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Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
129 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2009
33 people are currently reading
2929 people want to read
About the author
Leanne Shapton
35 books199 followersLeanne Shapton is an illustrator, author and publisher based in New York City. She is the co-founder, with photographer Jason Fulford, of J&L Books, an internationally-distributed not-for-profit imprint specializing in art and photography books. Shapton grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, and attended McGill Univesity and Pratt Institute. After interning at SNL, Harper's Magazine and for illustator James McMullan, she began her career at the National Post where she edited and art-directed the daily Avenue page, an award-winning double-page feature covering news and cultural trends. She went on to art direct Saturday Night, the National Post's weekly news magazine.
In 2003, Shapton published her first book of drawings, titled Toronto. From 2006 to 2008 Shapton contributed a regular travel column to Elle magazine, consisting of writing, photography and illustration. From 2008 to 2009, Shapton was the art director of The New York Times Op-Ed page.
Leanne Shapton published Was She Pretty? in November 2008 and Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry, in February 2009, with Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She published The Native Trees of Canada with Drawn & Quarterly in November 2010. Shapton recently contributed a regular column to T: The New York Times Style Magazine's blog The Moment. In 2011 She posted an illustrated series titled "A Month Of..." to The New York Times opinion page website.
Currently Shapton contributes a food and culture column to Flare Magazine.
In 2012 Shapton published Swimming Studies with Blue Rider Press. It won the 2012 National Book Critic's Circle Award for autobiography, and was long listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2012.
Sunday Night Movies, a book of paintings from movies, is forthcoming from Drawn & Quarterly, fall 2013. Shapton is currently working on Women In Clothes, a collaboration with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits, about how women dress, with Blue Rider Press.
Source: Leanne Shapton Bio.
In 2003, Shapton published her first book of drawings, titled Toronto. From 2006 to 2008 Shapton contributed a regular travel column to Elle magazine, consisting of writing, photography and illustration. From 2008 to 2009, Shapton was the art director of The New York Times Op-Ed page.
Leanne Shapton published Was She Pretty? in November 2008 and Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry, in February 2009, with Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She published The Native Trees of Canada with Drawn & Quarterly in November 2010. Shapton recently contributed a regular column to T: The New York Times Style Magazine's blog The Moment. In 2011 She posted an illustrated series titled "A Month Of..." to The New York Times opinion page website.
Currently Shapton contributes a food and culture column to Flare Magazine.
In 2012 Shapton published Swimming Studies with Blue Rider Press. It won the 2012 National Book Critic's Circle Award for autobiography, and was long listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2012.
Sunday Night Movies, a book of paintings from movies, is forthcoming from Drawn & Quarterly, fall 2013. Shapton is currently working on Women In Clothes, a collaboration with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits, about how women dress, with Blue Rider Press.
Source: Leanne Shapton Bio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 373 reviews
July 10, 2010
The novel tells the story of a four year failed relationship between the eponymous Lenore (a epicurean columnist specialising in cakes) and Harold (a photographer whose work has him constantly travelling the globe), rendered in the form of an auction catalogue with photographs of almost all the items up for sale accompanied by brief notations.
I saw this in a art/design shop and immediately snapped it up. I’m a sucker for strange books, for experiments in style and different ways of storytelling, for the daring and the innovative and, yes, the sometimes-too-clever. Besides, the story-by-artifact concept touched near to some ideas of my own which I’ve been carrying about for a couple of years now. I’m not sure if anything will ever comes of those, but we’ll see. Whatever happens, it will be quite different to what’s been done here.
According to this New York Times review, Shapton decided to create the book “because she noticed how the lot descriptions in some estate catalogs added up to elliptical plots about the lives of the former possessors”. It’s a neat idea: if all those things we acquire and accumulate throughout our lives can tell others about us and those lives we’ve lead, why not let them speak for themselves? And, for the most part, this is what Important Artifacts does. Some additional background and exposition is provided by the auctioneer’s notes — Lot 1172, for instance, is a small travel clock with its original box. The notes inform us that the clock was “given to Morris by Doolan” and, furthermore, that “Doolan insisted that the clock remain on New York time [where the couple lived:]. Morris took the clock on two trips, but complained it was too heavy”.
