The narrator ofΒ Optic NerveΒ 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 Michelangeloβs bodies. The mystery of Rothkoβs 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 narratorβs husband receives chemotherapy. Alfred de Dreux visits GΓ©ricaultβs workshop; Gustave Courbetβs devilish seascapes incite viewers βto have sex, or to eat an appleβ; Picasso organizes a cruel banquet in Rousseauβs honor . . . All of these fascinating episodes in art history interact with the narratorβs life in Buenos Airesβher 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,Β Optic NerveΒ marks the English-language debut of a major Argentinian writer. It is a book that captures, like no other, the mysterious connections between a work of art and the person who perceives it.



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