Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist (Harvest Book) [Paperback]

Laurie Foos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998 | Series: Harvest Book

A “baroque, surreal, and witty” novel (Ms.) about art, bowling, sex, and hairspray-”a mad tale of a mad genius, by a young author who may be a genius herself” (Kirkus Reviews).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"If I'd known Walruses were waiting for me on some back road in Florida, I might have taken more of an interest in bowling." The first sentence of Laurie Foos's bizarre yet wonderful novel, Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist, gives readers an indication of the novel's major preoccupations and a taste of its author's deadpan style. The book's heroine, Frances Fisk, acquires on the eve of her 18th birthday both a stepfather and a bowling alley, complete with pizza, pins, and polyurethane. Until her mother's remarriage and the death of her father, a sculptor, Frances traveled in daddy's world of demented artists and impossible artistic visions; now the change in station proves too much for her, sending her into a depression from which she is unable to recover.

Until she meets the walruses. After seeing two of the libidinous beasts mating at the local aquarium, Frances becomes obsessed with the animals. Walruses, bowling alleys, pizza--only Laurie Foos could seamlessly blend these disparate items into riotous satire. Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist is funny and strange; by its end, it even starts to make sense. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This second novel by Foos (following Ex Utero, LJ 3/15/95) is an amusing satire of artists and their critics as well as an absurdist tale of a teenage girl dealing with her sexuality. Aspiring artist Frances is the daughter of the late Morton Fisk, renowned for his "Men with Chainsaws" sculptures. Toward the end of his life, Fisk became terrorized by his own sculptures and retreated to the basement, wearing only his underpants and eating all the time. When he died, Frances's mother renounced art and married a bowling-alley tycoon. Frances is sexually attracted only to men whose underpants are visible through their clothes, and she emulates her father by hiding in her room in fear that the walruses at the local aquarium are after her. Foos is most successful in her satire of the art scene, including pretentious, critical articles about Fisk's work and the media frenzy when he occasionally leaves his house. But she falters when she turns Frances's understandable obsession with her father and confusion about sex into a bizarre, hallucinogenic nightmare. Recommended for larger collections with adventurous readers.?Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156005433
• ISBN-13: 978-0156005432
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,734,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurie Foos teaches in the MFA program at Lesley University. Excerpts of her new novel, THE BLUE GIRL, have appeared in WRECKAGE OF REASON: XXPERIMENTAL WOMEN WRITING IN THE 21ST CENTURY and in the literary magazine, THE RAKE. Her story, "Moon Pies," another excerpt from the novel-in-progress, won 2nd place in the Italo Calvino Fiction Contest. THE BLUE GIRL is forthcoming from Coffee House Press. She lives on Long Island with her husband and two young children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars okay..., March 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

While "Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist" certainly contains some humerous passages, a likeable heroine and enough surreality to keep the reader engaged, the book lacks the depth nessisary to sustain the themes presented in its opening chapter. Really, reading the synopsis of the book and the first few pages is enough, as what follows reverts to cliche and cartoonish symbolism. Foos uses 175 pages to essentially state that normal life is a boring escape from the arduous personal experience nessisary to truely be an "artist." It's a theme present in countless other books, many of which take the subject on with some sort of insight or depth of perception lacking in this book. Chip Kidd's "THe Cheese Monkeys" for one contains many of the same ideas as this book, but his writing is consistent, his characters believable, etc.
This is not to say that this is a bad book, exactly, merely not the powerful testimate of an artist's coming of age as some reviewers suggest. It's recommended for anyone looking for something slightly off-kilter and entertaining. For more satisfying fare, you may want to check out "the cheese monkeys" or robert irwin's "exquisite corpse," both of which cover the same material foos does, but with more pleasing results.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dark journey of an artist's soul, August 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist (Hardcover)

This is a disturbing novel. It's unsettling. It has sharp corners, shadows. It explores the seamy underside of the unconscious. The young artist has to go on vision quest through the valley of her inner and outer demons in order to emerge whole and empowered, a heroine and artist in the end. The story functions as a vision quest. A young girl in American suburbia with a bouffant mother, an assinine (and threatening) stepfather, tries to use her art to reconstruct and resurrect her lost and damned sculptor father, and doing so, finds herself. The surreal symbolism is effective with its many references to the underwater world, mating walruses, sharks, drowning. The bathtub where the sculptor father drowns becomes the sea from which the reborn heroine emerges. Brilliant, cerebral, risk-taking writing from the most innovative young writers of our time. After you read this novel, you will never look at pizza or bowling balls the same way again.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dark journey of an artist's coming of age, August 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist (Hardcover)

This is a disturbing novel. It's unsettling. It has sharp corners, shadows. It explores the seamy underside of the unconscious. The young artist has to go on vision quest through the valley of her inner and outer demons in order to emerge whole and empowered, a heroine and artist in the end. The story functions as a vision quest. A young girl in American suburbia with a bouffant mother, an assinine (and threatening) stepfather, tries to use her art to reconstruct and resurrect her lost and damned sculptor father, and doing so, finds herself. The surreal symbolism is effective with its many references to the underwater world, mating walruses, sharks, drowning. The bathtub where the sculptor father drowns becomes the sea from which the reborn heroine emerges. Brilliant, cerebral, risk-taking writing from the most innovative young writers of our time. After you read this novel, you will never look at pizza or bowling balls the same way again.