The items presented for auction varies from the extrinsically if marginally valuable — furniture, vintage homeware, designer clothing — to the utterly trivial but significantly personal — photographs, shopping lists, party invitations. Together they give a coherent picture of the couple’s relationship as well as their individual personalities and quirks, ambitions and fears. It’s a book I really should have loved. I’m fascinated with personal ephemera and found objects. I adore inscriptions in second hand books and snapshots of strangers. But, unfortunately, I didn’t love Important Artifacts. The last half was a tad boring and I felt disappointed by the time I closed the back cover.
I think the problem lies with story. The book is clever and beautifully put together, the objects are well chosen — perhaps a little too well chosen at times; the couple seems to have exceedingly good taste in everything — and the notations manage to tread the line between poignancy and sentimentality rather well, and provide a far amount of humour to boot. But the story, oh the story. That thing that pulls you along once you’ve worn out the novelty/curiosity factor of the presentation, that thing barely limps across the finish line. It’s a simple, ordinary and predictable story: two people meet, fall in love and try to make things work for a few years before finally realising that they’re just not meant to be. Now there’s nothing wrong with simple and straightforward, but when you know the ending before you start and there are no real surprises or revelations along the way, then something else really needs to grab you. And all that’s left is character, the people about whom the story speaks.
Maybe that’s where Important Artifacts falls down. I simply didn’t feel engaged with either of the characters, and didn’t really care whether they broke up or stayed together. (Harold was irritating, but only mildly, not even enough to engage me on a negative level.) This might be an inevitable effect of the format of this novel, and perhaps you can never really feel close to people when all you’re given is a selected list of their possessions. However, I suspect if greater weight had been given to the really personal stuff, to all the embarrassing and unflattering things no one wants other people to see, it would have been different. Sure, that kind of stuff would hardly be sold off at auction but then the conceit of this is stretched thin anyway — there’s all sort of things that wouldn’t be auctioned unless the former owners were very famous, so let’s not quibble.
In short, Important Artifacts doesn’t seem to know what it is. It reads a little like a puzzle or cipher, except there’s no real mystery to unravel. It’s trying to tell a love story, but the intimacy this requires is missing, and sorely missed. And this is a shame, because the idea of the book is fantastic and — as far as I know — unique. Food for thought, most definitely.
I saw this in a art/design shop and immediately snapped it up. I’m a sucker for strange books, for experiments in style and different ways of storytelling, for the daring and the innovative and, yes, the sometimes-too-clever. Besides, the story-by-artifact concept touched near to some ideas of my own which I’ve been carrying about for a couple of years now. I’m not sure if anything will ever comes of those, but we’ll see. Whatever happens, it will be quite different to what’s been done here.
According to this New York Times review, Shapton decided to create the book “because she noticed how the lot descriptions in some estate catalogs added up to elliptical plots about the lives of the former possessors”. It’s a neat idea: if all those things we acquire and accumulate throughout our lives can tell others about us and those lives we’ve lead, why not let them speak for themselves? And, for the most part, this is what Important Artifacts does. Some additional background and exposition is provided by the auctioneer’s notes — Lot 1172, for instance, is a small travel clock with its original box. The notes inform us that the clock was “given to Morris by Doolan” and, furthermore, that “Doolan insisted that the clock remain on New York time [where the couple lived:]. Morris took the clock on two trips, but complained it was too heavy”.
The items presented for auction varies from the extrinsically if marginally valuable — furniture, vintage homeware, designer clothing — to the utterly trivial but significantly personal — photographs, shopping lists, party invitations. Together they give a coherent picture of the couple’s relationship as well as their individual personalities and quirks, ambitions and fears. It’s a book I really should have loved. I’m fascinated with personal ephemera and found objects. I adore inscriptions in second hand books and snapshots of strangers. But, unfortunately, I didn’t love Important Artifacts. The last half was a tad boring and I felt disappointed by the time I closed the back cover.
