A complex story of the life of an unlucky painter.
In Goldstein’s latest novel, a struggling artist’s inspiration turns out to be potentially fatal.
Aspiring painter William Wozniak is a disappointment to just about everyone in his life. His unfaithful wife, Rosemary, desperately wants him to get a day job. His aging, bigoted father, Arthur, has made it plain that he regards William as a failure and is writing him out of his will. Art professionals regard his photorealist paintings as “stiff and rigid.” After Arthur finds out that his younger son and caretaker, Bertram, is gay, he promptly disowns him and decides to relocate from New York to San Francisco. He also wants William and Rosemary, who already live in that city, to move in with him and take care of him like Bertram did. William begins to paint in a new, surrealist style: “The flamingo was distorted, as if pieces of it had melted slightly and then buckled before they reformed. Each of William’s usually precise lines had veered off playfully and meandered a bit before finding its terminus.” The new paintings are an immediate success, enough to turn William into an art-world celebrity. But when he receives tragic news, he finds himself at a crossroads. Over the course of this novel, Goldstein’s prose is crisp and smooth, particularly in his descriptions of William’s art and artistic process: “He was assailing a huge canvas, larger than anything he’d previously attempted, and he was enthralled with how beautifully the work was unfolding before him.” The book does take its time to get going, but the author keeps readers engaged with the inclusion of intriguing supporting characters and numerous subplots. Overall, it’s an engaging work about the tension between artistic pursuits and the demands of marriage and family.
A complex story of the life of an unlucky painter.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
I Who Have Never Known Men ($22.00; May 1997; 224 pp.; 1-888363-43-6): In this futuristic fantasy (which is immediately reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale), the nameless narrator passes from her adolescent captivity among women who are kept in underground cages following some unspecified global catastrophe, to a life as, apparently, the last woman on earth. The material is stretched thin, but Harpman's eye for detail and command of tone (effectively translated from the French original) give powerful credibility to her portrayal of a human tabula rasa gradually acquiring a fragmentary comprehension of the phenomena of life and loving, and a moving plangency to her muted cri de coeur (``I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct'').
Pub Date: May 1, 1997
ISBN: 1-888363-43-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.
A travel writer has one last shot at reconnecting with the best friend she just might be in love with.
Poppy and Alex couldn't be more different. She loves wearing bright colors while he prefers khakis and a T-shirt. She likes just about everything while he’s a bit more discerning. And yet, their opposites-attract friendship works because they love each other…in a totally platonic way. Probably. Even though they have their own separate lives (Poppy lives in New York City and is a travel writer with a popular Instagram account; Alex is a high school teacher in their tiny Ohio hometown), they still manage to get together each summer for one fabulous vacation. They grow closer every year, but Poppy doesn’t let herself linger on her feelings for Alex—she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or the way she can be fully herself with him. They continue to date other people, even bringing their serious partners on their summer vacations…but then, after a falling-out, they stop speaking. When Poppy finds herself facing a serious bout of ennui, unhappy with her glamorous job and the life she’s been dreaming of forever, she thinks back to the last time she was truly happy: her last vacation with Alex. And so, though they haven’t spoken in two years, she asks him to take another vacation with her. She’s determined to bridge the gap that’s formed between them and become best friends again, but to do that, she’ll have to be honest with Alex—and herself—about her true feelings. In chapters that jump around in time, Henry shows readers the progression (and dissolution) of Poppy and Alex’s friendship. Their slow-burn love story hits on beloved romance tropes (such as there unexpectedly being only one bed on the reconciliation trip Poppy plans) while still feeling entirely fresh. Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. But there’s depth to the story, too—Poppy’s feeling of dissatisfaction with a life that should be making her happy as well as her unresolved feelings toward the difficult parts of her childhood make her a sympathetic and relatable character. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own.
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0675-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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