One Woman Show
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
MARIE CLAIRE BEST BOOKS OF 2023
‘Thrilling…the experimental format carries an enjoyable tale impressively’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Spry, compulsive, unexpectedly profound’ Observer
A novel like no other - remarkably told through museum wall labels - about a twentieth-century woman who transforms herself from a precious object into an unforgettable protagonist
Prized, collected, critiqued. One Woman Show revolves around the life of Kitty Whitaker as she is defined by her potential for display and moved from collection to collection through multiple marriages. Christine Coulson, who has written hundreds of exhibition wall labels for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, precisely distils each stage of Kitty's sprawling life into that distinct format, every brief snapshot in time a wry reflection on womanhood, ownership, value and power.
Described with wit, poignancy and humour over the course of the twentieth century, Kitty emerges as an eccentric heroine who disrupts her privileged, porcelain life with both major force and minor transgressions. As human foibles propel each delicately crafted text, Coulson playfully asks: who really gets to tell our stories?
'Heartbreaking and funny . . . truly masterful and patient and insane, in the best way' Leanne Shapton
'Wry, humorous, poignant' Spectator
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Coulson's innovative yet disappointing sophomore outing (after Metropolitan Stories) is an experiment in structure that details the life of an American socialite through museum wall labels. Born in 1906, Kitty Whitaker is "all fireworks, golden child." The novel's first label belongs to a portrait of Kitty at age five and describes her as a "delirious display of Bernini verve and unrivaled WASP artistry." In subsequent portrait captions, Kitty is depicted as confident, a little cruel, and ready to take her place as the "centerpiece of a dynastic collection" through her 1926 marriage to the heir of a Pittsburgh mining fortune. Though her wedding initially seems to be the first of many triumphs, Kitty's life takes an unexpected turn when she's unable to bear a child and her husband dies in WWII. In the following decades, she remarries, seduces a stepson, and, at age 69, even applies for a job as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum. The prose is often witty and dynamic, but the constrained format limits the story rather than adding to it, and the mildly feminist arc of Kitty's self-realization feels predictable. Despite its novel structure, this turns out to be an unsatisfying showcase.
