María Gainza
Hardcover | Pages: 208 pages Rating: 3.92 | 1890 Users | 353 Reviews
Present Based On Books Optic Nerve
| Title | : | Optic Nerve |
| Author | : | María Gainza |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 208 pages |
| Published | : | April 9th 2019 by Catapult (first published June 26th 2014) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Art. Short Stories |
Description To Books Optic Nerve
The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art. The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her. Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her.In these pages, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo’s bodies. The mystery of Rothko's refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator's husband receives chemotherapy. Alfred de Dreux visits Géricault's workshop; Gustave Courbet's devilish seascapes incite viewers “to have sex, or to eat an apple”; Picasso organizes a cruel banquet in Rousseau’s honor. . . . All of these fascinating episodes in art history interact with the narrator's life in Buenos Aires—her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies.
Seductive and capricious, Optic Nerve is a book that captures, like no other, the mysterious connections between a work of art and the person who perceives it.
Identify Books In Pursuance Of Optic Nerve
| Original Title: | El nervio óptico |
| ISBN: | 1948226162 (ISBN13: 9781948226165) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Based On Books Optic Nerve
Ratings: 3.92 From 1890 Users | 353 ReviewsCriticize Based On Books Optic Nerve
This book is a marvel! So happy that it was selected for the Tournament of Books; otherwise I'd have missed out on it. There's no linear plot in this novel at all. It's more akin to ruminations by the narrator on various events in her life and on paintings and artists that have meant something to her. But I was blown away by the narrator's depth of feeling and perceptiveness about life and art, her family and humanity. The novel requires an internet window at hand to research the artists andIs it a novel? Or maybe short stories? Auto-fiction? Personal essays? At the end of Optic Nerve, I still wasnt sure what exactly it was Id read, but it didnt make it any less engraving. For want of a more accurate descriptor, this book is a meditative tour through a series of artworks, both well-known and not so. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this alongside my exploration of the referenced art online. Im not always especially moved by visual art, but the way that Gainza located
This is a bit unusual, but successful piece of auto-fiction from Argentina. The author is the art critic. The book blends the reflections of her alter-ego's personal life with the fragments about the artists and paintings. I found her perception of art fascinating, really thrilling sometimes. Her knowledge seems to be boundless and she brings the artists alive in a very economic, but self-sufficient fragments which are never trivial. I liked it especially when she talked about the Argentinian
From the first page, I was immediately and intensely endeared to the narrator of Optic Nerve. I would follow this narrator on any reading journey, wherever she would lead me, because the places she leads me, sentence by sentence and chapter by chapter, are unexpected, wonderful, startling, and humane.The chapters hang together loosely. There is no plot to speak of. And yet the pieces and digressions come together again and again to become something whole and true. The novel situates you in the
★★★★✰ 3.5 starsI am a woman hovering at the midpoint of life, but I still havent lost my touch completely: it is within my power, for instance, to flit from the Schiavoni painting in the National Museum of Fine Arts to the Miguel Carlos Victorica they hold in the Sívori Gallery. In other words, to make the shift from childhood to old age in an instant. A series of interesting vignettes that juxtapose the lives of famed and lesser-known artists to the experiences of the people in our narrator's
The most interesting and engaging portions of this collection are focused on discussions of particular artists, the works they created, and the lives they lived. Following in close second place are tales of the colorful, kooky famiy members and friends of the author. All combined these make up quite a cast of characters and I enjoyed learning about them.Sadly, I was not so interested in Maria Gainza herself. Although the book appears to be an invitation to peer deeper into what makes her tick,
This book was barely a novel, more of a set of essays about how art can influence our lives. In each chapter, the author tells a bit about the life of our narrator, a middle-aged woman living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We do learn a bit about her--her marriage, her friends, her connection to art. It is far from linear and much more episodic.That being said, the writing and translation are very good. Lacking a strong narrative drive, the information into events in artists' lives and how they
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