Book Review - The Genius by Jesse Kellerman

Synopsis:  Greed gets Ethan Muller, a 33-year-old Manhattan art dealer, into hot water in Kellerman’s superb third stand-alone thriller (after Trouble). When reclusive artist Victor Cracke disappears, Muller winds up taking possession of the boxes and boxes of intense, disturbing drawings that Cracke left behind in his shabby Queens apartment. A favorable New York Times article helps fuel lucrative sales at an exhibit of Cracke’s drawings at Muller’s Chelsea gallery. Soon, though, Muller starts to receive cryptic, vaguely threatening letters. He also hears from a retired NYPD detective, Lee McGrath, who recognizes the face of one of the boys in a Cracke drawing as belonging to the victim of a 40-year-old unsolved murder. That revelation turns Muller into an amateur detective as he attempts to discover how the dead boy’s image—along with those of several other victims—made its way into the pictures. Kellerman has a gift for creating compelling characters as well as for crafting an ingenious plot that grabs the reader and refuses to let go.

First Line:  "In the beginning, I behaved badly."

Random Quote:  "I hate to buy back art.  Some dealers guarantee that if an item's market drops, they will repurchase it at sale price, allowing the buyer to walk away even.  I won't.  I think it infantilizes the client; part of the point of collecting is to hone one's own aesthetic sensibilities, and that happens only when one takes a personal stake in the matter."

Review:  Outsider art (or art brut) is a natural starting point for anyone interested in examining the relationship between art and commerce.  A category originally coined by Jean Du Buffet, art brut referred to art created by inmates of insane asylums.  The category was further expanded by art critic Roger Cardinal to include works created by people outside of the mainstream art world.  These artists are typically self-taught and their work is often discovered after their deaths.  In almost all ways this is primarily a marketing category and it is through this door that Jesse Kellerman enters into his novel about aesthetics, family mysteries, and father/son dynamics.

Vivian Girls by Henry Darger - Image by cometstarmoon via Flickr

Ethan Muller is the black sheep of his family - a self-described narcissist whose life revolves around his Chelsea art gallery.  For Ethan it is less about the art and more about the status and the money the art attracts and his discovery of a cache of Outsider Art created by a dead man and left behind in a housing project is a gallery owner's dream.  The work is sure to command astronomical prices and the artist is out of the picture.  All is well until Ethan is contacted by a retired police officer who recognizes the faces of children depicted in the work as those of the dead.  Ethan's friendship with this police officer and his family and the growing desire to learn what happened to these long dead children and to the artist who drew them forms the narrative center of this book.

The Genius is a good thriller, but it's more than that.  At its core it is an examination of the true nature of art and aesthetic, the potentially corrupting influence of commerce on art, and the long-term consequences of family secrets and institutions.

FTC Disclosure:  San Leandro Public Library

Rating:  Orange

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