The Art Lover: A Novel (New Directions Classics)
While her father and best friend are dying, a young American woman tries to find the limits of love and the power of art in the face of the inevitable.What is the power of art in the face of death? In The Art Lover Carole Maso has created an elegant and moving narrative about a woman experiencing...
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While her father and best friend are dying, a young American woman tries to find the limits of love and the power of art in the face of the inevitable.What is the power of art in the face of death? In The Art Lover Carole Maso has created an elegant and moving narrative about a woman experiencing (and reliving) the most painful transitions of her life. Caroline, the novel's protagonist, returns to New York after the death of her father—ostensibly to wrap things up and take care of necessary "business"—where her memory and imagination conspire to lay before her all her griefs and joys in a rebellious progression. In different voices, employing a collage-like fragmentation, Maso gently unfolds The Art Lover in much the same way the fragile and prehistoric fiddlehead fern unfolds throughout the novel, bringing with subtle grace the ever-entangled feelings of grief and love into full and tender view. Various illustrations throughout.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780811216296 (0811216292)
Publish date: June 30th 2006
Publisher: New Directions
Pages no: 176
Edition language: English
This book is true. True to the fragmentation and ragged edges of life. True to all the ways that we open ourselves up to grief when we love another person. True to the ways that we can use art as a shield, a barrier to hold loss and pain at arm's length -- as well as to the ways that art can help us...
This is an accomplished book, with moments of intense beauty and sadness about losing someone you love, often tied to artwork interspersed in the pages. (But don't expect quality reproductions.) One of the most prominent is Giotto's "Noli Me Tangere," as well as a Matisse drawing of a woman asleep. ...