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englishmadeline8's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
corvingreene's review
5.0
I first read this book in 1996, when I was 14, and I've read it in two graduate school classes since then. It is absolutely one of my favorite books, and has shaped how I see writing and the possibilities of the novel.
Here are my notes from that first reading: "An absolutely stunning work in EVERY way. Beautiful in its sorrow and style, as well as the mixing of media."
Here are my notes from that first reading: "An absolutely stunning work in EVERY way. Beautiful in its sorrow and style, as well as the mixing of media."
briandice's review
5.0
To be an artist is to be willing to have your heart broken every day.
In her beautiful ode to loss, Maso perfectly captures the essence of grief and mourning - both public and individual - through a series of interlocking narratives of rich characters and inventive story telling. The result is a stunning, impactful book of dealing with the parts of life none of us wants to ever face but will, inevitably.
There is a portion of the book that rattled my soul: one of the narratives is the story of a female character (an author) dealing with the slow death of a close male friend from AIDS. I don't want to spoil the way this story is told, but it is genius, it is original, it is heartbreaking.
But anything I could write about this beautiful book has already been much better said by friend Kris. If you aren't sure whether to give this book a go, please read her review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/469529241
In her beautiful ode to loss, Maso perfectly captures the essence of grief and mourning - both public and individual - through a series of interlocking narratives of rich characters and inventive story telling. The result is a stunning, impactful book of dealing with the parts of life none of us wants to ever face but will, inevitably.
There is a portion of the book that rattled my soul: one of the narratives is the story of a female character (an author) dealing with the slow death of a close male friend from AIDS. I don't want to spoil the way this story is told, but it is genius, it is original, it is heartbreaking.
But anything I could write about this beautiful book has already been much better said by friend Kris. If you aren't sure whether to give this book a go, please read her review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/469529241
sloatsj's review
3.0
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. The author also brings in this excerpt from a book about Giotto:
"One of Giotto's most poignant figures is that of the Magdalen in Noli Me Tangere. Christ, in his first appearance after resurrection, meets the Magdalen, who reaches out to touch Him. Kneeling and stretching her arms toward Christ, her entire figure conveys a sense of almost unbearable yearning and emotion. The very idea that she cannot, must not, touch Him is used by Giotto to suggest the idea of not only the transcendent nature of Christ but the very human tragedy of two people at a fateful and final moment, separated by an enormous gulf..."
And that sums up the entire book. It shifts back and forth among "plot lines," but is always tied to the themes of loss and deep love, and is not hard to follow. Near the end, the way the author herself breaks into the book is remarkable.
Still, for all its emotional depth, there were two things that I found irritating. First, the book sometimes lapses into the "poetic" ("She breathes deeply and sighs. She is in love with light. Her eye caresses each blade of grass, each lavender shadow."), especially at the beginning. In the course of the book it either dissipates or becomes more bearable, but at the beginning it's a turn-off.
Second, while I love NYC as much as anyone, there are moments of unadulterated adulation for NYC that made me feel like someone was wringing out my internal organs. ("I am back in your city of fire-eaters, jugglers, magicians, fortune-tellers, three-card montes. I don't know how you've stood it all these summers since the country - unicyclists, parrots - twenty or so years now, in this madness that descends on Greenwich Village each year..." etc etc).
If you can stick out the first half of the book, you'll probably be rewarded for your time.
Footnote: After I finished reading, I flipped back to the beginning to see - "For Andrew, I am sorry to hear about your father. I want you to have this. Carole, Provincetown 1991"
Wow! A signed copy. I love second-hand. (But I hope I haven't embarrassed Andrew.)
"One of Giotto's most poignant figures is that of the Magdalen in Noli Me Tangere. Christ, in his first appearance after resurrection, meets the Magdalen, who reaches out to touch Him. Kneeling and stretching her arms toward Christ, her entire figure conveys a sense of almost unbearable yearning and emotion. The very idea that she cannot, must not, touch Him is used by Giotto to suggest the idea of not only the transcendent nature of Christ but the very human tragedy of two people at a fateful and final moment, separated by an enormous gulf..."
And that sums up the entire book. It shifts back and forth among "plot lines," but is always tied to the themes of loss and deep love, and is not hard to follow. Near the end, the way the author herself breaks into the book is remarkable.
Still, for all its emotional depth, there were two things that I found irritating. First, the book sometimes lapses into the "poetic" ("She breathes deeply and sighs. She is in love with light. Her eye caresses each blade of grass, each lavender shadow."), especially at the beginning. In the course of the book it either dissipates or becomes more bearable, but at the beginning it's a turn-off.
Second, while I love NYC as much as anyone, there are moments of unadulterated adulation for NYC that made me feel like someone was wringing out my internal organs. ("I am back in your city of fire-eaters, jugglers, magicians, fortune-tellers, three-card montes. I don't know how you've stood it all these summers since the country - unicyclists, parrots - twenty or so years now, in this madness that descends on Greenwich Village each year..." etc etc).
If you can stick out the first half of the book, you'll probably be rewarded for your time.
