Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Great Man

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 1,492 ratings · 393 reviews

From the acclaimed author of The Epicure's Lament, a novel of literary rivalry in which two competing biographers collide in their quest for the truth about a great artist.

Oscar Feldman, the "Great Man," was a New York city painter of the heroic generation of the forties and fifties. But instead of the abstract canvases of the Pollocks and Rothkos, he stubbornly hewed to p...more

Hardcover, 301 pages

Published August 14th 2007 by Doubleday

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Top Ten (Editor: J. Peder Zane): The Greatest Books of All Time

10th out of 10 books — 6 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,680)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 22, 2008 Patrick Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everybody

I was going to write a typical Goodreads-y kind of review for this, but I'm too damn tired, so here's the review I posted on my blog:

Kate Christensen’s newest novel The Great Man, for which she recently won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, is actually about three women and their relationship to one not-so-great man, the figurative painter Oscar Feldman. Claire St. Cloud, or “Teddy” as she’s known to her confidants, was Oscar’s lover, Abigail Feldman, his widow and the mother of his autis...more

like 4 likes · see review

Aug 02, 2008 L rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: over-rated

I picked this book up in an airport bookstore as it had an award and I thought it might be a good plane read. While I finished it in two flights, I can't say that was fast enough.

The story is about an artist, after his death, and the women who surround him; his wife (and their grown autistic son), his sister (also an artist), and his mistress (and their twin daughters). It's a "discussable" book in the sense that I'm sure some people would love how the characters are portrayed and there are som...more

like 2 likes · see review

Sep 06, 2007 Alannah DiBona rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone!

Shelves: readwithabandon

Kate Christensen's done it again. The story of the deceased Oscar Feldman (a famed womanizer of an artist), the various women still inhabiting his orbit, and the two biographers warring for his true story. Christensen's voice rings loud and true through her insanely sexy characters. Per usual, the characters themselves are round as eggs and just as wobbly; their faults are endearing, and you'll be tempted to invite them to your own dinner table. Doubtless, the mental images intended by the autho...more

like 3 likes · see review

May 11, 2013 Jana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Great Man

4,5* really

I’m quite grateful to the former colleague who left this book in my office despite my protestations that I don’t have the time to read this as well and that I’m not interested and that I already have several dozen books at home waiting to be read (and reviewed) anyway. I can honestly say that I would never have picked up The Great Man myself. The book cover and synopsis looked totally unappealing to me. Since she always reads everything I lend her I felt compelled to at l...more

like · see review

Apr 23, 2013 Nirmal rated it 4 of 5 stars

I got the ref. for this book from NPR 3 books listings under the topic of ‘3 hell-raising heroines’. True to the description (‘Move on Barbie and chocolate-cooing, romantic, dreamy girls of Disney/mills & boon, Here comes the gutsy, ballsy, acid-pouring, confident heroine …')

The hell-raising heroine in this case is Claire st. cloud (Teddy) who is unashamed to be living as mistress of the great man (Oscar, jewish, female nudes painter, selfish, peccadillo, with insatiable carnal tastes like a...more I got the ref. for this book from NPR 3 books listings under the topic of ‘3 hell-raising heroines’. True to the description (‘Move on Barbie and chocolate-cooing, romantic, dreamy girls of Disney/mills & boon, Here comes the gutsy, ballsy, acid-pouring, confident heroine …')

The hell-raising heroine in this case is Claire st. cloud (Teddy) who is unashamed to be living as mistress of the great man (Oscar, jewish, female nudes painter, selfish, peccadillo, with insatiable carnal tastes like a big fucking dog). It is the charged language (to use a term Bellow uses for Martin Amis) Kate uses with great insights about love, man-woman and general new-york bohemian life style which makes it great read.

It has all the ingredients which heighten the reading pleasure i.e. racy, saucy, charged language, hell-raising heroine etc. There are quite a few dazzling displays of highly charged, raw and piercing sentences in the novel.

Book starts with obituary of the Oscar in new york times. Oscar had lived a life of full-fledged debauchery painting nudes, fornicating with his models or whoever he could get his brush on, openly two-timing (having a wifely Jewish wife with an autistic son) and a doting and non-interfering mistress Teddy (with whom he has two daughters). But he is pretty famous and gets away despite all his transgressions ( seducing a friend’s wife resulting in rocking their marriage boat and ultimately in suicide of the girl due to overdose.) Raping a nubile 18 yr old catholic girl, who is aspiring to be a nun, whom he lures into modeling and eventually forcefully seduces her.)

