It may come as a surprise to some (it certainly did to me) that Steve Martin is a published novelist. In fact, he’s quite the writer with several screen plays, plays, novels, novellas and children’s books to his name, not to mention the odd non-fiction and memoir. He has just published his second novel, Object of Beauty, about the New York art world to a mixed reception.
The fact that Martin is an internationally recognised movie star and comedian has undoubtedly coloured the book’s reviews; there are certain expectations humour-wise and some reviewers may judge too harshly in an attempt not to be taken in by his celebrity while others will be too lenient for the same reason. Martin himself is confident about the book, and freely admits that being a movie star has helped his foray into literature.
Object of Beauty draws on Martin’s personal experience as an art collector, which has given him an insider’s perspective of what goes on in the art world, particularly as the lines between price and value and profit become blurred. It’s within this setting that Martin’s protagonist, Lacey Yeager, claws her way up New York’s exclusive art scene.
Depending on the reviewer, Martin either perfectly captures the insular art world or misses the boat completely.
Janet Maslin (NYTimes) believes the former. She found the novel alluring and thought Yeager to be charismatic. She thinks it’s a book of “moral complexity” made more believable by the fact that Steve Martin has experience with the matters at hand. For all her praise of the book as extremely entertaining, she finds that in the end Yeager becomes an obstacle in the book, one which Martin never successfully overcomes.
Elizabeth Day (Guardian) did not like the book. Day says that the prose is shallow and flat and compares Martin’s approach to the book to a “waspish bachelor uncle at a family gathering, commenting on proceedings from the edge of the room”. Even worse, according to Day, is that while Martin strives for satire, Object of Beauty is not funny. The characters suffer from “personality vacuum” and the plot is confused and lacking bite. All of which is especially disappointing, says Day, because the premise had so much potential.
Martin is undeterred. Speaking about the idea for the story Martin said, “Just for the record, I love the art world. I really like everything about it except, you’ll see in the book, artspeak, which is slang for esoteric art writing which is impossible to parse or understand. It’s probably the thing I attack most in the book.”
Given his newfound passion for novels, and the understandable enthusiasm from publishers, we can probably expect further literary contributions from Martin in the near future.
Jade Scully is a copywriter excited about writing copy and stories, blogging about the world and editing. She currently and regularly publishes her stories on a number of blogs. Jade loves animals and hopes to begin writing copy for the animal rescue charity TEARS as her contribution to the cause.
