An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

This is a hard book to blog about. It was pretty intense and thought-provoking, even though on the surface it was an easy read about the "art world" in New York City. It deals with "beautiful objects," including the main character, Lacey Yeager. She is a young woman who takes a job at Sotheby's and learns the business of art.

Lacey is confident and takes risks to get ahead and does succeed and eventually opens her own gallery in Chelsea. Unfortuntately, her gallery opening is slated to occur in Sept 2001; her opening is not the one she expected.

Lacey knows how to make connections, often using her attractiveness and sexual prowess to gain acceptance. And she succeeds, to a point. This is a novel worth reading, especially for those who contemplate art, the art world and its politics.

My New American Life by Francine Prose

This is Francine Prose's newest novel so, of course, I had to put in on hold at the library. The story follows the "adventures" of Lula, a young Albanian working as a nanny for a Wall Street executive. His wife has left him and his son and Mr. Stanley (the employer) needs somone to look after Zeke, who is a high school senior. Stanley is friendly with Mr. Don, a high powered lawyer, who can get Lula her green card.
Lula, bored with life in the suburbs, becomes entranced by Alvo, an Albanian criminal who comes to the house with his two friends. She hides a gun for them and pines for Alvo to come back and take her out, which he eventually does.
Mr. Stanley's wife turns out to be more insane that we are aware of, Zeke is quite disillusioned and morose and Lula editorializes about life in America. This was an interesting read, but not nearly as good as "Goldengrove" or "A Changed Man."

  Prose seeks to show America through the fresh eyes of an outsider with a deeply ingrained, comic pessimism born of life under dictatorship, yet also capable of exuberant optimism, and the results, like Lula, are agreeable enough but not terribly profound. (