I think the problem lies with story. The book is clever and beautifully put together, the objects are well chosen — perhaps a little too well chosen at times; the couple seems to have exceedingly good taste in everything — and the notations manage to tread the line between poignancy and sentimentality rather well, and provide a far amount of humour to boot. But the story, oh the story. That thing that pulls you along once you’ve worn out the novelty/curiosity factor of the presentation, that thing barely limps across the finish line. It’s a simple, ordinary and predictable story: two people meet, fall in love and try to make things work for a few years before finally realising that they’re just not meant to be. Now there’s nothing wrong with simple and straightforward, but when you know the ending before you start and there are no real surprises or revelations along the way, then something else really needs to grab you. And all that’s left is character, the people about whom the story speaks.
Maybe that’s where Important Artifacts falls down. I simply didn’t feel engaged with either of the characters, and didn’t really care whether they broke up or stayed together. (Harold was irritating, but only mildly, not even enough to engage me on a negative level.) This might be an inevitable effect of the format of this novel, and perhaps you can never really feel close to people when all you’re given is a selected list of their possessions. However, I suspect if greater weight had been given to the really personal stuff, to all the embarrassing and unflattering things no one wants other people to see, it would have been different. Sure, that kind of stuff would hardly be sold off at auction but then the conceit of this is stretched thin anyway — there’s all sort of things that wouldn’t be auctioned unless the former owners were very famous, so let’s not quibble.
In short, Important Artifacts doesn’t seem to know what it is. It reads a little like a puzzle or cipher, except there’s no real mystery to unravel. It’s trying to tell a love story, but the intimacy this requires is missing, and sorely missed. And this is a shame, because the idea of the book is fantastic and — as far as I know — unique. Food for thought, most definitely.
April 26, 2009
You’ve (almost certainly) never heard of the movie “Repo! The Genetic Opera,” so let me elucidate: it’s a gory horror musical, the magnum opus of the director of the first four “Saw” flicks, set in a near-future dystopia where designer organs are available on the installment plan—but if you don’t make your payments on time, the repo man (played by Anthony Stewart Head of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and 80s Taster’s-Choice-commercial fame) comes a-callin’, to extricate the defaulted-upon pound or so of flesh, all the while trying to protect his beloved daughter from the imprecations of the world. Also, Paris Hilton is totally in it, and her face totally falls off. It’s not good per se—the music is grating and repetitive, for one—but within its palette of blacks and blues and bloody reds, it’s one of the most beautiful movies in my recent memory (seriously, I’d compare it to “Moulin Rouge” on the opposite side of the spectrum), and there is this to say for it, which means a lot to me lately: it’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen.
An equally singular but far more successful work of art, “Important Artifacts” starts with an ingenious concept: to chronicle the forging, progression, and unraveling of a romantic relationship through the cast-off possessions of the couple, told in the form of an auction catalog. In photographs, documents, and dispassionate explanatory prose, author Leanne Shapton brings food writer Lenore Doolan and itinerant photographer Harold Morris to heartbreaking life. Here, an envelope of confetti she mailed him for a New Year’s they were apart. There, the contents of his shaving kit on a trip they took to Venice; there are five different kinds of over-the-counter sedative. Two pairs of clogs: “One pair powder blue women’s, size 8, the other red, men’s size 11. Some scuffing to leather.” Perhaps my favorite “lot” is 1204, a set of duplicate paperbacks from Lenore and Hal’s blended libraries, ironically containing twin titles of Graham Greene’s “The End of the Affair.”
The meticulous collection and assembly behind the book is staggering, but it’s the stark poignancy of so many ordinary objects that really amazes me. This is the detritus of love: the battered toothbrush cup they shared, homemade mix CDs, scribbled conversations on theater programs. There’s no breakup “scene,” no final fight. After a few years of photos of the two on Halloween there is suddenly a sketch by Lenore of costumes for her and her sister. There are champagne corks and crumbling pressed flowers. There are, in the end, only indifferent things as witness to who these people were to each other.
