An Object of Beauty
by Steve Martin
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"Steve Martin's latest novel examines the glamour and the subterfuge of the fine art world in New York City"--Provided by publisher.Tags
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Member Reviews
Lacey Yeager is an up and coming bright thing in New York's art dealer world although how she really got there is another story and narrated by her friend Daniel.
This novel had me quite hooked, the writing is very good and the main character is someone that you would really like if it weren't for her ruthless streak yet her story you still want to know. Martin does a good job at writing a captivating character that you almost love to hate and also includes some gorgeous colour shots of the artworks mentioned in the story which was an added bonus for me.
It has been described as a kind of Age of Innocence tale, a woman doing whatever it takes to succeed in her chosen field and the bare bones of the art world laid out for all to see, show more especially what is beneath the glitz and glamour. This aspect of the art world was what grabbed me most in the story and it could be my love of art but I appreciated the obvious research that went into this book and the gorgeous pictures included.
Steve Martin appears to be a man of many talents and I would hazard an opinion that his writing is perhaps his most accomplished of all. show less
This novel had me quite hooked, the writing is very good and the main character is someone that you would really like if it weren't for her ruthless streak yet her story you still want to know. Martin does a good job at writing a captivating character that you almost love to hate and also includes some gorgeous colour shots of the artworks mentioned in the story which was an added bonus for me.
It has been described as a kind of Age of Innocence tale, a woman doing whatever it takes to succeed in her chosen field and the bare bones of the art world laid out for all to see, show more especially what is beneath the glitz and glamour. This aspect of the art world was what grabbed me most in the story and it could be my love of art but I appreciated the obvious research that went into this book and the gorgeous pictures included.
Steve Martin appears to be a man of many talents and I would hazard an opinion that his writing is perhaps his most accomplished of all. show less
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)
"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)
Lacey is a young woman entering the art field as a seller at a gallery and she is determined to succeed in the business. Her story is told through the eyes of her college friend Daniel.
I really wanted to like this book and had anticipated that I would. A story about the art world as told by Steve Martin (whose other books I'd love)? Sign me up! But I found it terribly dull and just plain awful.
To tackle the first part: terribly dull. Nothing much really happens in this book. There were a couple of moments where it seemed like the story could get really interesting -- once when Lacey suspects her boss might be behind a famous art theft and then later when Lacey is accused of fixing an art auction. But both plotlines peter out pretty show more quickly and lack any real exciting action. Instead we hear about Lacey's sexual exploits, which can't really be described as relationships because she makes a point of how it's only about sex for her.
Which brings me to the second point: just plain awful. I didn't feel this with other books I read by Martin, but this seems like a master class in how to write women badly. Everything that Lacey does is tied in to her sexuality somehow. She's that mystical woman that no man can ever really 'possess.' I don't remember the exact language used because it's been a couple of months between reading and reviewing, but it was pretty much all eyeroll worthy.
To add insult to injury, the audiobook version was not read by Martin but by someone else who just added to the dullness by not breathing life into the characters. A few accents/voices were created, but the reading was overall fairly placid and borderline monotone.
I felt like I walked away from this book having just wasted time. I gained no new insights into the art world and I certainly didn't care about these characters or what happened to them. show less
I really wanted to like this book and had anticipated that I would. A story about the art world as told by Steve Martin (whose other books I'd love)? Sign me up! But I found it terribly dull and just plain awful.
To tackle the first part: terribly dull. Nothing much really happens in this book. There were a couple of moments where it seemed like the story could get really interesting -- once when Lacey suspects her boss might be behind a famous art theft and then later when Lacey is accused of fixing an art auction. But both plotlines peter out pretty show more quickly and lack any real exciting action. Instead we hear about Lacey's sexual exploits, which can't really be described as relationships because she makes a point of how it's only about sex for her.
Which brings me to the second point: just plain awful. I didn't feel this with other books I read by Martin, but this seems like a master class in how to write women badly. Everything that Lacey does is tied in to her sexuality somehow. She's that mystical woman that no man can ever really 'possess.' I don't remember the exact language used because it's been a couple of months between reading and reviewing, but it was pretty much all eyeroll worthy.
