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Studying the nude in art appreciation and thought this might help but found it very heavy going.Too stuffy and after listening to a programme about him can now understand his style of writing.
“The Nude” is a remarkable debut, a slow-burn page-turner that turns a sweltering Greek island into a haunting house of mirrors. C. Michelle Lindley would have made Patricia Highsmith and Graham Greene proud.
The Nude is a lot more character-based than I initially thought it would be, going in.What I believed would be a book about an affair, set on a Greek island, is more of a character study on someone deeply affected by grief. So much of this book is internal.The narrator, Elizabeth, is a woman who has grown up under an oppressive thumb of grief, stemmed from losing her younger sister. In adulthood, she is swarmed with migraines, abusing medication and sex to cope. She’s overly ambitious, choosing her career over everything else—even as it knocks down any stability in her life. And, yes, it’s also set on a Greek Island.What results is a beautiful blend of fractured moments, as we follow her around the island, trying to make sense of who she is and what she wants. If she can even untangled the two. The writing was lush and vivid; the moments where the narrator dips in and out of lucidity were written so well that I, at times, felt out of it myself. A full-body reading experience!
Publishing July 23, 2024The Nude is C. Michelle Lindley’s disorienting and captivating debut novel. Set on a Greek island, Elizabeth is sent to secure the sale of an artifact for her museum. Although, it seems fishy from the jump. What befalls her is the unraveling of herself and a clear knowledge that not everything is as it seems. This is literary fiction at its finest whilst evoking a sour feeling amongst its reader as you try to determine where it will go. Grappling with reality, she loses her mind and succumbs to the allure of all around her. Feels inexplicably like a fever dream or migraine haze. I can’t say there’s a single likable character, but that adds to the power of the read. tldr; i’m always a fan of a pretentious story where the woman slowly loses her mindThank you to the author and publisher for providing an advanced copy through Netgalley.
The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form
