Contrapposto
A Novel
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER · THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • A sweeping novel about friendship, love, and the lifelong pursuit of art from Dave Eggers, the award-winning, bestselling author of The Circle, A Hologram for the King, and The Eyes & the Impossible
“Glorious and captivating, with Eggers’ signature humor and precision, Contrapposto tells a big and big-hearted story that counter-positions exquisitely the pain and exhilarations of love and the creative impulse. I loved this novel.” —Lily King, author of Heart the Lover
“In this satisfyingly old-school novel, an artist tries to find his place, and hold onto his spark, in a world that values fads and flash. . . . Contrapposto is an earthy, warm return to form . . . . To call the book ‘moving’ would be a smelly cliché, so let’s say undulating, with both despair and hope.” —Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review
Cricket Dib, born on the American prairie, has no particular prospects or ambitions until, in grade school, he realizes he can draw. He soon meets a girl, Olympia Argyros, one year older, who is captivating and brilliant and far more worldly. Recognizing his talent, she convinces him to deface, with profound vulgarity, a popular playground. Under her direction, he does it willingly, already in love, and thus begins a sixty-five-year entwining between Cricket and Olympia, encompassing friendship, working partnership and love affair. Together they go to art school—an experience of dubious value—and then navigate the art world for the next fifty years, together and apart.
Contrapposto is a moving and very funny novel about allies and art, and what it means to be an artist. All through their lives, Cricket sees Olympia as his soulmate and destiny, and while she is always his champion, romantically her eyes are always seeking something—and someone—else. Their love changes over the decades, but their commitment to each other, and their search for meaning in the making of art, never wanes. The novel spans the globe, from New York to Thailand, Indiana to Paris, and follows Cricket and Olympia through sickness and health, war and death.
The novel is a wild and beautiful examination of the rules and market forces of the art world, but chiefly it’s about two friends who believe they can change that world, and bring new meaning to it, if only they can start their own movement, dodge charlatans, remain open-eyed and open-hearted, avoid going mad, avoid dying young of rare cancers, stay true to their ideals, and never tire of beauty. Not easy, but not impossible, either.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Dave Eggers has crafted a compelling, deeply personal novel about the joys, obstacles, and many contradictions in the life of an artist. Neglected and abused, young Cricket finds his only solace in drawing. Essentially fending for himself by age nine, he becomes bewitched by a fellow young artist named Olympia, and we follow along while they orbit each other as friends and colleagues throughout the six sprawling decades to come. Eggers combines young Cricket’s troubled, almost Dickensian background with a fascinating aversion to showing and selling his brilliant and skilful drawings. Contrasted with Olympia’s bold, audacious attitude and access to money, Cricket’s desire to draw purely for his own enjoyment (after days spent working blue-collar jobs) raises worthy questions about class, commerce, and who has the power to decide what makes for great art. Punctuated with original sketches by Eggers himself, Contrapposto is both a thought-provoking commentary and a sincere, character-driven narrative.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Eggers (The Every) unfurls a decades-spanning story of love and art. At 15, Cricket Dibb begins commuting from his home in 1980s Indiana to a drawing class in Chicago, believing it's time to take his work seriously if he ever wants to become a real artist. His talent attracts the attention of classmate Olympia Argyros, a fearless girl one year older, who encourages him to exhibit his nude life drawings at his school library. Cricket falls in love with Olympia, but she's restless and fickle. Meanwhile, he finds solace in his friendship with Jed, his coworker at a convenience store, after his drawings are banned from the library. Later, ROTC graduate Jed gets deployed to Kuwait during the Gulf War and dies in a freak accident, inspiring Olympia to curate an installation in his honor. Olympia flits in and out of Cricket's life, stoking his erotic and emotional devotion ("She'd always felt free to touch any part of him at any time, and he did not mind"). As Cricket reaches middle age, he has melancholy but sanguine epiphanies about a life dedicated to art and his enduring passion for Olympia ("Every year Cricket felt more—of everything—and every year his eyes had only gotten better, younger, his aperture opening, opening, opening"). It's a tour de force.
