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Published Oct 2010
384 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
When the wife of renowned art critic Daniel Lichtmann plunges to her death, she is not alone. Lying next to her is her suspected lover, Benjamin Wind, the very artist Daniel most championed. Tormented by questions about the circumstances of their deaths, Daniel dedicates himself to uncovering the secrets of their relationship and the inspiration behind Wind's dazzling final exhibition.
What Daniel discovers is a web of mysteries leading back to pre-World War II Vienna and the magnificent life of Josef Pick, a forgotten artist who may have been the twentieth century's greatest painter of love. But the most astonishing discovery is what connects these two artists across half a century: a remarkable woman whose response to the tragedy of her generation offers Daniel answers to the questions he never knew to ask.
Ambitious, haunting, and stunningly written, The Marriage Artist tells a universal tale of a family dramatically reshaped by the quest for personal freedom in the face of inherited beliefs, public prejudices, and the unfathomable turns of history. It is at once a provocative snapshot of contemporary marriage, the recovery of a passion that history never recorded, and a fierce reminder of the way we enlist love in our perpetual search for meaning and permanence.
"Starred Review. [S]tructural flaws do not diminish the audacity and beauty of this elaborate psycho-political-sexual puzzle, with its hard truths, startling visions, and eerie insights into the mystical and memorializing powers of art, and that endless hunger we call love." - Booklist
"Starred Review. A tour de force of provocative ideas - about art, love, Jewish identity, survivor's guilt, the fluidity of time and so much else - expressed through emotionally riveting characters." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Though questions remain unanswered, Winer packs the story with intriguing ideas and metaphors so movingly articulated that it's easy to forgive him for sometimes forgetting to plug a few holes in his audacious plot." - Publishers Weekly
"The story is intimately crafted, with minute dissections of events in the characters' lives." - Library Journal
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Andrew Winer is the author of The Color Midnight Made. Formerly an artist who wrote art criticism, he teaches at the University of California, Riverside, where he has directed the MFA program in creative writing. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and is married to the writer Charmaine Craig, with whom he has two daughters.
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