4.0
The Art Lover: A Novel
ByPublisher Description
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 fatherostensibly 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.Download the free Fable app
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Art Lover: A Novel Reviews
4.0
“Everyone should put on their favorite Laurie Anderson album and read this book.
I have been going through quite an overwhelming era of despair in my life lately and have personally been hitting that question of whether love is enough, or art is enough. This novel does not didactically answer “yes” to those questions but it does remind you of why, it is a thick woven tapestry of despair and hope despite the alternative. And too be fair that is as much hope in life that I can muster at this moment in time.
There is a section in the novel on page 112 in “The Life in the Sky” where one of the the narrators is speaking to their mother about the greek myths in the stars and each story relates to figures in their family, this led me to contemplate the author as Cygnus, the swan. I think the author feels herself to be in this role, diving constantly between worlds (life/death - Fact/fiction) in hope to find something to bring up or back. I think in many ways this novel acts as a bridge between worlds.
Death and birth are the two most fundamental parts of our experience on earth both our own, and others’. Our multiple planetary cultures have created innumerable rituals, beliefs and myths about these two very deep mysteries.
In the night sky, Cygnus (the swan) soars along the Milky Way, symbolizing the crossing from life to death, a celestial road recognized in many mythologies. Cygnus often marks the threshold between worlds, its constellation forming the Northern Cross. In early cultures, the north represented the afterlife; the pole star was the destination, linked to shamanic traditions that see the sky as connected to the earth’s axis.
Christian interpretations shifted focus from pagan tales like Zeus and Leda or Cycnus and Phaethon, emphasizing the swan’s grace and the Northern Cross constellation as symbols of Christ. The swan’s duality, moving between water and sky, mirrors Christ’s dual nature as both divine and human. The belief in the swan’s final song drew parallels to Christ’s last words and sacrifice, reinforcing its purity and resurrection symbolism in art.
In a really masterful way Maso is able to bridge the harmony of truth/fiction, despair/hope, reality/dream, and life/death, I can not recommend this novel enough especially if you are into Italo Calvino, Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Rings of Saturn, or Speedboat by Renata Alder”
“4.5 Stars. At the Portland Book Festival in November, I heard R.O. Kwon and another author with her mention this book. So I bought a copy.
You gotta be a patient reader with this novel, but if you are, there’s so much here.
Religion, art, the 80’s, AIDS, family, betrayal—lots to think about. I’m glad I read it. Take your time reading and be ready to put in some effort.”
““who has made me nostalgic for a past i never could’ve known?””
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