The Art of Intimacy
The Space Between
-
- $8.99
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
The first work of nonfiction by Stacey D'Erasmo, author of the New York Times Notable Books Tea and The Sky Below
"What is the nature of intimacy, of what happens in the space between us? And how do we, as writers, catch or reflect it on the page?" Stacey D'Erasmo's insightful and illuminating study examines the craft and the contradictions of creating relationships not only between two lovers but also between friends, family members, acquaintances, and enemies in fiction. She argues for a more honest, more complex portrait of the true nature of the connections and missed connections among characters and, fascinatingly, between the writer and the reader. D'Erasmo takes us deep into the structure and grammar of these intimacies as they have been portrayed by such writers as Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and William Maxwell, and also by visual artists and filmmakers. She asks whether writing about intimacy is like staring straight into the sun, but it is her own brilliance that dazzles in the piercing and original book, The Art of Intimacy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Part of Graywolf's "Art of" series on the craft of writing, edited by Charles Baxter, this first work of nonfiction by novelist D'Erasmo (The Sky Below) examines the concept of intimacy and the ways this mysterious phenomenon has been conveyed by writers, visual artists, and filmmakers. D'Erasmo organizes the book into chapters based on the places where intimacy occurs, though these settings are themselves abstract: "Meeting in the Image"; "Meeting in the If"; "Meeting in the Dark." The word intimacy evokes images of love, but the book also delves into the darker side of the subject: obsession. The relationship between a torturer and his victim, D'Erasmo argues, is fundamentally similar to the relationship between a man and woman having deeply emotional sex. The book's highlight is the meta-textual section "Meeting in the White Space," in which even the reader's own intimacy with the author is held up for inspection. This can mean either the author divulging moments of vulnerability, as D'Erasmo does mere pages earlier, or works of fiction in which the reader's interpretation of a character's actions makes him or her complicit in the events that unfold. D'Erasmo provides a lucid and provocative examination of the ill-defined concept of intimacy.
