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The Great Man

Kate Christensen

Paperback | Pages: 320 pages

Rating: 3.5 | 2404 Users | 483 Reviews

Details Epithetical Books The Great Man

Title	:	The Great Man
Author	:	Kate Christensen
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 320 pages
Published	:	May 13th 2008 by Anchor (first published 2007)
Categories	:	Fiction. Art. Contemporary. Novels

Commentary In Pursuance Of Books The Great Man

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

Oscar Feldman, the renowned figurative painter, has passed away. As his obituary notes, Oscar is survived by his wife, Abigail, their son, Ethan, and his sister, the well-known abstract painter Maxine Feldman. What the obituary does not note, however, is that Oscar is also survived by his longtime mistress, Teddy St. Cloud, and their daughters.

As two biographers interview the women in an attempt to set the record straight, the open secret of his affair reaches a boiling point and a devastating skeleton threatens to come to light. From the acclaimed author of The Epicure's Lament, a scintillating novel of secrets, love, and legacy in the New York art world.

Describe Books Toward The Great Man

Original Title:	The Great Man
ISBN:	0307277348 (ISBN13: 9780307277343)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (2008), LovelyBooks Leserpreis Nominee for Allgemeine Literatur (2009)

Rating Epithetical Books The Great Man

Ratings: 3.5 From 2404 Users | 483 Reviews

Commentary Epithetical Books The Great Man

I picked this book up in an airport bookstore as it had an award and I thought it might be a good plane read. While I finished it in two flights, I can't say that was fast enough. The story is about an artist, after his death, and the women who surround him; his wife (and their grown autistic son), his sister (also an artist), and his mistress (and their twin daughters). It's a "discussable" book in the sense that I'm sure some people would love how the characters are portrayed and there are

an author for whom i used to work at random house, kate christensen is the ultimate find -- wildly intelligent, hilarious, and socially observant to the pt of idiot savance. today's rave NY TIMES review is 100% justified. read it NOW. the most convincing and poignant portrayal of love in later life (and the thoughts women have of their prior loves) that i have ever read.

Fascinating storytelling: the eponymous "Great Man" is dead before the story begins, and so the narration describes him through the interactions of four principle women in his life, plus a few ancillary characters (including a couple of wimpy men.) In a sense, the book follows the dissolution of bad feeling created by the Great Man's narcissism, and the recovery, by these four strong-minded women, of sanity and forgiveness. Really well told.

My first experience with Kate Christensen and her work was simply magical. Her mellow prose and smooth flow of narration was skillfully marred with sharp but true sarcasm, the story felt like real life brimming with intellectual yet spicy richness, very much beyond the usual fun things I tend to read. I rarely pick up heavy and difficult books, sometimes it's nice to pick up a fun story that's an equivalent of junk food, but with Christensen you get all the hot, sizzling action, you read about

Ultimately, this was a good read. The characters were developed well and the reader could piece them together from different angles. The premise of the story was interesting -- two biographers were mining the past to reconstruct the story and psyche of the "the great man", Oscar, a painter whose only subjects were female nudes. Everything gets interesting because three women each factor into the telling -- Oscar's sister, Maxine (a painter herself), Abigail, Oscar's wife, and "Teddy", Oscar's

I can't believe this won the PEN/Faulkner. Yes, it's great to read a novel about smart, interesting women. Yes, it does my heart good to see those older women portrayed as alluring people who still have sex.BUT THE SENTENCES. The sentences! Christensen can't write a clean sentence to save her life! Just to open a page at random: "Teddy had had Oscar, Lila Sam, but Lila had had son, Teddy daughters; Teddy had had independence, Lila security." And the way her characters' diction veers all over the