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A review by danmacha18
The Art Lover: A Novel by Carole Maso
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.