Utopia
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
It’s okay for men to make bad art. There’s no price on their head for doing it … Nothing for men is pre-determined, except their chance at great success.
When Romy, a gifted young artist in the male-dominated art scene of 1970s California, dies in suspicious circumstances, it is not long before her husband Billy finds a replacement.
Paz, fresh out of art school in New York, returns to California to take her place. But she is haunted by Romy, who is everywhere: in the photos and notebooks and art strewn around the house, and in the eyes of the baby she left behind, the baby Paz is now mother to.
Then, strange things begin to happen. Photographs move, noises reverberate through the house, people start to question what really happened the night Romy died, and then a postcard in her handwriting arrives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sopinka's mesmerizing latest (after The Dictionary of Animal Languages) stages a story of obsession in the 1970s Los Angeles art world. Paz, a recent art school grad, has long admired the scene's power couple: artists Romy, whom Sopinka reveres for navigating the sexist industry, and Billy, Romy's critically successful husband. So Paz is shattered when Romy dies mysteriously from a fall, prompting others to wonder if she was killed, perhaps by Billy, or if the whole thing was an elaborate performance piece and she's still alive. Less than a year later, Paz finds herself hastily married to Billy (they'd met when she was a student, though the circumstances behind their union don't come out till later) and raising his and Romy's infant, Flea. While Billy is in Italy for an exhibition, Paz grows desperate for answers, especially after Romy's friend hands her a recently mailed postcard she claims is from Romy. Excerpts of Romy's journals deliver slashing blows to the men dominating her cohort (one's work is "too physical... like a jock who's found another way to get attention"). Though the ending feels a bit sentimental, Paz's fixation with Romy—which partly explains what drew her to Billy—adds a thrilling hypnotic edge. This page-turner doubles as a love letter to the daring women on the fringes of art history.
