I don't think I could put it much better than the last reviewer. I have been recommending this book to anyone who will listen. A fine work indeed. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. Would I recommend it? Most definitely -- to an audience who is willing to take time to savor each and every word, not to an audience who wants your average storyline & a pat ending. This book rises high above most books out there on the market or even on the bestseller list.

The Electric Michelangelo is Cyril (Cy) Parks, who grows up in Morecambe, a seaside town in England where "When the tide ran out the crowds came in...Hundreds of pale and lumpy legs appeared from under clothing. Skin pinked and peeled, lotions were applied to late to sore knees and rosy shoulders. Flowery-capped heads bobbed up and down in the water and feet splashed in the waves...Even the rain, reliable and persistent when it decided to appear, could not dampen the celebratory spirit of the promenade, people ran laughing and shrieking either into the sea where wetness would not matter, or into the cafes and public houses of the town, leaving sand prints on the seats and tablecloths when they departed..." (32-33). There Cy lived with his mother, Reeda, who ran a hotel for consumptives among other things. Book One of this novel traces Cy's childhood years up to the time when he eventually becomes the apprentice to a tattoo artist named Eliot Riley. Riley meets a tragic end and Cy decides to take himself to New York, to Coney Island and open his own tattoo stand where he is known as the Electric Michelangelo. Book Two follows Cy in New York,where he meets a mysterious woman named Grace who asks him to tattoo her entire body (except face neck & hands) with the same design over and over again...an eye.

Sarah Hall writes about pain and healing, damage & scarring, redemption and loss, a yearning for a time and place that no longer exists and acceptance of new situations. understand. A fine work, and I'm very happy to have read it. ( )

This is a story of a man who tattoos people. He lives in Blackpool but moves to New York. From what I recall (it's a few years since I read it) he sets up a booth on Coney Island. ( )

http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2008... ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2007/10... ( )