Kate's review

The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired
by Francine Prose

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39939.The_Lives_of_the_Muses_Nine_Women_the_Artists_They_Inspired?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women &amp; the Artists They Inspired" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169340291m/39939.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39939.The_Lives_of_the_Muses_Nine_Women_the_Artists_They_Inspired?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12180.Francine_Prose">Francine Prose</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8141747?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars This book fell like a bolt from the sky and landed in my lap. I had been thinking for months about what it means to be a muse, or an artist, and what the relationship between muse and artist means for modern men and women, and where gender fits into all of it. I'd been writing and processing and wondering why it was I craved artists--not art, which I love and which is nourishing, but artists, and their creative minds--so constantly. 
 
 And then I read <a href="/search/search?q=+The+Lives+of+the+Muses&t=title"> The Lives of the Muses</a>. <a href="/search/search?q=+Francine+Prose&t=author"> Francine Prose</a> dug deep into the emotional and artistic lives of some of the most high-profile muses in artistic history: Alice Liddell (inspiration for <a href="/search/search?q=+Alice%27s+Adventures+in+Wonderland&t=title"> Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</a>), Lizzie Siddal, Suzanne Farrell, Yoko Ono...all (except for Ono) girls and women I had added to my own bookshelf of art saints and inspiration. It was like ninth grade all over again, when I just knew Sarah McLachlan was singing about my problems and relationships, except this time she really was. 
 
 In addition to raising some very important questions about the muse-artist relationship (Is it strictly a heterosexual relationship, even when there is no sex involved? Why is the role of muse so intrinsically feminine? Why can't muses succeed as both artists and muses? What's so horrible about being an art wife?), Prose sheds light on some difficult and oft-swept over points in the lives of the muses and their artists. All in all: really good. There are some dry moments, but it is, after all, biography.
 
 As an interesting side note, Prose's "indispensable" assistant just happened to be <a href="/search/search?q=+Kamy+Wicoff&t=author"> Kamy Wicoff</a>, author of the prenuptial fire-starter (at least for me) <a href="/search/search?q=+I+Do+But+I+Don%27t&t=title"> I Do But I Don't</a>. Small world.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/537407?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Kate's review
rating:

bookshelves: nonfiction
status: Read in October, 2007

This book fell like a bolt from the sky and landed in my lap. I had been thinking for months about what it means to be a muse, or an artist, and what the relationship between muse and artist means for modern men and women, and where gender fits into all of it. I'd been writing and processing and wondering why it was I craved artists--not art, which I love and which is nourishing, but artists, and their creative minds--so constantly.

And then I read The Lives of the Muses. Francine Prose dug deep into the emotional and artistic lives of some of the most high-profile muses in artistic history: Alice Liddell (inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Lizzie Siddal, Suzanne Farrell, Yoko Ono...all (except for Ono) girls and women I had added to my own bookshelf of art sai...more

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Kate's books »