Sacre Bleu: a Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore

I'm a big Christopher Moore fan, but I wouldn't have guessed "impressionist art history" as his next book topic. Still, he makes an interesting story out of the painterly facts.

Baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard grew up around his father's friends -- Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, Cezanne. Now Lucien, with his friend Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, are questioning the circumstances surrounding their fellow painter Vincent Van Gogh's apparent suicide. The best painters in the art work of late 19th century Paris seemed to be plagued by troubles and haunted by a particularly strange salesman of pigments,  and a very captivating woman in blue.

Sacre Bleu is Moore at his strange, fantastic, witty and sarcastic best - bringing history alive through quirky characterizations, mystical mystery and hilarious dialogue. The blue text started to freak me out -- I was watching over my shoulder for the Colorman. Gorgeous illustrations with witty captions were a visual treat!