The Love-Artist

This remarkable novel - literary, erotic, and entirely engaging - imagines the period of Ovid's life between the publication of the Metamorphoses and his being sent into exile. It centers on his love affair with Xenia, which is entirely Alison's creation - but what a creation it is! Xenia, whose name means The Foreign One, is discovered by Ovid as he vacations on the Black Sea (to which he will later be exiled). In his eyes, she is magical and alluring: a nature nymph. And through his eyes we see her shifting shape in ways that are both realistic and yet evocative of the transformations in The Metamorphoses. So we see her, and we see him seeing her. Other portions of the novel are told from her point of view, and through her we see the world as a shamaness sees it, the present scene often layered over with what is to come. It is an altogether marvelous performance, and even more remarkable because it has two distinct and intertwined sources of appeal: our interest in the characters and their love-story, and also to the rich evocation of myth. You wouldn't have to know about myths to enjoy this novel; but the more you know, the more deeply appealing it becomes. It's an unforgettable read.

This book was recommended in a Maureen Dowd column, so I thought I'd give it a go.... I was a classics major a thousand years ago, and this novel reawakened what I love about the Latin lyric and love elegists. But forget that, the fact that Ms. Alison was able to write English prose in the SAME STYLE as these great poets is not merely an impression. It is wordplay genius. Bene bene factum.

I loved David Malouf's, "An Imaginary Life" so I was sure I would love "The Love Artist" as well. I was not wrong; I do. While "An Imaginary Life" tells the story of the Roman poet Ovid's life after his exile, "The Love Artist" tells us about what led up to that exile. These details are all imagined, of course, but this book is so well-written and so enjoyable, one can't help but wish it were all true."The Love Artist" is told in a frame. It opens with Ovid's arrest and exile, then flashes back to tell the story of the events leading up to that arrest and exile, until the Epilogue, set, once again, at the time of his arrest.At the time of his arrest, Ovid is Rome's most fashionable and famous poet and he has just finished Metamorphoses. Knowing he'd better leave Rome for awhile, he vacations on the east coast of the Black Sea, close to the home of Medea. While on holiday, he meets a beautiful young herbalist, Xenia, a woman with mysterious powers who will change the course of his life when she makes him her lover and he makes her his muse. Xenia and Ovid have the same wish in life, "To be known. To be remembered. To live forever."Ovid and Xenia return to Rome where it seems as though everyone except Augustus is quite pleased with Metamprphoses. Even Augustus's hated granddaughter, Julia, is entranced by it. Ovid, under the patronage of Julia, begins a new work, the now lost play, Medea.The above sets up many questions that have to be answered in the pages of this book. What happens when Xenia, now pregnant, discovers that the beautiful Julia is Ovid's new patron? Will Xenia commit the same heinous crime as did Medea? Will Ovid and Xenia find eternal life? What will be Xenia's ultimate fate and the fate of her children? You have to read the book to find out the answers.What we do know about Ovid is scant. We know that he was "probably" exiled because of Augustus's displeasure with The Art of Love. But what happened to his play, Medea? Only two lines remain. And why was Julia, Augustus's granddaughter exiled at the same time as was Ovid? While the characters in "The Love Artist" are fascinating to read about they aren't people anyone would care to know in real life. They are all plotting, secretive, and very selfish and self-centered in their bid for power and immortality. And yes, even bloodthirsty. None of the characters knows what the others are up to and, most of the time, neither do we. This heightens the suspense of "The Love Artist" and its eventual horror is made all the more terrible by virtue of being told in language that is lyrical in its beauty. Although Augustus seems to be the most fair and reasonable character in the book, we can't help but be fascinated with Ovid and the entrancing (but evil) Xenia.The fact that Alison could fashion a novel as rich and lush as "The Love Artist" from these tiny fragments ofhistory is not small feat. This is a lyrical, fascinating and dense novel revolving around the themes

"The Love Artist" is a gorgeous work of fiction in which the beautifully written prose draws you into the dream of ancient Rome; love, lust, and jealousy; the process of creation; and the human urge to immortality. This is a first novel that any well established novelist could learn from. With this book Jane Alison has become an author to follow. Her insight into the workings of humanity is a gift, as is her feeling for the milieu of the Rome of Augustus. This is a book to own, read, and re-read.

The Love-Artist, by Jane Alison, is a marvelous first novel by a brilliant young writer. The novel is a suspenseful mystery, based on a gap in our knowledge about Ovid, the Roman poet who wrote The Art of Love and The Metamorphoses (long considered two of the masterpieces of classical literature). Ovid wrote during the reign of Emperor Augustus and in the lifetime of Jesus Christ. For unknown reasons, he was exiled from Rome while at the height of his fame and success, and died in exile ten years later. Ovid left behind a tantalizing fragment -- two lines of what seems to have been a full-length play about the legendary sorceress Medea, who abandoned her father and murdered her brother for love of a Greek hero, then murdered her own children by that hero when he deserted her for another woman.Jane Alison has written a stunning novel imagining how Ovid came to write this powerful play, who inspired his character of Medea, why only two lines of the play survive, and why he was doomed to exile by the emperor himself. Her descriptions of imperial Rome are poetic and evocative: "[t]his great city and all that it's made of -- the finest things men have created and all the texture of cultured life, books and art and buildings and music, whispers in a marble square, sun shining through an amethyst dress, a glance on the street, sleek onyx statues standing in a row, the flare of recognition in intelligent eyes ... the rooms where conversation flies like torches ..."Alison has created an unforgettable character in Xenia, the Black Sea woman whose talent, mystery and beauty inspire Ovid to create his terrifying version of Medea. The novel winds toward its inexorable end in a shimmer of beautifully written, nuanced passages. Alison's background as a classicist informs her imagination and the details of her settings are impeccable, from the intrigues of the Augustan court, to the superstitions of pre-Christian Rome. This is a wonderful book that had me staying up late to reach its utterly satisfying end.