Sirens & Muses
Ratings23
Average rating4.2
Art. Emotion. Academia. Longing. My GOODNESS what a beautiful debut. Angress, you have successfully caught me in your story-telling world. Just beautiful.
Literary fiction with a dash of academia and sapphicness, it follows Karina, Louisa and Preston, art students in a prestigious art school and Robert a has-been artist. The four point of views shows as they evolve into the dark and twisted world of art in 2011 America with recession and Occupy Wall Street as the backdrop. This novel did a great job showing how artists think and work on their art, the complexity of the art world in all of its facets with its different actors from artists to gallerists, collectors to activists.
The writing was lush and evocative, with some really melancholic and sensual passages and most the plot kept me interested. Other themes were also explored like the influence of money in the art industry, the difficulties of establishing a career in art, art as a political tool, the hypocrisy of activism, the newly found prevalence of Internet in relation to art.
Regarding the main characters, I really liked reading about Karina and Louisa especially the push and pull of their relationship, each with their own flaws and strengths. I particularly love seeing the yearning beneath Karina, the confidence inside of Louisa.
I wasn't a fan of several plot points, founding some resolved too quickly while others could have been explored more and I truly didn't care about Preston and his arc to be honest. Regarding Robert's arc, I largely preferred his story during the second part of the book but wished it was given more attention.
Overall this novel showed a very good exploration of the work of artists and commerce of art.
Exploration on the (im)possibility of entirely scrubbing yourself from embryonic desire.
Intriguing characterizations and philosophical musings on being an artist, the art world, and capitalism, with a lackluster ending.
Grateful that Angress's writing style is so effectively evocative–the book tackles visual art in a written medium and somehow I have clear mental images of all the characters' different art styles. Also awesome that the author studied at the U of M, which I found out after I checked it out from the library!