The Art Fair

if you grew up in this country in the last few decades of the century, this story will take you back again...beginning in the 60's with a woman who frees herself from a conventional marriage that cannot meet her deepest needs...the author tells it brilliantly and all too insightlyfully as he takes on his mother's success, failure, happiness as if his well being is tightly wound up with hers. its a coming of age story for both the boy and his mother, one that we can relate to, its a charm.

When Richard Freeley's parents get divorced, Richard stays with his mother, a New York artist. Though still just an adolescent, Richard takes it upon himself to help steer his mom through the viperish New York art scene. Lipsky is a smart, engaging writer whose prose is always a pleasure to read. He does a great job evoking Richard's often tortured relationship with his mother, and his portrayal of the New York art world is dead on and hilarious. Definitely worth checking out.

I really loved this book! I thought it was funny and touching, something that is kind of rare in most books. The author really has a beautiful way of describing things and the setting in the art world of New York City was very interesting (especially for someone like me who lives in the Midwest!) I heard about this book through a friend of mine who read it in her book club, and I now we're reading it in my book club. I highly recommend it.

A friend handed me this book before I walked on an airplane, and I actually stayed in my seat after the plane landed because I didn't want to stop reading. It's supposed to be about the NYC art world. But it's really about mothers and sons, parents and children, all the goodness and mess of families. It was funny and scary and had the feeling of something that actually happened. It's the best first novel I've read in a long time. I kept marking parts I wanted to read parts of to friends and my own mom. It reminded me of About A Boy and Bridget Jones's Diary. It's the kind of book where you say, "See? I wasn't the only one who felt that stuff."

To my recollection, there is only one literary novel scenario that has generated more examples of writers failing miserably than that of the urban hipster scene, and that is the concept of the mother/son relationship. Lipsky not only doesn't screw up either but also brilliantly juxtaposes the both. The story isn't really jampacked with event- Richard floats from father's home to mother's home, from art show to art show, from love to somewhere around the perimeter- but, it is packed with emotion and brilliantly nuanced prose, its wisdom dawning slowly but surely, for this is the way it occurs for our narrator as well. My own read on what that wisdom is exactly: that the ties between art and fame and celebrity and respect are strikingly similar to the ties that exist between the love and sense of respect and sense of duty that exist between parent and child. The reader shares Richard's own startled sense of wonder, at how these ties- ever tightening to the point of almost fraying at times, resembling more of a noose than a bond at other times- can still somehow survive. Remarkably poignant, without ever becoming the least bit schlocky. If you still think your mom is the coolest despite her weirdness, then by all means, read this