Impossible Views of the World
Lucy Ives, 2017
Penguin Publishing
304
ISBN-13: 9780735221536
Summary
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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1980
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University; M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop; Ph.D., New York University
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
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. (From the publisher .)
Book Reviews
[An] intricate, darkly funny debut…There is so much going on in this novel, so many sharp observations packed into sentences as sensual and jarring as a Mardi Gras parade, that it bears a second look.… Ives, an accomplished poet, infuses even mundane actions with startling imagery.… Read this book on whichever level you choose: you woman coming unglued, art world mystery or museum-based episode of The Office, replete with petty workplace drama, aged PCs and the occasional colleague marching "up and down the hall, loudly, in quest of a staple remover." It’s a smart novel brimming with ideas about love, art, personal agency, a lack thereof.
Susan Coll - New York Times Book Review
Cool and bracing…a perfect summer pleasure.… An accomplished poet, Ives also knows how to delight sentence by sentence, with turns of phrase that cry to be underlined or Tweeted.… Part send-up of the Manhattan art world, part elaborate literary mystery, the novel is bound together by a voice that is at turns deadpan and warm, shot through with a crisp irony that makes it tempting to declare it the literary equivalent of an Alex Katz painting.… It’s a singular work, worthy of a place in any world-class collection.
Vogue.com
Ives maximizes her story’s humor with subtlety…. She also isn’t afraid to make her heroine unlikable, which works in the novel’s favor. Ives’s prose and storytelling feel deliberately obtuse at times…but the result is an odd and thoroughly satisfying novel.
Publishers Weekly
An original debut ringing with smart prose, engaging humor and cultivated taste…Ives’ genius is apparent in the intricate way she weaves ironic confession, romantic comedy and artful treatise with explorations into the historic art world…Full of intelligence and imagination, this relatable literary mystery will charm even the most apprentice art devotee.
BookPage
Stella is…smart, with an equal tendency toward snark and introspection…. The novel sends up the museum world, with pretentious art folks courting corporate dollars and the usual office politics, but maintains a sense of something larger, even magical, working in the background.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Ives' writing derives much of its humor from a combination of high and low—arch formulations and mini-disquisitions studded with cussing, sex, and jokes about Reddit.… A diversion and a pleasure, this novel leaves you feeling smarter and hipper than you were before.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Impossible Views of the World … then take off on your own:
1. Describe Stella Krakus. How does she contribute to the mess that her own life is — impending divorce and an affair with a colleague? Does she gain your sympathy or does her frequent deprecation (snark?) of self and others put you off? Do think she a typical millennial?
2. Talk about Stella's mother Caro. What influence does she have on her daughter's life?
3. Lucy Ives is a poet. Do you see evidence of that in Impossible Views? Consider, for instance, the author's turns of phrase: "micro-tizers" or "proofreaders dressed as majorettes" or how Stella "brawls" her way out of the subway.
4. Follow-up to Question 3: Some readers on Goodreads were put off by Ives's writing, finding the novel over-written, pretentious, even confusing. Were you put off, as well?
5. Does Impossible Views of The World live up to its billing as a mystery? Is the ending, the reveal, satisfying?
6. An appendix is…well, appended to the back of the book. Did you find it helpful in following the plot? Is it a necessary inclusion?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)