Synopsis
Monica Szabo, a divorced 50-ish painter, finds a model and sexual partner in a wealthy art collector who also supports her. She paints a sexually suggestive series of portraits based on Renaissance paintings of Jesus and becomes embroiled in a controversy with Catholic fundamentalists. She also becomes fabulously rich and successful. A New York Times Notable Book for 1998.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-05-01 | | Series: | Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series | | Edition Description: | Large Print |
| Size | | Length: | 531 pages | | Height: | 8.8 in | | Width: | 6.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 23.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
An erotic and highly intelligent new novel about women, art, sex, and money by the acclaimed author of "Final Payments". When a middle-aged, moderately successful painter becomes the lover of a wealthy commodities broker who volunteers to be her muse--and then the man subsequently loses his fortune--the tale of their trek back to power makes for a witty and provocative tale.
Industry Reviews
"Mary Gordon is an honest and perceptive writer. She shows these virtues in her dealings with the reader, but then she turns them into vices. She seems unwilling to take a short route to any conclusion....This endows her narrative with calmness, realism and grace. It takes away, though, the conflict and drive that should power it....There is no interest, and ultimately no life, in a narrator who--as artist, feminist, lover--is born to win."
New York Times Book Review - Hilary Mantel (03/08/1998)
"'Spending' is a fantasy, a fairy tale about the gratification of desire; it's full of descriptions of beautiful clothes..., luxurious settings and lavish meals, not to mention inventive sex. All of this produces a bit of literary indigestion....Luckily, Gordon writes so well that irritation is smoothed out by enjoyment of her creamy, witty prose."
Radner
"'Spending' falls into an even more shameful literary category than the dirty magazine subgenre: the Harlequin romance....Ostensibly, there's a More Serious Subject being explored here than the orgasmic stamina of the peri-menopausal woman, and that is the plight of the woman artist....But because 'Spending' is, at heart, a prolonged sexual fantasy in the form of a female Künstlerroman, Monica's angst over the twin demands of love and work never seems truly serious....We might begrudge Monica all this...good fortune if she weren't so funny."
New Republic - Maureen Corrigan (03/02/1998)
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