The Tattoo Artist

After an interminably slow set-up, this amazing novel moves into high gear for its second half and never thereafter loosens its grip on the reader.

Because Ciment uses a first-person flashback narrative, the reader knows going in that the protagonist, Sara Ehrenreich, is a woman returning to 1970s New York after a 30-year involuntary sojourn on a remote Pacific island, and that her body is now covered in elaborate tattoos. Just how this all came about and what it says about Sara in particular, art in general, and the care and feeding of the human soul overall, makes up the rest of the book.

When we first meet Sara Rabinowitz, she is one of the numberless, faceless seamstresses in New York’s garment district, the daughter of Russian show more Jewish immigrants and a budding Socialist who falls into a sexual relationship with Philip Ehrenreich, whose talents in the bedroom far exceed his artistic ambitions. The slow building of this relationship and the circumstances that drive them to an ill-starred journey to collect Polynesian ceremonial masks on behalf of a collector form the first half of the book. Teasing flash-forwards from Sara may be the only thing that can drag the reader through this tedious set-up, but the slog is rewarded when the pair finally reaches the island of Ta’un’uu.

Their expectations are shattered when, instead of finding naïve and simple natives eager to trade primitive art for New World trinkets, they find themselves immersed in a culture as alien, detailed, and potentially dangerous as any science-fiction construct ever developed. Their rookie mistakes and unwillingness to adapt to the circumstances they find lead to a tragic accident with horrific ramifications. Sara’s initially reluctant entry into the society within which she and Philip are now irrevocably marooned undergoes a change as deep and permanent as the tattoos which lead her to literally embody the island notion of breath as soul, music as life, and art as an indelible component of both.

Utterly unique in concept, this is a journey through time, space, and being itself. show less

In post-World War I Manhattan, a young Jewish sweatshop worker starts a relationship with a worldly anarchist artist. Their lives over the next decade and a half form the first third of the book. In 1939, they travel to the South Seas in search of carved masks, and the second two-thirds of the book detail their fortunes as they cope with islanders whose beliefs and values are completely alien to the Western mind, resulting in a misunderstanding that leads to their entrapment on the island.

I found the first third a bit slow, but having been very impressed with the author's latest book, "Heroic Measures", I persisted, and in the 2nd section the book becomes impossible to put down. The horror of how Sara and Philip become marooned is show more haunting, and I expect their story to stick with me for a long time. show less

I ended up liking the main character and feeling sympathetic towards her and Phillip even though they were both horribly arrogant and well, I don't think anyone really liked Phillip except for Sara and I think even she was having her doubts. What bothered me though was the way they got their tattoos and how they got stuck on the island. I don't know, it just didn't fit to me. Why would anyone force something sacred, not something done in hate, onto a couple foreigners that damn near destroyed your village and killed your granddaughter?

The book itself is short, an easy long weekend read.

For 224 pages, the author does a good job navigating such starkly different worlds but I would say the premise would be better suited in a book of 800 pages or more; I wished to go deeper into the 30 years that molded Sara into an elder on the Ta'un'uu island, wanted to delve more into the concept of "what is home" and yet, unfortunately, 224 pages can only afford so much. Beautiful premise, which left me wanting more. Solid 3.5

Very unusual tale of two artists in the 1920's who venture off to purchase masks form indigenous islanders in the South Pacific Islands. In a far less than idyllic situation, the artists are punished for a natural disaster, and end up stranded on the island for many years. This story was unique, but very grim and I was happy to have it end. The writing is strong and descriptive, the premise full of possibility, but torturous for the reader.

What a wonderful little novel! Climent's style is smooth, simple, and beautiful as she describes the life of a once-famous artist, stranded on a small Pacific island, who finds her life's work in the native tattoos. Beautiful, elegant, and interesting.

This is a fast read although it took a few chapters for me to become truly interested in the story. A New York woman and her husband, both artists, are abandoned on an island when looking to collect painted face masks for a museum. The tribe they meet changes their lives indefinitely.