|
Loading... An Object of Beauty: A Novel (edition 2010)by Steve Martin
Work detailsAn Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
None. While I enjoyed An Object of Beauty I couldn't keep myself from thinking about how beautifully personal Martin's novel Shopgirl is, and regretting how disconnected I was from Lacey. The novel is full of Martin's rich understanding of people and the aesthetic, history, and business of art, but his characters spend most of the novel so distanced from their emotions that the rare flash of emotional honesty and humor that the narrator Daniel offers are as evocative as the reproductions of the art in question. As always, I find myself regretting that there are few people I know who would care to keep reading for the little moments, because he's a powerful writer who captures people and details in a careful and loving way, despite the distance. (  ) impatienke | May 5, 2013 |  I know enough about art to recognize the names of many artists but not enough about the art world to know is this story is based on actual events as the author would like to lead the reader to believe. The technique of having the "author" talk to the reader as well as the inclusion of actual events, 9/11 and the recent financial collapse among others is just enough to make the reader feel like they are going on a behind the scenes ride in the world of money and art. Great story on audio ( ) lindap69 | Apr 5, 2013 | Interesting description of the art world and collectors. Unlikeable main character, i found her unrelatable, described as being vibrant and funny but the scenes intended to demonstrate these were not successful - so awkward in a way that makes me wonder if it needed a physical context like Steve Martin's humor. Felt like a less successful reworking of Shopgirl except she doesn't grow. She doesn't come across as a real person, just a vehicle for the industry and times. Still, I liked the novel. The short chapters pulled me through. It's unkind, but the writing feels like dumbed down literature that I could understand. My brain, it doesn't do heavy lifting. ( ) EhEh | Apr 3, 2013 | First: Steve Martin is a good writer. His facility with language is why I gave this two stars instead of one. I just couldn't get into this book. The characters all felt flat to me. I think maybe Martin would do better at writing men. Some books by male authors portray lead female characters convincingly; this is not one of those books. Maybe Lacey was written from a distance deliberately, since the book is supposedly narrated by her good male friend, but I didn't care for it. If you like the art scene or NYC, you might like this book. Since I have never been very interested in art and I think New York needs to get over itself and realize that the rest of us aren't all grunting cavepeople, I couldn't get myself to care about anything in this story. (  ) readrunandrepeat | Apr 3, 2013 | Much better than I expected! (I didn't love Shopgirl.) Interesting to read a novel about a character whose motivation is professional ambition and competition. Interesting, also, to think about how the modern economy has such a dramatic effect on the art/auction world. "Art as an artistic principle was supported by thousands of years of discernment and psychic rewards, but art as a commodity was held up by air....The objects hadn't changed: what was there before was there after. But a vacancy was created when the clamoring crowds deserted and retrenched." (p. 280-81) ( ) JennyArch | Apr 3, 2013 |
 "I couldn’t be a woman," Steve Martin once joked, "because I’d play with my breasts all day." Now he has written a novel about a young woman, but nearly the only thing he can imagine about her is wanting to play with her breasts. The Object of Beauty is a nasty exercise in narcissism, particularly in the narcissism of the famous.  Dark subject matter is conveyed with certain smart-assey detachment. Martin knows when to drop a joke in before things get too serious. Timing. Comedians have it.  “An Object of Beauty” follows the New York art world climb of Lacey Yeager. She is a charismatic character yet a very odd one to have emerged from the imagination of Steve Martin. Although Lacey is treated as this book’s main source of fascination, it’s less interesting to look at her point-blank than to look at her while wondering what Mr. Martin sees. One aspect of this novel’s allure is the ambiguity with which Mr. Martin frames Lacey’s fierce, outsize ambitions. Is her story meant to be the appreciatively told tale of a canny New York predator? That of a relative innocent whose values change in the presence of vast sums of art-market money? Or that of a stylishly attractive dynamo who, with only minimal irony, recognizes herself in the monstrous goddess that Willem de Kooning painted as “Woman I?” Is she an unalloyed opportunist? Or is she as intoxicated with art as she is with the leverage and entrée that expertise will bring? Is she stirred by art’s erotic power or just someone who sexually exploits the acquisitive passions of insatiable collectors? Does she share the collectors’ boys’-club competitive spirit (for surely this is a man’s world, at least in the way it is depicted by Mr. Martin)? Or is she just a woman who’s inordinately good at manipulating rich, credulous men? . . .
References to this work on external resources.
|
 Google Books — Loading...
Popular coversRatingAverage: (3.55)
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English
1