The Morels
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Publisher Description
A “gripping and mesmerizing” novel about a work of art that tears a family apart (The A.V. Club).
The Morels—Arthur, Penny, and Will—are a happy family of three living in New York City. So why would Arthur choose to publish a book that brutally rips his tightly knit family apart at the seams?
Arthur’s old schoolmate Chris is fascinated with this very question as he becomes accidentally reacquainted with Arthur. An unmarried aspiring filmmaker who works in a movie theater, Chris envies everything Arthur has, from his beautiful wife to his charming son to his seemingly effortless creativity. But as the story unspools, it becomes all too clear how difficult it is to draw the line between art and obscenity, truth and fiction, revolutionary thinking and brainless shock value, craftsmanship and commerce. The Morels explores whether it’s possible to escape the past, and whether it’s possible to save a family by destroying it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hacker earns all the stereotypical accolades of a debut novel promising, ambitious, sincere but his execution is far more original, and the result is an odd alloy of kitchen-sink family drama and metafictional inquest. Arthur Morel, who as a child was a talented violinist with a flair for self-sabotage, has just finished his second novel (also called The Morels), a barely fictionalized account of his relationship with his wife Penelope and their son, Will. His book's last scene, however, depicts Arthur and an eight-year-old Will engaging in a sexual act that shocks the public and quickly scuttles his relationship with his family, who are unmoved by his claims of poetic license. Penelope begins to suspect that the novel is an oblique admission by her husband of more than a merely unsavory imagination, and soon Arthur's mounting troubles become a legal matter. His only remaining ally is a small-time filmmaker, whose faith in his friend's innocence leads him to make a documentary that might uncover the facts behind the fictionalized Morels. Savvy readers will know that Hacker is up to something from the beginning, and what develops is an eloquent treatise on the rights of artists to exploit their personal histories and why they do so, and at what cost. The payoff goes a long way toward justifying an overstuffed middle section that suffers from the frequent absence of the novel's two anchors, the ever-frustrating Arthur and precocious Will. Hacker does more than establish himself with this fine debut; he delivers a mission statement and the book retains the same ability to shock as its namesake.
