Thunderclap is like no other book I’ve ever read before. That’s not to say it’s an odd book or a particularly rare book, it’s just simply a non-fiction book about a woman’s love for art and more specially one artist who initially thrust her into loving art in the first place.
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Thunderclap is told from the point of view of Cumming herself. It’s a personal account of her times during childhood with her father, her initial growing passion for art and what art both means to her, the world and her personal experiences throughout her life.
A lot of the book focuses on the mysterious artist Carel Fabritius who is neither particularly famous nor overly prolific with his work but someone who Cumming quickly fell in love with the work of.
As with other non-fiction books, I’ll utilise the same plot and character definitions I do for my fiction reviews but focus the plot on the topics covered and the character on Laura Cummings tellings of said topics.
Thunderclap plot – 3.75/5
Now, I must start off this section by saying I have very little to no interest in art as a hobby. I can fully recognise a great piece of art from a complexity stand point but often struggle when what seem quite simple pieces are expressed as “art”. I have very little emotional attachment to art either and see it more as a simple skill and sometimes natural born talent.
However, Laura Cumming had a great way to keep me interested throughout this novel. I find that if anybody talks passionately enough and well enough about almost any subject of at least minor interest, I’ll find it interesting and I found that with Thunderclap. Going into this if you’d told me what it was about, I’d likely have swerved it – but as it was a pick from my followers, I knew I had to give it a proper go and I’m glad I did as it opened up my mind and, despite it’s actual topic, I found myself enjoying Cumming’s descriptions of it all.
The topic itself was quite interesting and though I’d never heard of Carel Fabritius before going into this and I’d confidently say not many other people would have either, Cumming made his story and related stories sound fascinating! It just really wasn’t for me and I’d still suggest you’d have to have an initial interest in the topic to warrant reading it.
Thunderclap characters – 4/5
A lot of what I’ve just spoken about focuses on the fact that Laura Cumming’s personality shines through in these pages, creating a topic that (you may have picked up on by now) I don’t have a massive interest in, seems genuinely quite interesting.
Cumming brings in personal anecdotes, stories from her life and more to make this book not solely about the subject matter of art itself but also her thoughts on art and her experiences of it and what has caused it to become such a hobby and interest for her.
This aspect of the book was porbably my favourite and, as I said above, was the reason I wasn’t completely bored by the subject matter.
Thunderclap final rating – 3.75/5
I have little to no interest in art. I can appreciate complex art that requires talent but I wouldn’t actively go out of my way to seek it. Thunderclap is all about art. However, Cumming does do a good enough job of injecting her personality via personal stories, anecdotes and experiences to make me genuinely interested in the book itself. If you’d told me I’d be reading 400+ pages about a woman’s love for art and how a particular artist sparked that love, I’d have liked avoided the book. But the compulsion to read because you guys picked it and the fact that Cumming wrote it with such personality means this is a book I didn’t find too hard to read!
