Kate Russo (1)

Often the authors who provide books blurbs clue me in to whether I will like a book or not. Here we have Tom Perrotta, Jess Walter, Claire Messud, and Lily King - all praising this enjoyable novel. I found the premise unique and refreshing and very up-to-date: Bennett Driscoll is a past-his-peak British artist who has had to resort to renting out his house on AirBed to make ends meet after his recent divorce and dwindling career. He is actually very good at this role and has achieved Super show more Host status, which is a point of pride. He maintains his painting studio on the same property - living in austere conditions among his materials and supplies. This gives him more access to his guests than sometimes they would like - and the two abodes' picture windows face each other. In this season he has three women renters in quick succession, which highlight his loneliness and single status. Alicia is the first - and most incidental, followed by artist Emma and her husband - who have issues far beyond what the picture window reveals, and finally Kirstie, also a recent divorcee, with a much more optimistic attitude than Bennett's. He is trying to get out of his professional slump, and each of these women unknowingly give him a smidge of inspiration, but his greatest source is the bartender, Claire with whom he has a fledgling relationship, that escalates more quickly than he anticipates due to circumstances surrounding his home and finances. His 20-something daughter Mia is his sounding board, but he is embarrassed to be discussing his love life with her. Meanwhile, his ex, Eliza had moved on even before the divorce, following her lover Jeff back to America. Through this span of months, Bennett learns a lot about himself, his strengths and failings and what it takes to make a relationship work at middle age. Funny, warm, satirical toward the art world and our modern way of life and also sweetly romantic, this story about an earnest, if bumbling-in-the-new-century man was enjoyable and entertaining. Russo has some great insights into human nature which she portrays with humor, but also keen wisdom. Favorites: Kirstie - "The crystals look lifeless when she walks into the master bedroom...They're all just rocks, good for nothing, except maybe propping open a door. Over the course of their marriage, Albert turned her to stone, now she's surrounding herself with rocks. It's like a fucking quarry in here, she thinks" (253) Bennett "People who worry think about both favorable and unfavorable outcomes. Some just fear the worst, but others, like Claire, almost suffer more because they've dared imagine the best. The Bennett she's imagined is no doubt better than the real one and what worries him more than anything is that he'll disappoint her. But there's no worry without hope, and Claire, bless her, remains hopeful about him. He wonders for the first time in a long while, if his burdens and his desires might not be just his own, but shared." (359) show less

This tasty delight is the debut novel by Kate Russo, daughter of the fabulous Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author. It's a benign and relatable view of a man who just can't make up his mind. Bennett, a successful London artist whose career sunsetted when he stopped painting nudes, rents out his luxurious home for income and sleeps in his tiny painter's studio. The first few chapters describe the unhappiness of two of his guests, but, when in between visitors, a fuller portrait of the show more artist as a relative failure emerges. Bennett's wife Emma left him after twenty years of marriage and he clings tightly to his art student daughter as his only tenuous link to the outside world. When he meets an attractive and flirtatious barmaid, she tempts him into painting her nude and into bringing his mojo, income, and hopes back to life. But then, another attractive woman rents his home and they seem to be instantly sympatico. And Bennett finds out that his wife might be returning to London. Now what? In a time when everything seems fraught, this is like a reader’s vacation, filled with humor and relaxation.

Quote: “She definitely wasn’t wearing mascara yesterday. He’d have noticed because he finds the stuff disturbing, like spider legs crawling out of a woman’s eyeball.” show less

I enjoyed the structure of this book (focusing, more or less, on three memorable guests). I also liked the main character. He was a believable train wreck.

Interesting book. Liked Bennet. Loved the women.