Thank You to Netgalley and Penguin UK for allowing me to review this book
Well written about the art scene in New York, not really my genre but it was an enjoyable read. ( )

Thank You to Netgalley and Penguin UK for allowing me to review this book
Well written about the art scene in New York, not really my genre but it was an enjoyable read. ( )

Set in the arts community of New York City in 1980, this book weaves together the events in the lives of three characters. James Bennett is an art critic who was treated as an outcast in his youth. Raul Engales is an orphaned immigrant artist whose sister still resides in Argentina. Lucy Olliason has just moved to the big city from her small town to get away from her parents and seek her own path. They are tied together by their love of art and a desire to escape the past.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked the character-driven storyline, but it gets a little predictable and melodramatic when a love triangle develops. I generally enjoy books that feature art, but the connection between art and the artist is missing here. Art, though purportedly central to their lives, seems more like a plot device, as does the child who appears toward the end.
( )

“He loved the flaws; they were invariably the most interesting parts of people's faces and bodies, the parts that held the straightest lines, the most beautiful shadows".
― Molly Prentiss, Tuesday Nights in 1980

This book was gritty and dark and complex and touching and yet for some reason I could not get involved with it. I really don’t know why and usually with books that I am not drawn into there is a solid reason.

I think in the case of this book ,I have read lately, a lot of books on friends and cliques with many inter weaving stories so it’s possible that I am just burned out on the subject.

I also do not know much about art and I think the the more you know, the more interested in the story one might be.

What I did like very much was the depiction of life in New York City in the Eighties. I am a child of that time period so nothing makes me happier than reading books about it.

I would not call this by any means a bad book and I think most people would enjoy it but it wasn’t the right book for me at that time ( )

I really wanted to like this book, but in the end, the writing was just too pretentious and I kept getting distracted by other, more accessible novels. A good premise - the interweaving lives of four (I can't even remember and I just finished skimming through the final chapters) characters in New York in 1980 - and I liked Lucy and thought all of the characters were interesting enough, but no. A whole month to read 300 pages is a bad sign. ( )