To add insult to injury, the audiobook version was not read by Martin but by someone else who just added to the dullness by not breathing life into the characters. A few accents/voices were created, but the reading was overall fairly placid and borderline monotone.
I felt like I walked away from this book having just wasted time. I gained no new insights into the art world and I certainly didn't care about these characters or what happened to them. show less
I was am completely charmed by this book.
Full disclosure: I wasn't expecting much of Steve Martin. I haven't read Shopgirl, and I think I was secretly expecting something lowbrow and full of the outlandish masquerading as the comic, The Jerk in novel form. But from the moment I opened the book to the first page, I was pleasantly surprised:
That first sentence (okay, aside from the unnecessarily split infinitive) is practically pitch perfect. It sets forth the conceit of the book, a faux roman à clef, and gives you a glimpse of the show more relationship between the subject and the narrator: she is someone who has left an indelible imprint on his life, and writing this story is his attempt to move on.
I love how this sentence forgives the narrator for knowing too much. A curious strength of this book is the distance of the narrator from the story. For much of it he is not directly involved, and so the narrative is more third-person than first-person, despite the directed-at-the-reader exposition I've quoted above. The wonderful thing about this is that it imitates, or perhaps even symbolizes, his relationship with Lacey: she is obviously important to him (he's writing her story, for God's sake), but he is also aware that he is not terribly important to her, so too many first-person sentences would exaggerate his significance to her story.
I also love this book for what it's not. It's not pretentious, despite the gorgeous color reproductions of artwork that are scattered throughout, and some almost tongue-in-cheek use of art-world argot. It isn't overly plotted, either; the story unfolds in a natural, lifelike way, by which I mean that it's not always exciting or dramatic, but there is almost always something worth observing. It doesn't try too hard to be profound, and despite raising a few questions of ethics I'm not sure there's any big moral to take away, just food for thought. (Or maybe not so much "food" as hors d'oeuvres: small, perfect bites that fill you up without your realizing it.)
And I love, LOVE the quiet, uncertain-but-hopeful note on which it ends. The last paragraph, like the opening sentence, is absolutely pitch perfect. show less
Full disclosure: I wasn't expecting much of Steve Martin. I haven't read Shopgirl, and I think I was secretly expecting something lowbrow and full of the outlandish masquerading as the comic, The Jerk in novel form. But from the moment I opened the book to the first page, I was pleasantly surprised:
I am tired, so very tired of thinking about Lacey Yeager, yet I worry that unless I write her story down, and see it bound and tidy on my bookshelf, I will be unable to ever write about anything else.
That first sentence (okay, aside from the unnecessarily split infinitive) is practically pitch perfect. It sets forth the conceit of the book, a faux roman à clef, and gives you a glimpse of the show more relationship between the subject and the narrator: she is someone who has left an indelible imprint on his life, and writing this story is his attempt to move on.
I will tell you her story from my own recollections . . . [but if] you occasionally wonder how I know about some of the events I describe in this book, I don't. I have found that -- just as in real life -- imagination sometimes has to stand in for experience.
I love how this sentence forgives the narrator for knowing too much. A curious strength of this book is the distance of the narrator from the story. For much of it he is not directly involved, and so the narrative is more third-person than first-person, despite the directed-at-the-reader exposition I've quoted above. The wonderful thing about this is that it imitates, or perhaps even symbolizes, his relationship with Lacey: she is obviously important to him (he's writing her story, for God's sake), but he is also aware that he is not terribly important to her, so too many first-person sentences would exaggerate his significance to her story.
I also love this book for what it's not. It's not pretentious, despite the gorgeous color reproductions of artwork that are scattered throughout, and some almost tongue-in-cheek use of art-world argot. It isn't overly plotted, either; the story unfolds in a natural, lifelike way, by which I mean that it's not always exciting or dramatic, but there is almost always something worth observing. It doesn't try too hard to be profound, and despite raising a few questions of ethics I'm not sure there's any big moral to take away, just food for thought. (Or maybe not so much "food" as hors d'oeuvres: small, perfect bites that fill you up without your realizing it.)
