Welcome to Litsy!

#12Booksof2024

I read a lot in December due to time off work. Most of my favorites I‘ve already posted about for challenges. I want to highlight this title because I love Kunzru as an author. It didn‘t delve into the fantastical like others from him but it‘s still a crazy story. I appreciated Kunzru‘s intelligence and questioning of reality-why we value what we value. In large part, it‘s about art; what isn‘t art; how society commodifies art.

My second to last #10BeforetheEnd book. I think I might make it!

This was an interesting look at art, capitalism, privilege, racism, etc. A lot of big ideas but Kunzru pulls it off, IMO. Jay was a performance artist who disappeared at the height of his career. Now, delivering groceries during the Covid pandemic, he encounters former friends from his art school days. We flash back to their friendship and then catch up to their uneasy present.

@ShyBookOwl Here‘s the “geode” simile done better!

Set in the midst of the pandemic,Jay,a once promising artist,now in his 40s&homeless runs into his first love,Alice&is confronted with the life&people he left behind.I gave this novel a pick bc I was intrigued but I feel it‘s more a so-so since the story& writing don‘t always work for me: overdone,pompous. BUT there‘s real depth, too. And the concept of life as art, some sort of modern philosophical Odyssey journey kept me engaged.The ending - hm.

I invite you to check out my latest video in which I talk about: Whales, Seals, Forest fires, Gardens & Books: Poetry; Comics; Art; Disability; and Indigeneity

https://youtu.be/YqW3myj5GDM

Thought provoking, a fantastic Covid novel and one that in flashbacks captured the Y2K London art scene in what feels like a ketamine dream. I‘ve read one other novel by this author and I will seek out more.

I read an ARC of this novel from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A smart book about the art world that makes you contemplate what part of an artist's life is performance and the strangeness of our society. I got a little pandemic ptsd due to the covid scenes, but there were some really interesting moments and in the end I liked this book.