The Truth about Lorin Jones

Product Description Polly Alter is 39, a failed artist whose marriage has collapsed but who has just been commissioned to write the biography of a brilliant but obscure artist, Lorin Jones. Alter becomes obsessed with finding the truth about Lorin Jones, and when she does, she is exposed to truths about herself, as well. From Publishers Weekly According to PW , this is both a comic send-up of radical feminists and an exploration of the relationship between an artist's life and her art. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal As chronicler of the life and work of brilliant artist Lorin Jones, Polly Altermuseum curator and would-be painterat first has it all figured out. Lorin, left to die alone in Key West, was done in by the white, male art establishment. But as Polly's interviewing progresses, Lorin comes down from her pedestal, and her "villains" emerge as likeable persons; at the same time, some of the truths about Polly's life are shattered or realigned. In her eighth novel, Lurie explores a trick of the human mindhow people and events are not always as they seem at first takeby smoothly interspersing straight narrative with cleverly constructed one-sided interviews. For all her skill, however, the novel bogs down in the middle with too much of a good thing, and the ending, although surprising, is a disappointment. Lurie fans will want to read this anyway. Michelle Lodge, New York CityCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.