And I love, LOVE the quiet, uncertain-but-hopeful note on which it ends. The last paragraph, like the opening sentence, is absolutely pitch perfect. show less
what an amazing novel. Martin wrote with a beautifully prosaic voice, and kept me spellbound throughout. I highly recommend this novel, if not for the characters, story line, or art history lesson, then for the pictures, which I loved him adding. It sure saved me time from Googling them online, in order to refresh my memory.
Martin's descriptions of the art, and the era, were more than apt; they were precise and unerring. He knew the art world like he'd LIVED the art world, and knew all the characters intimately. I didn't like the character, but I don't think you're supposed to, unless you identify with her. But who cares? I was more than enjoying the novel. I wished I could live between the pages... and wondrously enough, I've often show more wondered if bidding on a piece of work at an auction, just to drive up the price, was illegal or not!!
Some of his lines were so beautifully written, I was astonished: "Lacey was just as happy alone as with company. When she was alone she was potential; with others she was realized." and "But sometimes mercy falls like light snow on open palms, and sometimes it falls stinging and hard from ominous clouds."
This man can do more than walk and chew gum at the same time. He is truly gifted, in many, many ways. I cannot wait until he prints his next gift to us, the public. show less
Martin's descriptions of the art, and the era, were more than apt; they were precise and unerring. He knew the art world like he'd LIVED the art world, and knew all the characters intimately. I didn't like the character, but I don't think you're supposed to, unless you identify with her. But who cares? I was more than enjoying the novel. I wished I could live between the pages... and wondrously enough, I've often show more wondered if bidding on a piece of work at an auction, just to drive up the price, was illegal or not!!
Some of his lines were so beautifully written, I was astonished: "Lacey was just as happy alone as with company. When she was alone she was potential; with others she was realized." and "But sometimes mercy falls like light snow on open palms, and sometimes it falls stinging and hard from ominous clouds."
This man can do more than walk and chew gum at the same time. He is truly gifted, in many, many ways. I cannot wait until he prints his next gift to us, the public. show less
Lacey Yeager, an up and coming art dealer, is the protagonist of Steve Martin's latest work, which spans about fifteen years in the New York City art world. Daniel Franks, is the narrator writing the book to excise Lacey from his mind.
We follow Lacey from her entry-level job at Sotheby's to a high end gallery on the Upper East Side, to Chelsea, where Lacey opens her own gallery.
Martin takes us deep into the art world, to the behind the scenes look at auction houses, to the houses of collectors, even to international dealings. We learn about expensive European art, the Picasos, the Van Goghs to the modern pop art of Andy Warhol and a new movement. Martin also takes us through the financial ups and downs of the art world as it shifts from show more conservative to modern art, survives 9/11 and the stock market crash of 2008. We follow Lacey's life as it parallels to this world.
Lacey and Daniel became friends in college and both end up in Manhattan, Lacey as a dealer, Daniel as a writer of art. Lacey is young, smart, ambitious, slightly manipulative, and beautiful.
Her walk-on role at Sotheby's stood in contrast to her starring role in the East Village bars and cafes. After her practiced and perfected subway ride home, which was timed like a ballet-her foot forward, the subway car opening just in time to catch her-she knew the bar lights were coming on, voices were raised, music edging out onto the sidewalks. She felt like the one bright light, the spot-lit girl scattering fairy dust...
Though I really enjoyed this book, I can't say I had a lot of love for the characters. Daniel is pretty boring. But I did not find Lacey as evil as I think the author intended her to be portrayed. Yes, she is ambitious but I'm sure no more than any up and coming art dealer that wants to make a name for themselves. Lacey has a relationship with a wealthy French art dealer who is madly in love with her, though Lacey does not return his affection to that degree. But she doesn't use him for anything other than sex and fun nor does she make him any promises. But somehow I felt that this relationship was supposed to epitomize Lacey's amorality, which I just did not see.