In many ways he is an ultimate lucky bastard who has two cakes which he always eats and several cupcakes on the side which he savors like a hungry, lusty dog along with his settled and permanent two rich cakes. While Abigail (wife) provides a marital security and a settled house to him. At the same time his mistress Teddy provides him her undivided attention, A tantalizing acidic talk and a luscious body with a torrid passion igniting the unstoppable flames of his fiery loins.

His elder sister Maxine is also a painter and a lesbian. She also tries to be in his good books. After his death, these three women (wife, sister, mistress) come together and squabble over the departed painter resulting in some messy verbal cat fights between them. These fights get more intense due to arrival of two biographers on the scene. One biographer is Henry Burke, a white guy with some experience in biography writing (he drones about the some failed but talented female poet whose biography he has written sometime back.) Other biographer is Ralph Washington, a black guy (grown up in some ny housing project ? ).
(less)

like 1 like · see review

Jul 13, 2012 kate rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'd encourage anyone disappointed with the content/execution of this novel to try Jane Rule's Contract with the World.

I was hoping I'd find fodder for future research about gender and art in literature here - no dice. Formally, Christensen doesn't have the command of style/language necessary to produce the nuances and ironies that should be at the heart of her premise. None of the three women she creates is particularly likable - or subversive, which also seems necessary for a contemporary novel...more

like · see review

May 15, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 2 of 5 stars

Just browsing, looking for something in the “C’s.” What I was looking for was not there, but here was something by Kate Christensen I hadn’t read. Hadn’t read anything by her in a long time. Good idea.

Ten pages in, knew there was a problem. Checked it out. My brain had registered Kate Christensen for Kate Atkinson, who is one of my favorites. A sad thing, the aging brain.
Not that The Great Man is a bad book. It had a right to be published. But it’s certainly not my kind of book. Oscar Feldman...more

like · see review

Mar 22, 2012 yb rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Epicure's Lament was so engaging, so funny, despite it unsympathetic protagonist, that when I stumbled across The Great Man while shopping for a new read, I couldn't help but pick it up. Thank goodness this took me less than a day to read -- I was so profoundly disappointed, and so eager to be done, I cannot imagine how I would have felt if I had invested any more time in it.

Ostensibly about Oscar Feldman, the rebel painter for whom the book is named, the novel actually deals with the way th...more

like · see review

Jun 07, 2011 Amanda added it

The Great Man Book Review-

The book we all read was “The Great Man”, written by Kate Christensen. In this book, set in the upper east-side of New York in the early 2000’s, a well known painter, Oscar Feldman has passed away. Oscar leaves behind his wife, Abigail, their special needs son, Ethan, and his sister Maxine, who also is a painter. What most people don’t know is that he also left behind a second family with his mistress; Claire St. Cloud. As biographers start to become more interested in...more The Great Man Book Review-

The book we all read was “The Great Man”, written by Kate Christensen. In this book, set in the upper east-side of New York in the early 2000’s, a well known painter, Oscar Feldman has passed away. Oscar leaves behind his wife, Abigail, their special needs son, Ethan, and his sister Maxine, who also is a painter. What most people don’t know is that he also left behind a second family with his mistress; Claire St. Cloud. As biographers start to become more interested in Oscar, secrets about his past and his paintings come out of the dark. The author’s purpose for writing this book is for pure enjoyment and entertainment. The audience for this book is for mature middle-aged people looking to read for pleasure. The point of view changes throughout the novel between several people who were close to the main character, Oscar Feldman. Some of these points of views include Maxine, Abigail, and Claire.

The novel The Great Man there was indeed a set protagonist in Oscar, but the antagonist shifted as the point of view changed. In each of the characters minds, there were conflicting views of the other characters. Because of this there is not a set antagonist. The New York setting is not that important to the storyline, only that all the character were in reach of each other. There was no spread distance between them, making it easy for the characters to come in contact with one another. The author’s message in writing this book would most likely be to live your life to the fullest, even in your later years. In our group’s opinion, the purpose of the novel was for entertainment. There was no set message the author wanted her audience to receive, and that’s why it was for enjoyment only.

