a WPA mural in New Orleans. Now, he has combined that experience and some research into a novel that sheds light on the intricate skein of race relations in New Orleans. So, out of the bubbling roux of many colors that compose the Crescent City's population, and the deep, rich tradition of Big Easy art, Bradley fashioned the figure of Levette Asmore. In a way, Bradley has come up with mystery "lite" here: the only death is Asmore's untimely demise some sixty years ago, and the only danger is the potential death of someone living on that rich N'Awlins diet. However, the author entertains us with colorful characters and dialogue, and enlightens us with his research into art auctions, art restoration, and art history. Asmore's bohemian life and magical work serve as the touchstone which sets off a series of questions that compel Jack and Rhys: Who is that woman in the photo behind Levette? How is she related to Rhys? Will they get the mural out of the post office? Will they get away with the crime? Will that boor of an art collector come away with the canvas of his dreams? Where was Jack's crippled landlord the night Levette took that dive off the Huey P. Long Bridge? And, will Rhys ever accept Jack's bids for her affections? We don't get to know until they come to the end of their queue of questions. Nevertheless, you'll enjoy taking a tour through the streets and society of the city, past and present. By the way, anyone going to New Orleans, write down whatever restaurant Bradley mentions; he knows what he's talking about. Laizzer les bon temps rouler!
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