This is not as good a novel as I Have Some Questions for You--it's really not even close--but it's still a novel worth reading, a novel that has points to make as well as a story to tell. The fact it kinda tells its story backward--the narrative moves from 2000 to 1954 to 1929 to 1900, and keeps unfurling secrets as it goes--works reasonably well, and isn't really all that weird a way to tell a story. There are threads here about the toxicity of patronage, and about the secrets families keep, and about what art is worth, and about intentional artistic communities (such as art colonies); roughly no one and nothing ends up looking really good, which might not entirely be the intent, but which seems consistent with reality.
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