***SPOILERS***
• One of Oscar’s most famous paintings, Helena, was actually painted by his sister Maxine, causing much disruption.
• Oscars mistress, Claire, falls in love with someone else
• Oscars death brings everyone in Oscar’s life together, at a meeting
• Maxine leaves everything in her name to Katrina, her secretary, when she dies

Our group has never read a book like this one. The book was a little graphic for most people, and we do not recommend it for many people. Some other recommendations we have are that it is a medium-range reading level, with many so called “adult” themes and situation. Therefore, the book was mainly filled with little parts of scandal, and was not that interesting the entire time.
(less)

like · see review

Nov 09, 2010 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a first-rate novel. It is a lively, fast read, but it is also satisfying, like a longer novel whose characters come to seem part of your life. One reason for that is the depth of the characters themselves, at least two of whom are truly memorable.

The situation on which story and meaning are built has its glamor and mystery. It’s slightly odd, but it feels real and it is by no means utterly strange to us. Oscar Feldman has been dead now for several years. His paintings of nude women so...more This is a first-rate novel. It is a lively, fast read, but it is also satisfying, like a longer novel whose characters come to seem part of your life. One reason for that is the depth of the characters themselves, at least two of whom are truly memorable.

The situation on which story and meaning are built has its glamor and mystery. It’s slightly odd, but it feels real and it is by no means utterly strange to us. Oscar Feldman has been dead now for several years. His paintings of nude women sold well in the New York art market and still hang in major museums in New York and Europe. Oscar and his wife, Abigail, had a son. Oscar and his long-time devoted lover, Teddy, had two daughters. He maintained these two families for many years and the children are now in their thirties or forties. The two families have always known of each other but have had no contact; the daughters have not seen their brother.
The wife and lover have not had any contact. The children have never a sibling from the other family.
Oscar’s sister, Maxine, seems to hate Oscar, whom she regards as no artists at all; she’s the artist, she thinks. She’s also one of the all-time great grouchy curmudgeons, wracked by emotions she can’t control, frustrated, self-defeating and negative–and you can feel a little tenderness for her. She not only hates Oscar, but Teddy, too, has never met her nieces, the daughters of Teddy and her brother.
Two competing writers who intend to produce biographies of Oscar. Their interviews with the women inflame the conflict among the women Oscar left, but the conflict isn’t over his money – that’s been settled. Nothing to Teddy, the woman he loved nor to his daughters. The conflict comes from their competition for Oscar, of course, but also from years of being mistreated, all of them, by Oscar, who turns out to have been remote and cruel in some respects as well as a sexual giant who inspired all of them and apparently hundreds of other to love him.
Plenty of stuff comes out of the conflict among the women. We get a pretty good mystery, and late-in-life justice. The New York art world, the New York Times, publishers and book reviewers all have a small place in keeping everything interesting and amusing.

But what the book is about in my view, its substance and what grabbed me, had little to do with these trapping. The strong intelligent women in conflict over Oscar and his memory, are aging. Aged, rather-- in their 70s and 80s. Because they are articulate and sometimes discerning and sometimes self-aware, the book can be in less about art, infidelity, or even loyalty (yes, that, too) and more about aging. In particular, since men are not very important in this novel, it is about ageing of these women, what in their lives is filtered out with age and what remains, what in their lives can be reprocessed and what can yet develop, including, perhaps, sexual love. Maybe some of their forgiveness of Oscar, like their conflicts with each other will take on a different shape.
Mildly, the book is also a little about justice and injustice. Was Oscar rightly regarded in some quarters of the house of art as a great artist? Were any of the women and their children ever given their due? Wife and lover both suffered, even while they professed contentment with Oscar’s constant sexual adventures, even while he ignored his and their children, even while is competed, not always fairly with his sister Maxine. Now that the inquisitive biographers might reveal all, including a secret that unites the women, will they women remain loyal to Oscar and keep quiet? Will they even agree that he was worse than self-centered, perhaps someone who might be an example in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? Or will they think he was the rare man who truly understood each individual woman? I am not giving away much if I say that smidgeons of justice are doled out and it is a pleasure to see some of those smidgeons, a little sad to see some others. The great thing for me, though, was the substance of the characters and how wonderfully real they seemed.
It might have been interesting had Christensen explored the question why all those woman and many others loved Oscar no matter had badly he treated everyone. Evolutionary biologists–would they claim it is just the power of anyone who is treated as “great,” a genetically determined tendency to go for the male mostly likely to provide for the survival of the women’s own genes as well as his? I don’t think Christensen would like that idea, because although this novel isn’t a feminist tract, the strength and even somewhat confrontive charm of its females is too central to treat them as Oscar’s genetically controlled accomplices or even as simple lovers of male-power and social standing. Still, these women all had their needs, too, and the principal ones are still working through the wrinkles.

