Florbela is an aspiring artist classically trained in Cherbourg before moving to Paris to live among the emerging painters of the day in an artists’ commune called La Ruche. Hays shines in her portrayal of the artists who frequent Gertrude Stein’s salon—Picasso, Modigliani, Rivera and Chagall—prior to their fame: an unusual approach. Hays effectively reveals Florbela’s insecurities as an artist searching for her own particular style; however, Florbela is ineffective as both a revolutionary and a romantic object.
Hays’ story shows Florbela as a revolutionary-by-proxy into whose hands falls a painting that becomes the key to the overthrow of Portugal’s Manuel II. Florbela seems more concerned about Paris fashion than she does about her father’s imprisonment. When she witnesses the brutal murder of her benefactor, Florbela continues to wander about the streets of Paris unaffected.
Her ho-hum reaction to the murder is difficult to buy considering the assassin is the infamous Onca do Papa, the death-dealer of the “Order of the Flaming Cross.” The Order’s significance is not fully explored, and the reader will find it difficult to believe that such a villain as Onca do Papa would be unable to find either Florbela or the painting, both hiding in plain sight at the unprotected—and highly visible— La Ruche. Florbela makes no attempt to secret her location, nor does she envision a creative hiding place for the painting. The assassin’s inability to find Florbela is rendered even more unbelievable by his superhuman pursuit of Florbela and the dashing revolutionary, Armand Fontaine, at novel’s end.
If you like art and history, THE SIXTH offers an interesting vantage point on civilization’s rejection of classical art to its embracing of Cubism and Surrealism. If you desire non-stop action and a gripping page-turner, look elsewhere.
Reviewed by H.K. Rainey for IndieReader.