An equally singular but far more successful work of art, “Important Artifacts” starts with an ingenious concept: to chronicle the forging, progression, and unraveling of a romantic relationship through the cast-off possessions of the couple, told in the form of an auction catalog. In photographs, documents, and dispassionate explanatory prose, author Leanne Shapton brings food writer Lenore Doolan and itinerant photographer Harold Morris to heartbreaking life. Here, an envelope of confetti she mailed him for a New Year’s they were apart. There, the contents of his shaving kit on a trip they took to Venice; there are five different kinds of over-the-counter sedative. Two pairs of clogs: “One pair powder blue women’s, size 8, the other red, men’s size 11. Some scuffing to leather.” Perhaps my favorite “lot” is 1204, a set of duplicate paperbacks from Lenore and Hal’s blended libraries, ironically containing twin titles of Graham Greene’s “The End of the Affair.”
The meticulous collection and assembly behind the book is staggering, but it’s the stark poignancy of so many ordinary objects that really amazes me. This is the detritus of love: the battered toothbrush cup they shared, homemade mix CDs, scribbled conversations on theater programs. There’s no breakup “scene,” no final fight. After a few years of photos of the two on Halloween there is suddenly a sketch by Lenore of costumes for her and her sister. There are champagne corks and crumbling pressed flowers. There are, in the end, only indifferent things as witness to who these people were to each other.
May 14, 2013
A fairly ordinary relationship arc, elevated to interest purely through unique presentation, its mapping entirely onto things: collections, gifts, ephemera. Through an auction catalogue of discarded possessions -- items and desciptions -- we see the entire development of the mutual life of two people, from meeting to breakup. How much do our possessions really us? Some things not others. The inclusion of personal notes allows insight beyond just likes and dislikes (maybe a little bit of a stretch, but if we treat these people as celebrities, then sure, each little note and shopping list is of some kind of valid auction interest). Of course, they aren't. They, and their story, is essentially as mundane as the piles of possessions they leave behind. Form fitting content, or some such. But it does build a kind of portrait. And their are some interesting inferences lurking amid certain of the entries, shadings of backstory we can't ever really see in full. (Brooklyn library impulse read)
Later: docked one star for its overwhelming bourgieness and the general disinterest of its characters. They do read good books though, in nice vintage editions. Obviously I'm just jealous.
Later: docked one star for its overwhelming bourgieness and the general disinterest of its characters. They do read good books though, in nice vintage editions. Obviously I'm just jealous.
September 11, 2022
The auction frame is effective. Comical to the extent that the kitschy detritus of postmodern bourgeois domesticity, no matter how dear in procurement, tends toward a $10 asking price in resale. Sometimes the presence of letters between the principals, found in old books, say, is a bit contrived, though such things are used as bookmarks, I've found--and the narrative needs to be divulged somehow. A great point in duplicate paperbacks--separate libraries merged results in such seeming redundancies, realized only too late to be literary insurance against an inexorable split. The weirdness is that though the items are set in the time period 2002-2006 or so, the photos make everything seem much older. Maybe even 20 years ago seems antediluvian to us now.
May 9, 2021
Wonderful! Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCTT4...
October 28, 2009
I want to write to this author right now and tell her "Thank you for blowing my mind." This book is truly like nothing else I’ve ever read, which is the greatest experience in the world for a librarian.
It’s a book of photographs with text, meant to look like an auction catalog of artifacts. Every item is identified and described as if it were going up for auction, with a price--everything from salt and pepper shakers stolen from restaurants to pieces of clothing to books to post cards to Polaroid photos. And, the items and text paint the picture of a couple falling in love and then breaking up. And, it’s all made up. The couple in the photos isn't really a couple. It’s fiction. The woman is a writer for the NY Times who writes a column about cakes. The guy is a photographer who travels around the world on various assignments. But, you know, not really.
I am in love with this book.
It’s a book of photographs with text, meant to look like an auction catalog of artifacts. Every item is identified and described as if it were going up for auction, with a price--everything from salt and pepper shakers stolen from restaurants to pieces of clothing to books to post cards to Polaroid photos. And, the items and text paint the picture of a couple falling in love and then breaking up. And, it’s all made up. The couple in the photos isn't really a couple. It’s fiction. The woman is a writer for the NY Times who writes a column about cakes. The guy is a photographer who travels around the world on various assignments. But, you know, not really.
I am in love with this book.
November 3, 2020
“Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry” by Leanne Shapton is a book as unique as its title is long.
