In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper Paperback – 24 November 2017

Author Lawrence block has gathered together some of his friends (i.e. Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child - nice friend to have) and asked them to weave stories based on 18 paintings by the great American artist Edward Hopper. It falls to Michael Connelly (Bosch, The Lincoln Lawyer) to 'paint' a story around "Nighthawks", the acknowledged Hopper masterpiece. A wonderfully creative meeting of Art & Literature

It is really a great collection of short stories inspired by Edward Hopper paintings.My favorite is the one from Stephen King!

Anhand der Bilder von Edward Hopper hat eine Reihe von Autoren das gemacht, was wir eigentlich alle tun, wenn wir vor einem Gemälde stehen: die Geschichte erfunden, die hinter dem jeweiligen Bild steckt. Nur dass es sich hier natürlich nicht um irgendwelche anonymen Kunstliebhaber handelt, sondern um bekannte Autoren, von denen jeder eine jeweils rund 20 Seiten lange Erzählung zu je einem Bild von Hopper verfasst hat.Und so kommt man auf zweierlei Art auf seine Kosten: man kann zunächst Hoppers Bilder bewundern und anschließend die Geschichte genießen, die den Bildern möglicherweise (oder unmöglicherweise) zugrunde liegt. Auf jeden Fall ein sehr gelungenes Experiment, das man auf andere Maler ausweiten sollte!!!

Edward Hopper is one of my favorite painters and Lawrence Block is one of my favorite authors - seriously, "A Long Line of Dead Men really is the world's best detective novel! - and the two have combined forces with seventeen contemporary writers to produce "In Sunlight or In Shadows: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper". The book is an anthology and some of the authors contributing are Block, Joyce Carol Oates, and Stephen King. Each story is preceded by a photo of the picture by Hopper and a bio of the writer of the piece.I thought all the stories were excellent, but several stick out because they were as plainly written as Hopper plainly painted. One of the best was by Gail Levin, author of several bios of Hopper and curator of collections of Hopper's who writes in the voice of "Gail Levin" and describes a Baptist minister who was the religious councilor to Edward Hopper, his wife, and his sister in their last years. He used his influence - and not so "religiously" - to raid the estate after the death of the three Hoppers. Even though several stories mention Hopper, Levin's is the only one that uses the man and his life as the basis of a fictional story. Among the other splendid stories were those by Stephen King, who describes the use of a music room and the two people currently occupying it who are waiting...for something you might not want to know.The only stories I didn't care for - not because they weren't well written - were the few that told complicated stories. Hopper's paintings are so simple that the best stories were those that mimicked that spareness in writing. Now, I'm not sure if all readers would feel that way, but I think most readers will appreciate the brilliant juxtaposition of the art work and the stories.

Love the concept - and though i do not love all the stories (finding that it has just a few too many stories that took the image to the crime angle), i certainly enjoy the book a lot overall and highly recommend the book if you enjoy both Edward Hopper's art and short stories.