The American artist Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is renowned for his haunting paintings and unmistakeable distinctive style. Gail Levin, a scholar of Hopper's life and work offers a tribute to the artist in this small book. It juxtaposes excerpts from works of fiction that mention Hopper's work with the paintings themselves.

The prose comes from works by several novelists, including Lawrence Block, Joyce Carol Oates, William Faulkner, John Updike, and Lawrence Sanders -- by no accident, works of the noir mode are well represented. In some cases, the spare prose is evocative of the mood of Hopper's paintings, but in others, a painting by Hopper is simply mentioned in passing. Among the reprinted paintings, a few get particular attention. Notably, details of Nighthawks, his most famous work, are found on 9 pages, but each draws attention to a distinct feature by portraying a different aspect of the painting. Interestingly, the well-known Room in New York is shown with two entirely incongruent interpretations of its mood and content by different art critics. Clearly, one's view of an art work mainly reflects a person's own mood and perspective.

This small book may serve to bring Hopper's work to the attention of readers familiar with the excerpted writers. Hopefully, they will be led to seek out collections of his paintings, such as Levin herself has published. ( )