The book assumes the form of an auction catalog through which the reader gets sucked into the lives of a New York couple in the early 2000s: Lenore, a New York Times Cooking columnist and Harold, a photographer who is constantly travelling abroad for his job. Through memorabilia that varies from the trivial and insignificant in value such as postal cards, books, and napkin notes to the valuable and expensive (including a coat that might have belonged to Maria Callas), the reader gets to witness the flourishing and the downfall of the couple.
Leanne Shapton intelligently created something artful and well-crafted out of a story as old as a time by using mixed media and playing around with narrative and format. It is true that the reader doesn’t get to know the characters’ psyche as intimately as one would do in a traditional novel, but this thought-provoking book beautifully illustrates that an addictive narrative can be created from the most unconventional and mundane that make up one’s life.
This book is perfect to read in one-sitting on a Sunday morning, paired with a steaming hot cup of coffee and no plans for the day.
Avis proposé par Tina
The book assumes the form of an auction catalog through which the reader gets sucked into the lives of a New York couple in the early 2000s: Lenore, a New York Times Cooking columnist and Harold, a photographer who is constantly travelling abroad for his job. Through memorabilia that varies from the trivial and insignificant in value such as postal cards, books, and napkin notes to the valuable and expensive (including a coat that might have belonged to Maria Callas), the reader gets to witness the flourishing and the downfall of the couple.
Leanne Shapton intelligently created something artful and well-crafted out of a story as old as a time by using mixed media and playing around with narrative and format. It is true that the reader doesn’t get to know the characters’ psyche as intimately as one would do in a traditional novel, but this thought-provoking book beautifully illustrates that an addictive narrative can be created from the most unconventional and mundane that make up one’s life.
This book is perfect to read in one-sitting on a Sunday morning, paired with a steaming hot cup of coffee and no plans for the day.
Avis proposé par Tina
March 8, 2009
I was instantly in love with the concept behind this. And it was more more complex than her earlier book, which I also really enjoyed. Overall, really well executed. They seemed like the sort of people who really would end up together, and really wouldn't work out. (I did keep wondering whether their incompatibility would have been so obvious if we weren't told at the very beginning that it failed.) She did clearly have a mysterious supplemental income, or a nasty credit card habit, but that's so common these days in any medium -- young characters have to be living in NYC no matter what. Giving him a job with lots of travel was a great vehicle for their interactions. And I loved the conversations on playbills. The unusual (?) habit of regularly leaving notes in books seemed a stretch, however. The truly brilliant entry was the restaurant tab towards the end, with the entrees crossed out. It said so much in so few words.
November 15, 2023
“That ashtray stood beside the bed. On the lady ‘s side.”
“I’ll certainly treasure the memento,” I said.
“If ashtrays could speak, sir.”
“Indeed, yes.”
Graham Greene, from the End of the Affair
“The book is a love story told through an auction catalog….I had to distill their story down to objects and lot descriptions. And it’s essentially about sentimental value, but the sentimental value we place on things. The message that I am trying to convey I guess is that everything has a story.”
- Leanne Shapton
Using the notes and photographs I made up the story of Morris and Doolan’s relationship myself. Unbelievably intimate.
“I’ll certainly treasure the memento,” I said.
“If ashtrays could speak, sir.”
“Indeed, yes.”
Graham Greene, from the End of the Affair
“The book is a love story told through an auction catalog….I had to distill their story down to objects and lot descriptions. And it’s essentially about sentimental value, but the sentimental value we place on things. The message that I am trying to convey I guess is that everything has a story.”
- Leanne Shapton
Using the notes and photographs I made up the story of Morris and Doolan’s relationship myself. Unbelievably intimate.
October 7, 2022
Muy lindas fotos, muy lindo libro, magnífica idea. Es raro porque, a pesar de que es un territorio muy recorrido, conocido, reconocido y pisoteado (por mí): el romance, la intimidad, lo doméstico, el enfriamiento, la incertidumbre, el adiós, lo sentí completamente ajeno. Será la blanquitud.
March 8, 2023
This was some real Megan catnip - any book with a weird stylistic gimmick or unusual format is of course going to get me, so I adored this. The Lover's Dictionary meets The Last Five Years, this narrative is represented through an auction catalog of all the items a couple accumulated together over the course of their relationship before its eventual disintegration and their breakup.
