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By Laurel Corona
 SAN DIEGO—A young man’s attempts to please a father he perceives as disparaging and indifferent form the core of this debut novel. The setting is World War II Paris.
Max Berenzon, the son of an eminent gallery owner, has grown up reciting, with his eyes shut, the intricate details of the paintings hanging in each room, and trying without success to demonstrate that he has his father’s business sense and eye.
After the war, with their gallery and home looted and in ruins, Max sets about to recover as much as he can of his father’s collection, in one last attempt to earn approval. When the Berenzons, who are Jewish, fled Paris at the time of the occupation, Rose, the gallery assistant, had gotten a job in the Jeu de Paume, where art looted from vanished Jews, including the Berenzons was housed.
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Viewed by many as a collaborator, Rose (based on a real person) was actually documenting the thefts for the Resistance, and for the rightful owners.
Back in post-war Paris, Max searches not only for the art stolen from his family, but for Rose, with whom he has long been infatuated. In the process, he discovers important things he failed to understand about his father, Rose, and himself.
Houghteling is at her best describing the nightmarish world ofParis in this grim era, where every survivor, Jew or Gentile, seems as fragmented as figures in a painting by Picasso.
Though this is a well-crafted, smart read, Houghteling occasionally smothers the narrative in her desire to share the Fulbright research she did on the subject of Nazi-purloined art. This results in passages that occasionally seem more like an essay than a fictional treatment. Still, a strong debut overall.
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