I’ll briefly mention some details I liked at lot.

Grounding. It was good for me to read this book right after Elisabeth Cox’s books because Cox gives very little details about things, surroundings, while Christensen keeps you right in the physical as well as the emotional scene. Teddy bites a fruit; juices run down her chin. When Teddy thinks of her couch, lately the locus of serious sex, the couch has a color, has a history and has a smell that definitely isn’t the result of the sex. These are not things that can be put down as mere description. Christensen makes them part of character and part of the reality and in doing so lends reality to every scene that balances the wonderful outflow of ideas the women produce.

Dialog. You might think of punchy dialog as a ping-pong interchange, challenges and responses in quick succession, full of snappy thrusts and counterthrusts. But Christensen allows her women to speak fully. A character might speak without a beat, without an interruption for half a page. The good part is that while we are really getting character out of this longish form of dialog, it is also punchy in a different way, funny or surprising. At the end of a long paragraph of Teddy’s dialog, she says that when she told Oscar what he himself was thinking that “was the equivalent of a blow job for him,” idea and a laughable surprise wrapped up together. (less)

like 1 like · see review

Oct 05, 2009 Lisa Louie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to me by a very good friend, The Great Man by Kate Christensen was an enjoyable and quick read. A famous NYC painter who specializes in nudes, dies and leaves behind two families, that of his wife, and that of his mistress, and his famous but under-appreciated sister who is an abstract painter. When two different biographers come around to research the dead artist's life, old grudges and resentments rise to the surface and get aired. In the process, the reader has the opportunity to...more Recommended to me by a very good friend, The Great Man by Kate Christensen was an enjoyable and quick read. A famous NYC painter who specializes in nudes, dies and leaves behind two families, that of his wife, and that of his mistress, and his famous but under-appreciated sister who is an abstract painter. When two different biographers come around to research the dead artist's life, old grudges and resentments rise to the surface and get aired. In the process, the reader has the opportunity to see through the eyes of four elderly women as they reminisce about past choices, critique the art world, and through the process of remembering the dead painter, becoming sexually reintegrated into the present moment in the winter of their lives. It is this last aspect of the narrative that I found the most believable and compelling; I don't think I will ever look at elderly women the same again. Like a fly on the gossip wall, I also enjoyed the portrayal of the NYC art scene and the author's imaginings into the mind of an artist as he/she attempts to realize a vision through their medium. The characters' discussions about art and poetry and how it related to a biographical life were engaging even if, at times, it felt like Christensen was showing off the spoils of her many cocktail party conversations in NYC.

By the end, however, the novel failed to convince me that the truth of the artist's life mattered more than the art that he left behind -- although I'm not sure if that was Christensen's argument. No matter what kind of sod/genius the artist may have been in his domestic life, his art--realized through the medium of women's bodies--still spoke to people in some kind of visceral way (or so they reported). I appreciated Christensen's attempt to juxtapose the enshrined "truth" about the women as depicted in the artist's painting, with the liv(ed/ing) truth of the women characters who were still alive to their bodies. I'm just not sure that she succeeded in arguing that this latter kind of truth is more important somehow than art's truth, the "Void" to which art points.(less)

like 1 like · see review

Jun 01, 2009 eb rated it 2 of 5 stars

I can't believe this won the PEN/Faulkner.

Yes, it's great to read a novel about smart, interesting women. Yes, it does my heart good to see those older women portrayed as alluring people who still have sex.

BUT THE SENTENCES. The sentences! Christensen can't write a clean sentence to save her life! Just to open a page at random: "Teddy had had Oscar, Lila Sam, but Lila had had son, Teddy daughters; Teddy had had independence, Lila security."

And the way her characters' diction veers all over the...more

like 3 likes · see review

Nov 10, 2012 Jim Leckband rated it 4 of 5 stars

A "Great" man is a great McGuffin. The great man (like George Kaplan in North by Northwest) doesn't appear in the novel. The great figurative painter, Oscar Feldman ("Feldman" the man in the field, like Cary Grant in the cornfield of NxNW?) has been dead for some years and the elderly women in his life are disturbed from their complacency when two biographers exhume his memory.

