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| Book Reviews, Interviews | |
Looking for a summer art read? I found one! This is Where We Live is a smart and gently snarky novel about a young-ish couple trying to hang onto their deflating Los Angeles home on the down side of the real estate bubble. He’s a “famous on college radio” musician with creative block and an art star ex-girlfriend. She’s a Sundance filmmaker whose tender first film tanks at the box office in its first week of release. Janelle Brown writes about hot-button cultural issues from an upper middle class point of view. Her characters are members of California’s creative class. They’re filmmakers, musicians, writers, artists, investors and their spouses who struggle to balance the comforts and demands of family life with creative aspirations. I devoured This Is Where We Live in a single day and followed that up with an equally ravenous read of Brown’s first novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. Brown writes beautifully with clarity, humor and compassion. Both her novels are compulsive reads with artistic themes that ride the fine line between popular and literary fiction. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Brown about the role of art and painting in her novels by email. She shared some juicy thoughts. I look forward to sharing them with you later this week. In the meantime, read more at DoubleX. | |
