Vanitas - Softcover

Joseph Olshan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747536384 ISBN 13: 9780747536383

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 1998

Synopsis

The pursuit of Eros, the yearning for intimacy, and the struggle to reconcile bisexuality with a longing for children -- these are the desires etched in the hearts of the characters of this brave and probing novel by the award-winning author of Clara's Heart and Nightswimmer.
The moment that Sam Solomon, the protagonist of Vanitas, is transfixed by an erotic drawing that hangs in the apartment of a dying art dealer, Elliot Garland, he finds himself caught in an under-tow of confusion and longing. Garland, stricken with AIDS, has hired Sam to write his memoirs and yet manages to withhold crucial information about his life. Sam suspects, however, that the drawing, called Vanitas, is the relic of a dramatic, and secret, history that could provide answers to the questions his subject has refused to address.
Vanitas explores the intersections between the disparate worlds of art and art restoration, publishing, and urban relationships, all of which are in the grip of an implacable epidemic. As Sam traverses the landscapes of disease, romance, and mystery, he is enveloped by a culture in which individuals make tenuous connections with one another as land mines explode all around them. And as he negotiates the hazards of the volatile allegiances and jealousies attendant to his own romantic entanglements, he finds himself face to face with a familiar existential dilemma -- the desire to raise a child despite society's condemnation of nontraditional families.
A brilliantly written story of the lonely, painful search for happiness in unconventional choices, Vanitas is a rare novel -- a daring orchestration of event and character that is a bold, hopeful, and accomplished piece of literature.

About this title

Review

In Joseph Olshan's Vanitas (the title refers to a conceit in Dutch art in which the painter would include a memento mori--Latin for "be mindful of dying"--in the midst of vibrant life scenes), the specter of AIDS is an unspoken, and often unacknowledged, motivator for protagonist Sam Solomon. While interviewing world-famed, but now very ill, art collector Elliot Garland in order to ghostwrite his autobiography, Solomon sees a stunning, highly sexual drawing of a near-naked young man on a bed cradling a skull. The picture startles Sam and sets him off on a journey--not only to discover the artist and subject, but into his own life to resolve his conflicting emotional needs: to find what he considers the security of heterosexual family life and yet pursue emotional and sexual relationships with men.

As in his popular, award-winning novels Clara's Heart and Nightswimmer, Olshan understands here how sadness, fear, and even death are the most common shapers of important emotional and erotic experiences. Vanitas is filled with hope and love, but avers that these life-affirming emotions are only achieved after facing the deepest horrors, fears, and terrors of living in the world. --Michael Bronski

From the Publisher

The moment Sam Solomon casts his eyes on a stunning erotic drawing that hangs in the apartment of a dying art dealer, he finds himself caught in a tide of confusion and longing. Sam suspects that the drawing, called ŗVanitas,˛ has a dramatic story behind it, one that might answer questions that the art dealer has refused to address: the story of a once tragic love affair, the fate of the artist who created the drawing, and the events surrounding a falsely authenticated 19th-century French painting that nearly destroyed the art dealeršs career. Joseph Olshan is the author of Nightswimmer, The Sound of Heaven, The Waterline, A Warmer Season, and Clarašs Heart, which was made into a major film. He lives in New York and Vermont.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0747536384
• ISBN 13: 9780747536383
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240