Maso is not content to muse on the relationship between life and art; she brings to life a ‘bombardment of images and sounds,’ fashioning a pattern of astonishing complexity and beauty. The tough-mindedness, originality and wit of her perceptions are intoxicating.
Experimental writer par excellence, Carole Maso is the author of several novels, beginning with her acclaimed debut novel Ghost Dance, as well as many nonfiction books, Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, and Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo, among them. Ms. Maso has received many awards, including a Lannan Literary Fellowship for fiction. She is a Professor of English at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
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 father—ostensibly 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.
Maso is not content to muse on the relationship between life and art; she brings to life a ‘bombardment of images and sounds,’ fashioning a pattern of astonishing complexity and beauty. The tough-mindedness, originality and wit of her perceptions are intoxicating.
