Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
Lacey Yeager is an ambitious young art dealer who uses everything at her disposal to advance in the world of the high-end art trade in New York City. After cutting her teeth at Sotheby's, she manipulates her way up through Barton Talley's gallery of "Very Expensive Paintings," sleeping with patrons, and dodging and indulging in questionable deals, possible felonies, and general skeeviness until she opens her own gallery in Chelsea. Narrated by Lacey's journalist friend, Daniel Franks, whose droll voice is a remarkable stand-in for Martin's own, the world is ordered and knowable, blindly barreling onward until 9/11. And while Lacey and the art she peddles survive, the wealth and prestige garnered by greed do not. Martin (an art collector himself) is an astute miniaturist as he exposes the sound and fury of the rarified Manhattan art world.
Read this based on recommendation of my bookclub at work. While I enjoyed the concept of the book I didn't particularly enjoy reading it. I found the characters very unlikeable and the story difficult to follow. It was strange how it was written in first person but not by the person the book was about. I had read Shopgirl years ago so was interested in seeing how these compared. Yawn....
Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang dedicated themselves to making great art. But when an artist’s work lies in subverting normality, it can be difficult to raise well-adjusted children. Just ask Buster and Annie Fang. For as long as they can remember, they starred (unwillingly) in their parents’ madcap pieces. But now that they are grown up, the chaos of their childhood has made it difficult to cope with life outside the fishbowl of their parents’ strange world.
When the lives they’ve built come crashing down, brother and sister have nowhere to go but home, where they discover that Caleb and Camille are planning one last performance–their magnum opus–whether the kids agree to participate or not. Soon, ambition breeds conflict, bringing the Fangs to face the difficult decision about what’s ultimately more important: their family or their art.
I chose this book for my bookmongers group as it sounded intriguing from the reviews I had read. I'm kind of torn as I liked it but it was difficult to read. The story jumps from teh past which chapters include "works of art" featuring Child A & B and/or the parents. Then it would be to the current time where we see how Child A (Annie) and Child B (Buster) have turned out. Sadly both are more messed up than they were as children. I think that was the most difficult part seeing how they both struggled with dealing with their emotions and lives. It got worse as they both went home to live with their parents and how things really hadn't changed. You always hear that saying "some people shouldn't have children" and the parents were a complete image of it. I liked it and it sticks with me but it was painful at the same time.
