In 1985, a rising young artist, Anita de Monte, died under mysterious circumstances. Anita was married to famed artist (and womanizer) Jack Martin, but as her raw talent started gaining notoriety, it provoked Jack’s envy and his anger. While Anita’s death proved to be a scandal, the buzz was short-lived, and it wasn’t long before Anita’s talent was forgotten and Jack's career continued to flourish.
In 1998, Raquel Toro is an art history student at Brown University. Being one of only a few minority students, she felt ostracized, like she needed to work three times as hard to get the breaks her fellow students got. When she starts a relationship with Nick, an older, wealthy art student, she does reap the advantages—but at the expense of her pride, her independence, and her self-respect.
She plans to write her final thesis about Jack Martin, but while interning at a museum over the summer, she is introduced to the life and work of Anita de Monte. She realizes this artist, her talent as well as her tragic end and the influences she had over those in her cycle, is the real story that needs to be told.
The parallel narrative is an interesting one, shifting back and forth through Anita’s short career and her death, alternating with Raquel’s struggles and her discovery of Anita’s work. It’s fascinating and sad how both women felt the need to compromise themselves in order to make the men in their lives happy, and how their minority status often made them “exotic.”
While the pacing felt a little slow at times, I really liked this book. I’d imagine the struggles Anita and Raquel dealt with were very realistic, not just within the art world.
No comments:
Post a Comment