The real concern in this book is not the great man, of course. To me it is identity, self-realized or self-denied vs. wh...more

like 1 like · see review

Oct 04, 2010 Fvck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2010

Starts off with a bang, but ends with a whimper. I tore through the first 200pp. or so, caught up in and propelled along by the gripping energy of the doubling, trebling, ever-twisting tale (with its twinned families, daughters, biographers, artists, paintings, etc.). Look Jonathan Franzen, a woman can write a "big" "important" novel, too (and about women, no less)! Once the secret was revealed, however, Christensen seemed to completely lose her momentum and discard all the different threads of...more

like 2 likes · see review

Jul 20, 2009 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was used for a book discussion group comprised mostly of senior citizen women who all thought it was good and exchanged lively insights and views about the characters and the themes. The minor thread on GoodReads about whether Christensen's depiction of the African American characters was racist is valid. At one point, she has one of the female characters suggest that Ralph, one of Oscar's biographers, received a scholarship to go to college because he was a minority. We do not know th...more

like · see review

Dec 02, 2009 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Actually a 3.5 rating.

It’s a good story but doesn’t have the kind of insights and wit found in Christensen’s other books. The female characters in the book are aging, and while Christensen’s portrayal of them focuses on the trials of aging women, it ends up seeming mostly stereotyped rather than felt. Nor does she offer any particular insights into the art world, although clearly there was an opportunity for it.

Abstraction-vs-figuration is a theme, and Christensen touches on gender issues faced...more

like 1 like · see review

Nov 25, 2011 Ally Armistead rated it 4 of 5 stars

A delightful read, "The Great Man" is full of snark and wit and moments of unexpected tenderness. Set in modern-day(ish), "Man" revolves around the lives of four women who are tangled in the life of a great, painter named Oscar. Maxine is the less-famous though amazingly brilliant sister; Abigail is the widow who endured a marriage of infidelity; Teddy is the beautiful mistress; and Lila is Teddy's dear friend who, from afar, worshiped Oscar and his work. When Oscar dies, the four women are appr...more

like · see review

Aug 29, 2009 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent vacation reading. Intelligent, funny, insightful, and a quick read. The "great man" of the title is a recently deceased painter who doesn't appear in the novel at all; instead, it revolves around four women, all above the age of 70, who figured prominently in his life and are now trying to move on after his death. His wife (now widow), his mistress of 40 years, the mistress's best friend, and his sister -- all of the women in the novel are compelling characters. The author does a great...more

like · see review

Jun 25, 2011 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars

The premise of this book fascinated me: two biographers are writing about a recently-deceased and notoriously immoral artist. The man in question is dead, of course, so the "main character" is never present and the biographers reconstruct his life through the eyes of the many women in his life, arriving at very different conclusions. I was disappointed that this book failed to fulfill such great potential--the plot and circumstances could have made an excellent novel. But instead of meaningful c...more

like · see review

Apr 05, 2011 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: americanliterature

I'm a huge Kate Christensen fan, in part because of the slight black humor, attention to human interactions, delight in describing good food, and also because of her style. I've read many of her books, and have yet to be disappointed.

"The Great Man" describes the interactions and struggles to go on after Oscar Feldman's death; Feldman is a philandering figurist, who is congenially married to the devoted and doting Abigail, and enamored with the independently-spirited Teddy, his mistress. Both a...more

like 1 like · see review

Aug 06, 2007 Rakesh rated it 5 of 5 stars

an author for whom i used to work at random house, kate christensen is the ultimate find -- wildly intelligent, hilarious, and socially observant to the pt of idiot savance. today's rave NY TIMES review is 100% justified. read it NOW. the most convincing and poignant portrayal of love in later life (and the thoughts women have of their prior loves) that i have ever read.

like 1 like · see review

Sep 15, 2010 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Great Man is told from the perspective for four women, all in their golden years, whose lives are affected by the same man - Oscar Feldman: painter, genius, artist, manwhore - and the legacy he has left behind following his death, a couple years prior to when this novel takes place. There is Teddy, Oscar's long-time mistress, mother to his illegitimate twin daughters and aging sexpot (think Blanche Devereaux); Lila, Teddy's best friend and biggest admirer; Abigail, Oscar's widow and mother t...more

like 1 like · see review

Jul 19, 2009 Robin Nicholas rated it 4 of 5 stars

A famous (fictional) New York artist, Oscar Feldman, dies leaving behind his wealthy wife and autistic adult son, plus his mistress of 40 years and their twin daughters. Two different biographers decide to write a book about him-not knowing the other is doing the same. Each biographer spends time with each of the women in the artist's life, his twin daughters and his sister who is also an artist in her own right, and with whom he has had a life-long difficult relationship. What makes this book i...more

like · see review

Nov 17, 2009 Mimi Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I couldn't put this book down. . .

