20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved The Love-Artist!, May 2, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Love-Artist (Hardcover)
The Love-Artist, by Jane Alison, is a marvelous first novel by a brilliant young writer. The novel is a suspenseful mystery, based on a gap in our knowledge about Ovid, the Roman poet who wrote The Art of Love and The Metamorphoses (long considered two of the masterpieces of classical literature). Ovid wrote during the reign of Emperor Augustus and in the lifetime of Jesus Christ. For unknown reasons, he was exiled from Rome while at the height of his fame and success, and died in exile ten years later.
Ovid left behind a tantalizing fragment -- two lines of what seems to have been a full-length play about the legendary sorceress Medea, who abandoned her father and murdered her brother for love of a Greek hero, then murdered her own children by that hero when he deserted her for another woman.
Jane Alison has written a stunning novel imagining how Ovid came to write this powerful play, who inspired his character of Medea, why only two lines of the play survive, and why he was doomed to exile by the emperor himself. Her descriptions of imperial Rome are poetic and evocative: "[t]his great city and all that it's made of -- the finest things men have created and all the texture of cultured life, books and art and buildings and music, whispers in a marble square, sun shining through an amethyst dress, a glance on the street, sleek onyx statues standing in a row, the flare of recognition in intelligent eyes ... the rooms where conversation flies like torches ..."
Alison has created an unforgettable character in Xenia, the Black Sea woman whose talent, mystery and beauty inspire Ovid to create his terrifying version of Medea. The novel winds toward its inexorable end in a shimmer of beautifully written, nuanced passages. Alison's background as a classicist informs her imagination and the details of her settings are impeccable, from the intrigues of the Augustan court, to the superstitions of pre-Christian Rome. This is a wonderful book that had me staying up late to reach its utterly satisfying end.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Judge a book by its cover, May 27, 2004
I admit, I sometimes judge a book by its cover. In this case, I was not disappointed.
"The Love-Artist" is a rich work. During his banishment from Rome, the great writer Ovid meets Xenia (no, she's not a warrior princess). Xenia is known for her healing talents. She intrigues and inspires Ovid, who returns with her to Rome. But when Ovid decides to use her as the subject for his play "Medea," he creates situations meant to drive Xenia to the brink of madness. How does his muse cope with these manipulations and has Ovid take the charade too far?
Jane Alison's writing is eloquent and full of great imagery and exacting emotion. The characters themselves are well developed and believable.
I highly recommend this book.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THIS BOOK INFUSES A LONG-AGO ERA WITH VITAL BREATH, June 17, 2002
How many of us remember our days at school -- high school or college -- having the classics rammed down our throats, when a gentler method might have instilled in more of us an appeciation and love for the masterful works of Greece and Rome in their heyday? Ovid, of course (at least when I was in school, lo these many years ago) was glossed over by my teachers -- his works were far too seeded in the 'forbidden' emotions of physical love for the school boards of the day.
Jane Alison's incredible novel THE LOVE-ARTIST brings Ovid, his contemporaries and their society vividly to life for the reader -- the story she tells is no cold biography, but a living, breathing imagined life. Her characters -- Ovid, and especially Xenia -- are enthralling, exotic, erotic and (most importantly) BELIEVABLE. Their thoughts and emotions and motives, as layed out for us in this enthralling tale, make for as compelling a read as I've come across in recent years.
The story begins with Ovid being exiled from Rome by the emperor Augustus -- he is being transported through the Roman night seated on a wagon, flanked by two soldiers saddled with the boring (to them) duty of ridding Augustus of one more irritation. As the great poet begins to recall the events that led to his societal downfall, the rest of the story is told in a lengthy flashback.
On holiday on the Black Sea, far from Rome, as his masterpiece THE METAMORPHOSES is about to be published, Ovid is seeking both relaxation from the tensions of life in Rome as well as inspiration. He knows that in order to regain favour in the eyes of the emperor, his next work must be not only astounding in its scope, but acceptable to the powers-that-be. Almost as soon as he sets foot on land after his long sea journey, he is astonished to see a beautiful, exotic, wild young woman shoot up out of the sea as if she had been launched by a catapult.
She is Xenia -- gatherer of herbs, caster of spells, exorcisor of demons, reader of dreams and futures among the people in the remote region where she lives. She captures Ovid's imagination -- and his heart -- almost immediately. He sees in her all of the wild creatures from his METAMORPHOSES brought to life in a human being -- and he sees in her a muse, his inspiration for his next work. He becomes obsessed with her -- he must have her, he must bring her back with him to Rome.
Xenia is fully aware of Ovid's work -- and she soon comes to realize that the lanky Roman who is watching her from his hidden (he thinks) spot in the woods is the great poet she has so long admired. She is not completely wild -- she can read Latin, and has devoured Ovid's books. She is equally obsessed with him -- she sees in him a great opportunity for immortality, to be famous. They set their sights on each other almost simultaneously -- and the machinations they first have in mind give way in both of them to love.
The tale that follows -- with Ovid returning to Rome with Xenia -- is part love story, part mystery, a small epic of betrayal and magic and political power. Alison's writing is achingly lyrical -- it is perfectly suited to her subject, matching her imaginings of Ovid's life with the mood left us from the genius of his own writings. The story is enthralling and hard to put down -- and one of the finest novels I've read in some time. The experience was so rich that I didn't want it to end -- even as it whirled to its inevitable conclusion (which, thankfully, Alison's talents imbued with not a few surprises).
This novel is a real treat.
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