This book really gets at what it felt like to make my first social media profile as a ninth grader, the idea that someone would go through everything I posted and piece together a fascinating narrative seasoned with appreciation for my Outstanding Taste, with enough withheld to maintain Intrigue and Suspense.
This couple are, of course, whimsical Nora Ephron-movie New Yorkers whose belongings mostly consist of charming antiques, letters to each other, and narratively dramatic printouts of emails, but at 130 pages rife with illustrations, the gimmick didn't have enough space to become stale. Really loved this.
This book really gets at what it felt like to make my first social media profile as a ninth grader, the idea that someone would go through everything I posted and piece together a fascinating narrative seasoned with appreciation for my Outstanding Taste, with enough withheld to maintain Intrigue and Suspense.
This couple are, of course, whimsical Nora Ephron-movie New Yorkers whose belongings mostly consist of charming antiques, letters to each other, and narratively dramatic printouts of emails, but at 130 pages rife with illustrations, the gimmick didn't have enough space to become stale. Really loved this.
May 23, 2022
This book completely expands the concept of book and narrative. Shapton uses material culture (which is already highly symbolic and significant on its own) to narrate a thorough ''chronicle'' of a couple's lives. Through objects and descriptions, Shapton navigates falling in love, falling out and loss. It made me think of how the objects we own and keep are emotional and even political decisions. They hold stories of their own and we are unavoidably reflected in them.
July 12, 2024
Hard to rate this one…. Loved the innovative storytelling, and I found that most of this story is told reading between the lines. Hard to consider it in the same way as I do traditional books. Thought provoking!
June 5, 2024
Read this on the way to Paris, last summer. So clever.
June 8, 2025
Review will be fully formed in 9 months in the shape of my thesis
November 17, 2020
Masterpiece.
July 18, 2024
Taylor Swift would love this
September 8, 2009
This was a really clever idea--using an auction catalog format to tell the story of a relationship--and the execution was just as clever as the idea which is a real coup. I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of the objects, but I loved that they were mostly just ordinary objects like playbills and polaroids. The story really comes through and it's fun to think of the catalog/relationship as a living thing (the "item removed" designations near the end). At first it made me feel like my relationship is inferior or less real because it has produced virtually no artifacts at all. But my relationship is also calm and enjoyable and we are mostly in the same place, so it's a tradeoff I suppose.
This is a quickie read of an hour and a half at most, and is probably fun to pick up and browse through later (I read it in a library copy).
My assessment: she was too young for him, and yet he is a perpetual man-child who will never be ready for anyone and searches out women who are too young for him so he'll never have to grow up. And I hope when she got his most recent note, which introduces the catalog, she was happily ensconced with someone who is in a real, grown up relationship with her.
This is a quickie read of an hour and a half at most, and is probably fun to pick up and browse through later (I read it in a library copy).
My assessment: she was too young for him, and yet he is a perpetual man-child who will never be ready for anyone and searches out women who are too young for him so he'll never have to grow up. And I hope when she got his most recent note, which introduces the catalog, she was happily ensconced with someone who is in a real, grown up relationship with her.
September 7, 2011
Loved the concept that the story of a couple was told through an auction catalog of their possessions documenting their relationship, like gifts, clothes, photographs, postcards, and mixed CDs. But it came up short on execution. The descriptions only give a glimpse into their story and hinted at the problems they had. Even then, it felt too one-sided from Lenore's perspective. And there was something that seemed pretentious and unrealistic about this retro-vintage-cool couple. An epicurean columnist for the NY Times wears Christian Louboutin shoes? A traveling photographer has a Prada toiletries bag? The relationship takes place in the 21st century and everyone writes handwritten letters to each other? Plus, you know the end before you begin, and there are no real surprises or character development or story line along the way. The relationship plods along through the photos, and then comes to a sudden yet predictable end. An interesting book, but I felt it could have been so much more.
