Book talk: “The Great Man,” by Kate Christensen

The Great Man by Kate Christensen
The Great Man
Kate Christensen
Anchor Books, 2008 (paperback) (ISBN 0307277348 / 9780307277343)
Fiction, 320 pages

First Sentence: “It’s amazing how well you can live on very little money,” said Teddy
St. Cloud to Henry Burke over her shoulder as she strode into the
kitchen of her Brooklyn row house.

Book Description: Oscar Feldman, the renowned figurative painter, has passed away. As his
obituary notes, Oscar is survived by his wife, Abigail, their son,
Ethan, and his sister, the well-known abstract painter Maxine Feldman.
What the obituary does not note, however, is that Oscar is also
survived by his longtime mistress, Teddy St. Cloud, and their
daughters.


As two biographers interview the women in an attempt to set the record
straight, the open secret of his affair reaches a boiling point and a
devastating skeleton threatens to come to light. From the acclaimed
author of
The Epicure’s Lament, a scintillating novel of secrets, love, and legacy in the New York art world.

Comments: The “great man” of the title
of this book, painter Oscar Feldman, never actually appears except as a
topic of other characters’ conversations, since he’s already dead when
the novel opens. However, as we learn about him through the
perspectives of the three very different women who were closest to him,
I’m inclined to think we’re probably getting a multi-faceted – if not
necessarily objective – portrait of who he was.

Although the two writers who are simultaneously but independently
working on posthumous biographies of Feldman are approaching their
projects from different angles, they both need to rely on the same
primary sources – Abigail, his widow; Maxine, his elder sister, also a
well-known painter in a different style; and Claire “Teddy” St. Cloud,
his attorney’s secretary and Oscar’s mistress for over forty years.
None of these women are secrets to each other – but there is
a secret that they’ve all agreed to keep, and which is potentially
threatened by the biographical research in progress. A teaser rather
than a spoiler: the secret does involve a body, sort of.

This is fundamentally the story of Oscar’s women, despite the book’s
title, and I found them an engaging, if not always wholly likable,
group. I don’t often find myself reading novels in which the main
characters are women in their seventies and eighties, and that was one
element that kept me interested in The Great Man.
Abigail, Teddy, Maxine, and Teddy’s best friend Lila are all very vital
older women – so much so that if the idea of senior-citizen sex makes
you nervous, consider yourself warned.

The book is a PEN/Faulkner Award
winner. Despite the highbrow connotations of its New York City
art-world setting, it’s not an intimidating read at all; I thought the
writing was brisk and fairly witty, and the story seemed to move
quickly. The characters were interesting and well-developed. It’s a
smart novel with satirical elements that I think give it a lighter feel
than the author may have intended, but that lightness may be part of
why I found reading it so enjoyable.

Rating: 3.5/5

Other bloggers’ reviews:
Planet Books (online book club selection/discussion)

 If you have reviewed this book, please leave the link in a comment or e-mail it to me at 3.rsblog AT gmail DOT com, and I’ll edit this review to include it!

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2 comments

  1. April – Good question. I think it’s mostly because I’ve given several books 4 ratings lately, and this one didn’t hit me quite as strongly as they did. Also, I tend to find that although I enjoy satire, it feels more distant to me emotionally – which is probably appropriate, but means it doesn’t quite resonate the same way for me.

    But I may have shorted it on the rating – it just might warrant 3.75 :-).