Footnote: After I finished reading, I flipped back to the beginning to see - "For Andrew, I am sorry to hear about your father. I want you to have this. Carole, Provincetown 1991"
Wow! A signed copy. I love second-hand. (But I hope I haven't embarrassed Andrew.)
mth2flme's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Mental illness, and Suicide
danmacha18's review
5.0
20th book of 2022
What is the value of art in the face of death? I’ve thought about this question a lot. For a long time, I only wanted to be an academic. I wanted to be a mathematician, a philosopher, a literary theorist, a theologian. I thought of myself as a person in pursuit of knowledge, a scholar, until I discovered what scholars actually did and realized it’s not what I wanted. Now, I’m preparing to graduate from university in a month and have grossly unachieved what I had originally planned. If you asked me three years ago where I’d want to be right now, I would’ve told you a Ph.D. or an MFA program. Instead, I’ll be enrolling in a graduate program, albeit at a really good school, to study education and become a high school teacher. I’ve internalized a lot of disappointment and faced a lot of uncertainty because of that decision, but it’s a decision that I made because art has such an important role in my life and I want to be in a career where I have time to create and think and strive. I was expecting this book to challenge that and demonstrate that art has no value in the face of death, but The Art Lover only reinforced it.
I don’t think I’m a strange case when I say that, ever since coming to university, I’ve dreamed of working as a professor at an Ivy League. In my particular case, the dream was always working as a philosopher at Columbia. There’s something about living and working in New York City as a philosopher that just seemed like a dream, but strangely, the dream never involved giving lectures or presenting research or reading the works of other researchers. The dream was to live in an apartment in Manhattan, read books, drink wine, visit Europe, attend film festivals, buy art, listen to vinyl, wear eclectic clothes, and cook good food. It was the idea that every aspect of my life could thoroughly be devoted to beauty, which is a life that I think Max lived. Caroline talks a lot throughout the book about how Max was devoted to excellence and, therefore, wasn’t a snob. He simply demanded that everything be beautiful. My professor called him a pretentious prick, and in a lot of ways, he is. But I found that he exemplified the artistic and intellectual freedom that I want from life, so it was really interesting to see that it was Max’s quirks and interests that lived on after he died. It wasn’t his career achievements. His money. Even his ability to parent. It was his love for art and beauty and how he practiced that love that persists throughout the novel. It reminds me a lot of Guert Affenlight from Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding, whose dedication to literature, scotch, and “high art” has been immeasurably inspiring to me throughout my time at university.
So, what is the value of art in the face of death according to The Art Lover? Well, art is valuable for coping with death and grief. The whole novel is an artistic portrayal of grief, much like Sufjan Steven’s album Carrie and Lowell, spinning around grief and pain and suffering in order to find closure and peace. The novel is incredibly honest, as novels about pain and suffering need to be, and quite beautifully written. Maso’s reflection on the Challenger explosion stood out as one of the more provocative renderings of tragedy and suffering that I have ever read, and I’ve returned to that section countless times to feel what she has to say. But the whole novel is beautifully written and depicted.
What is the value of art in the face of death? I’ve thought about this question a lot. For a long time, I only wanted to be an academic. I wanted to be a mathematician, a philosopher, a literary theorist, a theologian. I thought of myself as a person in pursuit of knowledge, a scholar, until I discovered what scholars actually did and realized it’s not what I wanted. Now, I’m preparing to graduate from university in a month and have grossly unachieved what I had originally planned. If you asked me three years ago where I’d want to be right now, I would’ve told you a Ph.D. or an MFA program. Instead, I’ll be enrolling in a graduate program, albeit at a really good school, to study education and become a high school teacher. I’ve internalized a lot of disappointment and faced a lot of uncertainty because of that decision, but it’s a decision that I made because art has such an important role in my life and I want to be in a career where I have time to create and think and strive. I was expecting this book to challenge that and demonstrate that art has no value in the face of death, but The Art Lover only reinforced it.
I don’t think I’m a strange case when I say that, ever since coming to university, I’ve dreamed of working as a professor at an Ivy League. In my particular case, the dream was always working as a philosopher at Columbia. There’s something about living and working in New York City as a philosopher that just seemed like a dream, but strangely, the dream never involved giving lectures or presenting research or reading the works of other researchers. The dream was to live in an apartment in Manhattan, read books, drink wine, visit Europe, attend film festivals, buy art, listen to vinyl, wear eclectic clothes, and cook good food. It was the idea that every aspect of my life could thoroughly be devoted to beauty, which is a life that I think Max lived. Caroline talks a lot throughout the book about how Max was devoted to excellence and, therefore, wasn’t a snob. He simply demanded that everything be beautiful. My professor called him a pretentious prick, and in a lot of ways, he is. But I found that he exemplified the artistic and intellectual freedom that I want from life, so it was really interesting to see that it was Max’s quirks and interests that lived on after he died. It wasn’t his career achievements. His money. Even his ability to parent. It was his love for art and beauty and how he practiced that love that persists throughout the novel. It reminds me a lot of Guert Affenlight from Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding, whose dedication to literature, scotch, and “high art” has been immeasurably inspiring to me throughout my time at university.
So, what is the value of art in the face of death according to The Art Lover? Well, art is valuable for coping with death and grief. The whole novel is an artistic portrayal of grief, much like Sufjan Steven’s album Carrie and Lowell, spinning around grief and pain and suffering in order to find closure and peace. The novel is incredibly honest, as novels about pain and suffering need to be, and quite beautifully written. Maso’s reflection on the Challenger explosion stood out as one of the more provocative renderings of tragedy and suffering that I have ever read, and I’ve returned to that section countless times to feel what she has to say. But the whole novel is beautifully written and depicted.
avalanchedrops's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
chargoe's review
5.0
i adore this. powerful reflections on grief, and the three person narration is so affective. please read this.