Boogie-Woogie - Softcover

Moynihan, Danny

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312288514 ISBN 13: 9780312288518

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2002

Synopsis

Like The Player's hilariously poker-faced dissection of Hollywood, Boogie-Woogie's lurid quick cuts uncover of the tenderest portions of the '90's New York art world's underbelly

Elaine Yoon, a tattooed, pierced, Chinese-Californian lesbian, obsessively seduces straight women, and films video shorts of her sexual conquests. Jo Richards, an intellectually challenged installation artist grappling with the idea of peripheral vision, knows the whereabouts of Mondrian's last painting. Art Spindle, a cravat-wearing, reptilian art dealer, desperately wants to sell the Mondrian, when he isn't sleeping with Jean Maclestone, collector and art-hag, the vain wife of stuttering über-collector Bob Maclestone.

This cast of characters dance through incestuous working relationships, run-ins with incompetent gallery owners, and the lure of manipulative art dealers. Danny Moynihan's deliciously satirical sexual deviants, attention seekers, and would-be murderers ring true in this sophisticated, sharply observed, darkly humorous novel.

About this title

About the Author:

Danny Moynihan has had first-hand experience of the art world curating shows, managing galleries, and exhibiting his own work. He lives in London. This is his first novel.

From Publishers Weekly:

The hip, trendy New York art scene provides the backdrop for Moynihan's satiric debut novel, a montage-like collection of scenes in which the author tries to mimic structurally the energy of the Mondrian masterpiece that links the fates of his art world characters. Moynihan introduces his wacky crew in rapid-fire succession. At the top of the heap is Art Spindle, a powerful gallery owner who shows the work of established artist Jo Richards and fights to extract money from rich patrons like the elderly Rhinegolds. Lower down on the totem pole are up-and-coming agent Beth Freemantle, who eventually opens her own gallery, and intriguing young artist Elaine Yoon-Jung Yi, a lesbian who seduces and stalks her paramours and then turns her sexual escapades into video pieces. What comes after the introductions is a nonstop series of scenes and snippets from the lives of the various characters, covering deals, conversations and sexual encounters that wander into some kinky terrain. The author, a curator and art dealer, clearly knows the world his characters inhabit, and he sketches some convincing scenes, though his prose is occasionally breathy and awkward. The lack of narrative structure presents some problems in its own rightAthe early chapters of the novel are particularly jarring and scattershot, and the lack of a story line makes the book an uneven read. The result is a novel that works as satire, but fails to quite cohere as fiction. Art world denizens will appreciate the gossipy slant, but the tale has little to offer a more general audience. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312288514
• ISBN 13: 9780312288518
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256