Good For Art Lovers, But That's About It

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

Adult Fiction

Trying to pick a genre for this book in order to put it on my virtual "bookshelf" was a real stumper.  I have no idea where it would go, other than fiction.

That's a pretty good review for the book, too.  I don't know what I expected from Steve Martin--a bit of humor, perhaps?  There isn't a shred of that in the book.  There isn't humor or any other emotion--care, concern, anger, sadness.  This literally reads in this way:  first this happened, then that happened, then another thing happened, then the book was over.  There was no discernible plot and I had no idea, starting from the first page, what I was reading to find out.  Usually (always!), there is some type of problem or dilemma the main character has and the reader is along to see how that unravels.  I'd be hard pressed to even decide which of the two main characters were a main character.  I never did figure out what their issue was, a theft maybe?  It's just a stumper as to why I cared about these two people who cared about not much.

The plot:  Lacey and the narrator dude (who probably has a name but I've already forgotten it after one day), like art.  Lacey becomes a gallery owner; dude becomes an art writer.  They do art type things; perpetrate a fraud, kind of; and, go to a lot of parties and events.

For all that wasn't happening in the book, it wasn't awful.  I don't know why I kept on reading, but I did.  The writing was engaging enough, like a rocking chair that goes on its own--no work required so why not keep reading?  I will say this for Steve Martin, he knows how to spell and knows a lot of words.  That's pretty ambivalent, but so is the book.

I can think of only type of reader who might like it--an art nut.  If you love anything at all to do with fine art, painting and that scene, you might like this.  And, maybe Steve Martin's mother.  She'd probably like it, too.