October 16, 2013
A love story told in pictures, as an auction catalog. Leanne Shapton shows the evolution and the downfall of a relationship through the pictures of the objects and memorabilia that two people have exchanged, used or given each other in the course of four years: the ticket stubs, the books, love notes and messages scribbled on scraps of paper, stuff they bought to furnish their apartment together. Totally brilliant.
Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be? stars as the female love interest in photos of the couples.
Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be? stars as the female love interest in photos of the couples.
August 23, 2012
This is a novel disguised as an auction catalog. And that's a great idea, but the actual hipsters-in-love plot is a little dull. Also, I suspect it did not sell very well, since the title is just about impossible to remember (for me, at least).
May 15, 2009
The absolute most perfect book in the world for me. Don't read it, seriously, I plan to give this book as a gift. Don't read it! But read it. If you are exactly like me and love:
Cakes
Found Magazine
Beautiful Objects
Doomed relationships
Voyeurism
Archives
Cakes
Found Magazine
Beautiful Objects
Doomed relationships
Voyeurism
Archives
July 24, 2021
got this really special book from a special friend 🥰
yooooo but i dont know if this actually calls as a book - it sort of reminds me of reading an art zine/indie mag - where its artistic expression comes from using an auction catalogue format to tell a love story. 💚 its such a unique approach of storytelling and one that i have never came across before!!! so every page really got me like 👀😱
with that being said, this book is just right up my alley omg so strange & so me wow im blessed to have a thoughtful friend that knows me that well????? ((brb crying)) in this invented auction catalogue, the 332 lots up are what remain from the relationship between lenore doolan & harold morris ((i wish they are not fictional characters btw bc i got so attached😩)). i really got lost in this one and spent almost the whole entire day, slowly finding myself trying to relate everything to the relationship.
i am always sentimental whenever it comes to things that have precious meanings. this book serves as a reminder that memories actually come in many forms & its okay to let go of them one day, if its for the best. 🥺 all in all, i cant believe how much an auction catalogue can tell a lot about a person - his relationship, passion & the little things that mean a lot in his life. how seemingly random items can be injected with a lingering meaning, tied to memories & experiences. 🌱
it must have taken such a great effort to come up with this book, will think about it for quite some time. :") so underrated!!! highly recommend if youre looking for a unique read that allow readers to fill in the blanks!! and if youre into art/photography as well 📸 also this is probably the longest book title i have ever come across 🤣
yooooo but i dont know if this actually calls as a book - it sort of reminds me of reading an art zine/indie mag - where its artistic expression comes from using an auction catalogue format to tell a love story. 💚 its such a unique approach of storytelling and one that i have never came across before!!! so every page really got me like 👀😱
with that being said, this book is just right up my alley omg so strange & so me wow im blessed to have a thoughtful friend that knows me that well????? ((brb crying)) in this invented auction catalogue, the 332 lots up are what remain from the relationship between lenore doolan & harold morris ((i wish they are not fictional characters btw bc i got so attached😩)). i really got lost in this one and spent almost the whole entire day, slowly finding myself trying to relate everything to the relationship.
i am always sentimental whenever it comes to things that have precious meanings. this book serves as a reminder that memories actually come in many forms & its okay to let go of them one day, if its for the best. 🥺 all in all, i cant believe how much an auction catalogue can tell a lot about a person - his relationship, passion & the little things that mean a lot in his life. how seemingly random items can be injected with a lingering meaning, tied to memories & experiences. 🌱
it must have taken such a great effort to come up with this book, will think about it for quite some time. :") so underrated!!! highly recommend if youre looking for a unique read that allow readers to fill in the blanks!! and if youre into art/photography as well 📸 also this is probably the longest book title i have ever come across 🤣
May 18, 2017
I denna experimentella bok finns hela Lenores och Harolds gemensamma liv på auktion. Målade påskägg, $10-20. Trivial pursuit, $20-25. (Att de här ska ha använts som ngn slags konversationssubstitut av paret under deras "morning and evening ablutions" tycker jag är obehagligt.)
De gjorde förstås slut till slut, det är därför sakerna auktioneras ut, antar jag? Kanske var det här som Jonna "Marcus Birros exfru" Vanhatalo fick idén att sälja deras bröllopstavla på blocket?
