‘Painting Time’ is a novel that explores the modern purpose of a life in art, when computers and AI seem to make humans irrelevant. Paula Karst has finally found her career, at the Institut de Peinture, learning techniques of trompe l’oeil painting, an ancient art that seems to have no practical application. De Kerangal’s prose really sings as she describes Paula’s learning curve: the paints and colors, the brushes and other tools, the theories, and the many materials she learns to reproduce flawlessly. I’ve never read a better description of education igniting passion. She and her friends Kate and Jonas are completely absorbed into their art, remade by new ways of seeing and thinking, but once they finish the course, all three struggle to find a place to do what they’ve learned, and the novel struggles a bit too. Despite the rich and evocative prose, I had difficulty forging through the last third of the book, but the ending—at the caves of Lascaux—was completely worth the trouble. All in all, a gorgeous description of building a life in art.