Near the beginning of the book, we learn that Lacey has come into a significant amount of money, but we are not told how. This event is alluded to throughout the book until we finally learn how that came about. This was another time that I think was supposed make me dislike Lacey, but it was rather a let down after the long build up. I won't spoil it, but it was not the crime of the century. The fact that Daniel played a role which eventually comes to haunt him, did not make me feel sympathetic to him. Really, at no point in this book did I see anything to justify Daniel's resentment of Lacey.
Although I did not see Lacey as I think the author meant me to, I still very much enjoyed this book and the very detailed look into the art world. Martin's writing is excellent as always. However, the story lacked the poignancy of The Shopgirl, in part because of its main focus on art and partly because there really was no connection with the characters. Some of the minor characters were interesting, especially the collectors, but neither Lacey nor Daniel had much depth. If I had not been interested in the art aspects, I probably would not have liked this novel. This work is not for everyone, I could see many being bored; if they aren't interested in art, they won't like this book. It seemed as if Martin wanted to write about the art world that he loves and the characters were just something to tell the story around.
I think my review makes it sound as if I liked the book less than I did. But I didn't, it just wasn't the book it was made out to be.
my rating 4/5 show less
We follow Lacey from her entry-level job at Sotheby's to a high end gallery on the Upper East Side, to Chelsea, where Lacey opens her own gallery.
Martin takes us deep into the art world, to the behind the scenes look at auction houses, to the houses of collectors, even to international dealings. We learn about expensive European art, the Picasos, the Van Goghs to the modern pop art of Andy Warhol and a new movement. Martin also takes us through the financial ups and downs of the art world as it shifts from show more conservative to modern art, survives 9/11 and the stock market crash of 2008. We follow Lacey's life as it parallels to this world.
Lacey and Daniel became friends in college and both end up in Manhattan, Lacey as a dealer, Daniel as a writer of art. Lacey is young, smart, ambitious, slightly manipulative, and beautiful.
Her walk-on role at Sotheby's stood in contrast to her starring role in the East Village bars and cafes. After her practiced and perfected subway ride home, which was timed like a ballet-her foot forward, the subway car opening just in time to catch her-she knew the bar lights were coming on, voices were raised, music edging out onto the sidewalks. She felt like the one bright light, the spot-lit girl scattering fairy dust...
Though I really enjoyed this book, I can't say I had a lot of love for the characters. Daniel is pretty boring. But I did not find Lacey as evil as I think the author intended her to be portrayed. Yes, she is ambitious but I'm sure no more than any up and coming art dealer that wants to make a name for themselves. Lacey has a relationship with a wealthy French art dealer who is madly in love with her, though Lacey does not return his affection to that degree. But she doesn't use him for anything other than sex and fun nor does she make him any promises. But somehow I felt that this relationship was supposed to epitomize Lacey's amorality, which I just did not see.
Near the beginning of the book, we learn that Lacey has come into a significant amount of money, but we are not told how. This event is alluded to throughout the book until we finally learn how that came about. This was another time that I think was supposed make me dislike Lacey, but it was rather a let down after the long build up. I won't spoil it, but it was not the crime of the century. The fact that Daniel played a role which eventually comes to haunt him, did not make me feel sympathetic to him. Really, at no point in this book did I see anything to justify Daniel's resentment of Lacey.
Although I did not see Lacey as I think the author meant me to, I still very much enjoyed this book and the very detailed look into the art world. Martin's writing is excellent as always. However, the story lacked the poignancy of The Shopgirl, in part because of its main focus on art and partly because there really was no connection with the characters. Some of the minor characters were interesting, especially the collectors, but neither Lacey nor Daniel had much depth. If I had not been interested in the art aspects, I probably would not have liked this novel. This work is not for everyone, I could see many being bored; if they aren't interested in art, they won't like this book. It seemed as if Martin wanted to write about the art world that he loves and the characters were just something to tell the story around.
I think my review makes it sound as if I liked the book less than I did. But I didn't, it just wasn't the book it was made out to be.
my rating 4/5 show less
I was a huge fan of Steve Martin's previous novel, Shopgirl (and the movie it inspired) so when I found a proof copy of his latest book, An Object Of Beauty, in the local charity shop, I was happy to plunk down my two quid for Help The Aged.
