The Passion Artist (American Literature Series) [Paperback]

John Hawkes (Author), Rick Moody (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: American Literature Series | Publication Date: June 10, 2010

A classic of dark eroticism from one of the great American writers of the twentieth century.

Set in an imaginary European city, The Passion Artist takes us into the dream-like interior world of Konrad Vost, a middle-aged widower grieving for his dead wife, devoted to his schoolgirl daughter, and obsessed with the memory and the fate of his mother, who is an inmate in the city’s prison. When Vost discovers that his daughter has become a prostitute, and that the women prisoners are in revolt, he embarks on a fantastic series of violent and erotic encounters, exploring the shifting balance of power between the sexes, and the limits of human perversity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

What an ambitious undertaking! The Passion Artist is a symbolic journey of the familiar territory men and women dispute between them, a rich philosophical observation of the differences in our sexes—and the overwhelming need for compassion and love. It is a lush, poetic, dark work, but it is also comic and true—and everywhere it is touched with the erotic power of John Hawkes’s language. He and Kurt Vonnegut are simply the most original first-rate writers in this country. (John Irving, author of The World According to Garp )

John Hawkes writes with dizzying brilliance. (Charles Nicol - National Review )

His sentences are themselves ‘events.’ (William Gaddis, author of The Recognitions )

About the Author

John Hawkes (1925–1998) was one of the most innovative and widely regarded novelists of the twentieth century. Born in Stamford, Connecticut, and educated at Harvard University, Hawkes taught at Brown University for thirty years. Praised by Leslie Fiedler, Flannery O’Connor, and William H. Gass, who wrote, “when it comes to the engravement of the sentence . . . no one can match him,” Hawkes was the author of numerous acclaimed novels, including The Lime Twig, The Beetle Leg, Second Skin, Adventures in the Alaskan Skin Trade and The Passion Artist.

Rick Moody is the award-winning author of Black Veil, Demonology, The Diviners, Garden State, The Ice Storm, Purple America, and Right Livelihoods.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive (June 10, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564785602
• ISBN-13: 978-1564785602
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #568,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Grotesque and unpleasant, January 1, 2009

By 

Cecil Bothwell "Author of "Whale Falls: A... (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Passion Artist (Harper Colophon Books) (Paperback)

Hawkes' novel about a man whose obsession with women seems trapped in pre-adolescent ignorance is dark, disgusting and tedious. It is prettily written by an author with a good grasp of language, but it is a story that entirely fails to engage. There are no characters with whom to identify, no plot that draws one in, no sympathetic emotions aroused. Were it not a very small volume, and were Hawkes' reputation not highly touted, I would have quit the book early. But I slogged on and can only blame myself for the waste of time.

I hasten to add that as a writer and reader I have no problem with exploration of sexuality, with dysfunction, with examination of obsession or with dark and difficult subjects. I don't expect every novel to be full of sweetness and light and I don't shy away from difficult subjects or profundity. But this book is ugliness dressed pretentiously as art, and it doesn't simply fail the smell test, it really stinks.