Review: Mary Gordon: Spending; A Utopian Divertimento


	Review: Mary Gordon: Spending; A Utopian Divertimento

readforpleasure

6-26-2007 2:58 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/f2a2dfbc-74c3-4b21-8055-133ea17401ba/98CF33B5-84D4-41C8-ACFE-59DCFECA4B51/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://readpleasure.blogspot.com/" href="http://readpleasure.blogspot.com/" style="font-size: 11px;">readpleasure.blogspot.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://readpleasure.blogspot.com/"><P><DIV><A title="View details at Amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684852047?ie=UTF8&tag=readforplea-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0684852047" name="evtst|a|0684852047"><IMG src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_j59npxAenFo/RmxKA7_ezcI/AAAAAAAAAGk/eibU_k7-Lfw/s200/MaryGordon_Spending.jpg" /></A>Monica Szabo is in her 50s, divorced, with grown children, and responsible only to herself.  For years she's taught art and taken care of a family rather than full-time <I>creating</I> art.  What would it take to truly throw herself into the artist's life?</DIV><BR /><DIV>A sugar daddy.</DIV><BR />It's a great premise, and Gordon explores it thoughtfully.  At the start of the book Monica gives a talk at a friend's gallery.  Mid-talk, she takes an unplanned detour.  This quote gives a sense of her ironic voice:</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://readpleasure.blogspot.com/"><DIV>Now I ask you, mothers and fathers of America, are your boys dreaming of these things?  Where, I ask you, lovers of the arts, where are the male Muses?"</DIV><BR />And he stood up, just there, in front of everyone, and said, "Right here."</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://readpleasure.blogspot.com/">The man who volunteers is a cipher known only as "B".  His life apart from Monica is vague.  His explicit purpose is to be <I>her</I> foil, her support, her lover, her inspiration, her concierge; he's extraordinarily perfect in the role.  (Remember, this is Utopia.)</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/98CF33B5-84D4-41C8-ACFE-59DCFECA4B51/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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