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Samantha Peale
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The American Painter Emma Dial: A Novel Hardcover – May 11, 2009

by Samantha Peale (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

“A racy, muscular, enlightening beauty of a novel.” ―James McManus

Emma Dial is a virtuoso painter who executes the works of Michael Freiburg, a preeminent figure in the New York art world. She has a sensuous and exacting hand, hips like a matador, and long neglected ambitions of her own. She spends her days completing a series of pictures for Freiburg's spring exhibition and her nights drinking and dining with friends and luminaries. Into this landscape walks Philip Cleary, Emma's longtime painting hero and a colleague and rival of her boss. Philip Cleary represents the ideal artistic existence, a respected painter, fearless and undeterred by fashion. He is unmatched by anyone from Emma's generation. Except, just possibly, Emma herself. Emma Dial must choose between the security of being a studio assistant to a renowned painter and the unknown future as an artist in her own right.

Samantha Peale writes with astonishing insight about a young woman who risks everything to fulfill her ambitions as an artist.

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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    May 11, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.9 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    039306820X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393068207
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From former Jeff Koons studio assistant Peale, an introspective examination of art, talent and motivation in the contemporary New York art scene. Emma Dial is 32 and the right hand to prominent New York artist Michael Freiburg: Michael dreams up the ideas and Emma—armed with her skill and his trust—does the painting. Through their stormy six-year relationship, Emma has reached a certain level of comfort, painting five or six major works a year at $20,000 apiece. Yet as art becomes work and her talent is appropriated to someone else's vision, Emma finds it increasingly difficult to visit her own studio, much less come up with ideas of her own. Michael and Emma, of course, also sleep together. When Michael's friend and rival Philip Cleary enters the picture, choices become increasingly confusing for Emma as Philip pushes her to break free of Michael and focus on her own work. There's a controlled neatness to the novel that feels at odds with the fury and passions of its artist characters, and the quiet late-book revelations aren't exactly inspired. All in all, it's fine, if a bit light. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Emma is a fully developed character, a smart young woman who must choose between an easy pass into a world of excitement and glamour and the hard work and heavy risk of personal achievement."
― Barbara Fisher, Boston Globe

"[A] splendid first novel....A wonderful achievement, The American Painter Emma Dial is a novel that should have broad appeal―a treat for both the artist of any medium and the general reader."
― Ron Slate, On the Seawall

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition (May 11, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 039306820X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393068207
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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Samantha Peale

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Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
24 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and thrilling, with one mentioning it's extremely inspiring as an artist.

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3 customers mention "Art book"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's artistic content, with one describing it as a work of great craft and another finding it extremely inspiring as an artist.

"...This book is a work of great craft that captures in its subject the tumult of human creativity and talent...." Read more

"This book was extremely inspiring to me as an artist...." Read more

"Book for artists and those interested in the art world..." Read more

3 customers mention "Enjoyment"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thrilling, with one describing it as pure fun.

"...Exhilarating passages emerge from stylistically stunning language, stacatto and fluid, like geat brushwork...." Read more

"...Excellent fiction, sure, but compelling and reminded me that your dream can slip away if neglected." Read more

"...Great for women and painters, New York scene, interesting." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Eli Lederman
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, energetic writing
    Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    What a fabulous read! Samantha Peale writes with energy and zeal that evoke the visual sensuousness of the paintings her heroine executes, and the sheer drama of her soul-searching and ultimate self-discovery. Exhilarating passages emerge from stylistically stunning language, stacatto and fluid, like geat brushwork. This book is a work of great craft that captures in its subject the tumult of human creativity and talent. Along the way, it is pure fun, describing (painting?) scenes of artworld parties and bohemian lifestyles with such richness and revelation that the reader recalls the rooms. Thrilling. Could not put it down.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • D. Later
    1.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to Care
    Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    While I found it interesting that this women,Emma, painted another "artists" work instead of creating her own. I grew tired of her very quickly as well as her "friends". Emma bounces around from place to place and never stays anywhere long enough for me to care what she's doing.The only place she stays too long is in a bad relationship and a spiritually dead job. I could only finish half of this book because I just didn't care anymore what she did with her life.
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  • kc
    4.0 out of 5 stars Book for artists and those interested in the art world
    Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    As a fellow artist, I really related to this insider's peek into the NY art world and to the protagonist's struggle with finding her own path towards expression. Sometimes a bit dour, and I didn't necessarily like the protagonist, but I read it like a storm and will reread it again I am sure. Anyone interested or involved in the arts will enjoy this contemporary view into this complex and often hidden world. Recommend it.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Rachel Thern
    3.0 out of 5 stars creative process, in the shadow of others
    Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2010
    I love to read about the creative process, and an artist finding herself has a lot of potential for a great story. Emma Dial, a painter of great technical skill, spends all her time wasting it working for the famous artist Michael Freiburg, who does not ever touch brush to canvas himself. Despite her talent, she finds herself mentally blocked and unable to do her own work. Michael comes off as a rather one-dimensional, overgrown, egotistical child, and this is so obvious to the reader that it is puzzling that Emma continues to seek his approval (I can't help wondering if Peale's experience working with Jeff Koons informed Michael's character). Then she meets painter Philip Cleary. It's wonderful to see Emma finally come into her own at the end of the book, but I found it a bit disappointing that freeing herself involved drifting into the orbit of another alpha male.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Nicky
    5.0 out of 5 stars The American painter Emma Disl
    Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    You will especially enjoy this book if you are a painter as well!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Simone
    5.0 out of 5 stars portrait of the artist as a woman
    Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2009
    In the first half of this book, the descriptions of the daily life of a painter's assistant in downtown New York have a vividness, a suffused quality that places and people in your life take on when they are about to be irrevocably lost. The main character, Emma, is in a rut, yet Peale's writing makes her behavior and surroundings--smoking all night, listening to the same song over and over again, dinner with cherished, flawed friends--captivating to read. Our main character, maybe anti-hero, Emma, is not so much alienated as unsentimental, and this, I think we're meant to understand as her real promise as an artist. Her emotional vulnerability is not what propels the story or organizes the details. Rather, the book progresses the way the creative labor of painting and the creative labor of making a life for yourself progress. Once Emma gets out from under her mentor/boss/lover's successful and gorgeous shadow, the book shifts location and tone. From the character and detail-crowded setting of a very inhabited New York to a strongly-lit loneliness in Florida, where our heroine is a stranger. And Peale's description evokes the shifting moods of leaving, setting out, staring new, in her character. As someone who has lost one life and started another, I really related to Emma Dial. I've never read a description of the slow way you build a new life, the creative aspect of it, but also the sheer lonely will. I think of this book as a kind of answer to "The Awakening." That book ends with a woman who gave up everything for romantic love, and killed herself when it didn't work out. This book depicts a woman following her own vision of life, not a familiar romantic one, and the difficulty and necessity of realizing it.
    11 people found this helpful
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  • Joyce T Swearingen
    1.0 out of 5 stars inspirational fiction
    Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This book was extremely inspiring to me as an artist. Excellent fiction, sure, but compelling and reminded me that your dream can slip away if neglected.
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