Enquist's impassioned novel revolves around the artist Johan Steenkamer, the women who are drawn to him, and his troubled family relationships: an absent father, a manipulative mother and an emotionally crippled brother. The three days leading up to the opening of his grand exhibition are depicted with a dramatic sense of light and shade; Enquist describes making jam and making love with equally vivid intensity. Present events are shadowed by the past, and the section describing the loss of Steenkamer's daughter is an ...
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Enquist's impassioned novel revolves around the artist Johan Steenkamer, the women who are drawn to him, and his troubled family relationships: an absent father, a manipulative mother and an emotionally crippled brother. The three days leading up to the opening of his grand exhibition are depicted with a dramatic sense of light and shade; Enquist describes making jam and making love with equally vivid intensity. Present events are shadowed by the past, and the section describing the loss of Steenkamer's daughter is an exploration of grief that will leave no reader unmoved. There are undertones of "Don Giovanni in the portrayal of the central character and in moments of the narrative; timeless dilemmas are counterpointed with those familiar to all contemporary working women. This beautifully observed and affecting novel introduces to English-speaking audiences the work of one of Europe's finest writers. "The Masterpiece has been translated by Jeannette K. Ringold, it was originally published in 1994 as "Het Meesterstuk.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. No Jacket. Book Octavo, hardcover, near fine with black cloth at spine and black pictorial boards. No dj. The first novel of this author, who is also a musician, a psychoanalyst, and a prize-winning poet and a best-selling novelist in her native Holland (as well as in Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Austria. ) As in all of her fiction, the three themes of her adult life-music, psychology and motherhood-are present in this tightly organized novel-one told in the various voices of the 4 adults who are the protagonists. Originally published in 1994 in Dutch as 'Het meesterstuk' in Dutch, this is the first English language edition. Translated by Jeannette K. Ringold. 230 pp.