This novel is a harder sell than its predecessor though, largely because it's central protagonist, Lacey Yeager, is much less likable than the heroine of Shopgirl. Lacey is a mover and shaker on the New York art scene: a flirty, flighty, at times duplicitous, deceptively shallow creature who shimmies up the slippery pole, playing the game by her own rules and doing whatever it takes to get to the top. She's the sort of woman I'd hate unconditionally if I ever met her in person, so it's to Martin's show more credit that I was drawn into her story - and the insane world she inhabits. I don't have a great deal of interest in art history - particularly not modern art. I'm happy to look at it in a gallery or museum but I rarely care about the men and women behind the canvases. Martin's skill is to make artists, gallery owners and collectors as fascinating as the artwork they obsess over...
Read the full review show less
This novel is a harder sell than its predecessor though, largely because it's central protagonist, Lacey Yeager, is much less likable than the heroine of Shopgirl. Lacey is a mover and shaker on the New York art scene: a flirty, flighty, at times duplicitous, deceptively shallow creature who shimmies up the slippery pole, playing the game by her own rules and doing whatever it takes to get to the top. She's the sort of woman I'd hate unconditionally if I ever met her in person, so it's to Martin's show more credit that I was drawn into her story - and the insane world she inhabits. I don't have a great deal of interest in art history - particularly not modern art. I'm happy to look at it in a gallery or museum but I rarely care about the men and women behind the canvases. Martin's skill is to make artists, gallery owners and collectors as fascinating as the artwork they obsess over...
Read the full review show less
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ThingScore 58
"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.
added by atbradley
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.
added by WeeklyAlibi
“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 show more 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? . . . show less
One aspect of this novel’s show more 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? . . . show less
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Author Information
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Steve Martin was born on August 14, 1945 in Waco, Texas. He studied at Long Beach State College. He has acted in such films as The Jerk; Roxanne; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Bowfinger; Father of the Bride; Cheaper by the Dozen; and Shopgirl, which was adapted from a novel he wrote. He has won an Emmy for his comedy writing and Grammies for his show more comedy albums. He has made several appearances on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live. He has written several books including Shopgirl, Cruel Shoes, Pure Drivel, The Pleasure of My Company, and An Object of Beauty. He also wrote a play entitled Picasso at the Lapin Agile and a memoir entitled Born Standing Up. During the 1990s, he wrote various pieces for The New Yorker. In 2002, he adapted the Carl Sternheim play The Underpants, which ran Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company and in 2008, co-wrote and produced Traitor. In 2013 he published a memoir entitled Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. This book tells the story of his beginnings as a magician and comedian at a young age and follows through his career lifetime. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Work Relationships
Is abridged in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- An Object of Beauty
- Original publication date
- 2010-11-23
- People/Characters
- Lacey Yeager; Daniel Franks; Patrice Claire; Barton Talley; Jonah Marsh
- Important places
- Sotheby's (New York, New York, USA); Chelsea, New York, New York, USA; The Carlyle (New York, New York, USA); St. Petersburg, Russia; Manhattan, New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- September 11 Attacks
- First words
- I am tired, so very tired of thinking about Lacey Yeager, yet I worry that unless I write her story down, and see it bound and tidy on my bookshelf, I will be unable to ever write about anything else.
- Quotations
- "I think Lacey is the kind of person who will always be okay."
When she was alone, she was potential; with others she was realized. Alone she was self-contained, her tightly spinning magnetic energy oscillating around her. When in company, she had invisible tethers to everyone in the roo... (show all)m: as they moved away, she pulled them in.
Was every transgression capable of being so well hid? It suggested that one could connect the dots between any two people in any room and perhaps stumble onto an unknown relationship.
"Do you know we tape all our auctions?"
When Lacey began these computations, her toe crossed ground from which it is difficult to return: she started converting objects of beauty into objects of value. - Blurbers
- Oates, Joyce Carol
Classifications
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- Members
- 1,910
- Popularity
- 11,120
- Reviews
- 96
- Rating
- (3.49)
- Languages
- English, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 22
- ASINs
- 16