The style of this novel is very unique and hooks you from the start. I couldn't put it down. The four women who loved this (not-so) great man are so sensitively crafted by the author that you both, at once, admire them and question their devotion to such a hollow person as Oscar. The book also asks some important questions, such as what constitutes "great" art, who gets to decide, what role do women play in the art world, and how are we, as viewers, implicated...more

like 1 like · see review

Mar 29, 2009 R.J. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommend

I am an art admirer but not a terribly educated one. I break out in a sweat when thinking of going into a gallery where know my poor internal thesaurus will fail me. But the story here of a late artist who came to prominence during the time of deKooning, Pollack and the like interested me as it would explore his unconventional life--his relationships with three women, his wife of 50+ years, a mistress with whom he maintained a 40+ year relationship and an older sister, also an artist of some ren...more

like · see review

Oct 20, 2010 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, family

An engrossing story about three older women joined by their relationship - sister, wife and mistress - to an artist now five years dead. As two competing biographers are writing a book on the artist they interact with the women and bring out emotions.

What I really liked about the book apart from the reassurance that lots of sex is possible when one hits ones mid seventies is that the author makes you care/entertains you with the story of these older women and busts the myths that life is over af...more

like · see review

Jan 19, 2009 Kirsten rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those interested in the contemporary art world.

Shelves: read-in-2009, xx-chromosome

Do you know who your grandmother's sleeping with?

Refreshingly, Christensen's book gives us four very sympathetic female characters over the age of 70 who, in traditional views of the life a "great man" (in this case, a fictionalized artist named Oscar Feldman), would be marginalized as muse/mistress/wife/sister, but instead come fully, and vibrantly to life. Which is quite clearly the point.

The dialogue is witty, and the partnerships forged in the art world, and in romantic life, are well-observ...more

like 1 like · see review

Jul 18, 2009 Alex Roberts rated it 2 of 5 stars

While this is a largely enjoyable read, there are some miscues here and there that hinder it from being a notch or two better. Occasionally the author will offer up an incident or character but doesn't quite capture the intended vibe. Though it's apparent what the type of figure or scene is that she's trying to portray, it's frustrating and a bit distracting to not have it nailed- eg. the proverbial jarring NYC cab ride, a soiree awash in art world pretension, the closeted would-be academic. The...more

like · see review

Jan 15, 2012 Sarah Zilka rated it 3 of 5 stars

Two versions of an artist's biography were written near simultaneously. The two authors focus on the women who surrounded the great man. His wife, long time mistress, daughters, sister and his affairs. All the while these women come into their own, markedly later in life than expected but the spell around the painter is broken and they are all able to see him for what he was.

Some markedly poignant segments about life and love. But otherwise lacking in the prose I expect in a literary novel. Som...more

like · see review

Aug 29, 2010 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 89 90 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Racist?	6	107	Oct 18, 2008 07:55am

combine
Other Editions (6)

More editions...

Genres

Novels

9 users

Book Club

9 users

Art

7 users

New York

6 users

Contemporary

5 users

Literary Fiction

4 users

Adult

4 users

Womens

4 users

Female Authors

2 users

Family

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Kate Christensen

KATE CHRISTENSEN is the author of six previous novels, most recently The Astral. The Great Man won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award. She has published reviews and essays in numerous publications, most recently the New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, O, Elle, and Gilt Taste. She writes an occasional drinks column for The Wall Street Journal called "With a Twist." Her blog can be accessed at: http://k ...more

More about Kate Christensen...

Books by Kate Christensen

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Great Man

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: The Great Man
avg rating	preview: The Great Man Goodreads rating: 3.44 (1492 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/290742.The_Great_Man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320520709l/290742.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/290742.The_Great_Man?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Great Man by Kate Christensen[/url]

The Great Man

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website