Hursom, parets relation osar av dagstidningars "min helg"-spalter och American Psycho-esque märkesvarufetischism. Jag förväntar mig nästan att en av alla deras restaurangbokningar ska vara på Patrick Batemans favorithak Dorsia...
De gjorde förstås slut till slut, det är därför sakerna auktioneras ut, antar jag? Kanske var det här som Jonna "Marcus Birros exfru" Vanhatalo fick idén att sälja deras bröllopstavla på blocket?
Hursom, parets relation osar av dagstidningars "min helg"-spalter och American Psycho-esque märkesvarufetischism. Jag förväntar mig nästan att en av alla deras restaurangbokningar ska vara på Patrick Batemans favorithak Dorsia...
August 23, 2018
This has a fantastic concept - presenting the story of a romance and its demise (and potential rekindling?) through just an auction catalogue of objects accumulated, exchanged, and shared by the couple.
The problem is that it turns out it's much harder to appreciate a book in a sustained way with out an explicit narrative, so I ended up just skimming the images, looking for written material like post-it notes, emails, conversations on playbills (it didn't help that I knew it was fiction, and so I was totally uninterested in plumbing the details of each "auction piece").
It is definitely possible that I simply lack the imaginative capacity and/or patience to carefully consider each artifact and interpret it to form a nice, beautiful narrative, but all I can report is that it was a slog.
The problem is that it turns out it's much harder to appreciate a book in a sustained way with out an explicit narrative, so I ended up just skimming the images, looking for written material like post-it notes, emails, conversations on playbills (it didn't help that I knew it was fiction, and so I was totally uninterested in plumbing the details of each "auction piece").
It is definitely possible that I simply lack the imaginative capacity and/or patience to carefully consider each artifact and interpret it to form a nice, beautiful narrative, but all I can report is that it was a slog.
July 31, 2021
Such an original concept - the course of a relationship as shown through ephemera listed in an auction catalogue. I felt like I was intruding at times on very personal thoughts and feelings of two real people as they grappled with who they wanted to be as individuals and as a couple. The letter from Ann on p98 gave me pause about the nature of being in a couple, balancing pleasure and pain. I find myself wanting to know how things turned out for these fictional people - did things get better for them? Are they happy? This was so well-executed and will definitely be a book I hang on to for a long, long time.
April 8, 2023
It was certainly an interesting read and well done in the sense that the auction catalog actually carried the story well. The fact that this is such an interesting concept to me earns the book 4 stars (and of course that it did actually work).
I do think there is room for improvement in terms of what story is told and/or to take it to an even bigger extreme, where the auction does not necessarily list items in an order that suits the story chronologically.
But in any case it was exciting for me to read and the power of objects in storytelling is clearly visible in this book.
I do think there is room for improvement in terms of what story is told and/or to take it to an even bigger extreme, where the auction does not necessarily list items in an order that suits the story chronologically.
But in any case it was exciting for me to read and the power of objects in storytelling is clearly visible in this book.
May 10, 2025
this isn’t a non-fiction auction book from a couple’s estate sale like i thought it was when i got it on book outlet - it’s literally a romance fiction novel presented in a really unique way. what a great surprise!! i really wished the author had gone to the trouble of creating at least one new york times baking column clipping, and the printed out emails and stuff seemed a bit unrealistic. like it was 2003 why was there not printed map quest directions they wrote notes on instead!! but other than that i found it to be a really fun and interesting book.
June 29, 2024
I think this is a clever story, one that I admire because I wish I had thought to write it. One that will resonate with most people because not wanting one's own relationship story to end while also wondering if maybe it should is experienced by many. Also reminds me of a museum I read about (in LA, I think). Leaves me with two questions, one from another book I enjoyed very much: who knows how to make love stay? & then, what do we gain when we let go of that which isn't bringing us joy or contentment?
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December 29, 2024you have never read anything like this. if you need to find a unique gift for someone, don't even bother with the Strategist articles; this book is like a curated gift guide. i gasped at so many of the pieces in here. some things are so silly, like i would never bid $20-45 for three postcards but $30-50 for an hermès towel with bunnies on it? okay!! anyways. perfect for a vintage and thrifting fiend like me
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