Impossible Views of the World - Hardcover

Ives, Lucy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 143284430X ISBN 13: 9781432844301

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2017

Synopsis

A witty, urbane, and sometimes shocking debut novel, set in a hallowed New York museum, in which a co-worker's disappearance and a mysterious map change a life forever

Stella Krakus, a curator at Manhattan's renowned Central Museum of Art, is having the roughest week in approximately ever. Her soon-to-be ex-husband (the perfectly awful Whit Ghiscolmbe) is stalking her, a workplace romance with "a fascinating, hyper-rational narcissist" is in freefall, and a beloved colleague, Paul, has gone missing. Strange things are afoot: CeMArt's current exhibit is sponsored by a Belgian multinational that wants to take over the world's water supply, she unwittingly stars in a viral video that's making the rounds, and her mother--the imperious, impossibly glamorous Caro--wants to have lunch. It's almost more than she can overanalyze.

But the appearance of a mysterious map, depicting a 19th-century utopian settlement, sends Stella--a dogged expert in American graphics and fluidomanie (don't ask)--on an all-consuming research mission. As she teases out the links between a haunting poem, several unusual novels, a counterfeiting scheme, and one of the museum's colorful early benefactors, she discovers the unbearable secret that Paul's been keeping, and charts a course out of the chaos of her own life. Pulsing with neurotic humor and dagger-sharp prose, Impossible Views of the World is a dazzling debut novel about how to make it through your early thirties with your brain and heart intact.

About this title

Review

"There are abundant pleasures to be found in Lucy Ives's debut novel about art curation, corporate control, and utopia (among many other subjects and digressions), but the best is the poetic, elegant intelligence of its narration, vocalized by Stella Krakus, whose every sentence wryly climbs from the ridiculous to the sublime." -- Teddy Wayne, author of Loner and The Love Song of Jonny Valentine
"This book was written by a rampaging, mirthful genius. It stands before me like a runestone, magical, mysterious--an esoteric juggernaut masquerading as a 'debut novel.' During the days I spent reading it, I said goodbye to all else." -- Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

"I first knew Lucy Ives's work as a poet, and to have her prose is a gift, too. The detailed novel she's built with such authenticity, wit, and feeling is remarkable for its vitality, insights, and lyrical view of a changing world." -- Hilton Als, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of White Girls
"This book was written by a rampaging, mirthful genius. It stands before me like a runestone, magical, mysterious--an esoteric juggernaut masquerading as a 'debut novel.' During the days I spent reading it, I said goodbye to all else." -- Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen
"There are abundant pleasures to be found in Lucy Ives's debut novel about art curation, corporate control, and utopia (among many other subjects and digressions), but the best is the poetic, elegant intelligence of its narration, vocalized by Stella Krakus, whose every sentence wryly climbs from the ridiculous to the sublime." -- Teddy Wayne, author of Loner and The Love Song of Jonny Valentine
"Lucy Ives, a deeply smart and painstakingly elegant writer, wins the prize with this intricate, droll, stylish book--at once a mystery novel, a romantic comedy, a tricky essay on aesthetics, an expose of art-world foibles, and a diary of emotional distress. With sharp phrases, uncanny plot-turns, and mise-en-abymes galore, this mesmerizing tale radiates the haute irreality of Last Year at Marienbad and the dreamy claustrophobia of The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, this time for adults only." --Wayne Koestenbaum, author of My 1980s and Other Essays


"An art historical mystery that will interest fans of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, with a narrator equal parts intellectual, ironic, and cool...Scintillating...A diversion and a pleasure, this novel leaves you feeling smarter and hipper than you were before." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"I first knew Lucy Ives's work as a poet, and to have her prose is a gift, too. The detailed novel she's built with such authenticity, wit, and feeling is remarkable for its vitality, insights, and lyrical view of a changing world." -- Hilton Als, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of White Girls

"This book was written by a rampaging, mirthful genius. It stands before me like a runestone, magical, mysterious--an esoteric juggernaut masquerading as a 'debut novel.' During the days I spent reading it, I said goodbye to all else." -- Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

"There are abundant pleasures to be found in Lucy Ives's debut novel about art curation, corporate control, and utopia (among many other subjects and digressions), but the best is the poetic, elegant intelligence of its narration, vocalized by Stella Krakus, whose every sentence wryly climbs from the ridiculous to the sublime." -- Teddy Wayne, author of Loner and The Love Song of Jonny Valentine

"Lucy Ives, a deeply smart and painstakingly elegant writer, wins the prize with this intricate, droll, stylish book--at once a mystery novel, a romantic comedy, a tricky essay on aesthetics, an expose of art-world foibles, and a diary of emotional distress. With sharp phrases, uncanny plot-turns, and mise-en-abymes galore, this mesmerizing tale radiates the haute irreality of Last Year at Marienbad and the dreamy claustrophobia of The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, this time for adults only." --Wayne Koestenbaum, author of My 1980s and Other Essays

About the Author

Lucy Ives is the author of several books of poetry and short prose, including The Hermit and the novella nineties. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, Lapham's Quarterly, and at newyorker.com. For five years she was an editor with the online magazine Triple Canopy. A graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from New York University. She teaches at the Pratt Institute and is currently editing a collection of writings by the artist Madeline Gins.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 143284430X
• ISBN 13: 9781432844301
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 421