Book

Optic nerve

Gainza, María 1975- (author.). Bunstead, Thomas, (translator.).

Summary: "Whenever I'm in survival mode I find myself magnetised by museums and galleries, like people running for air raid shelters in wartime." The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art. The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her. Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her. In these pages, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo's bodies. The mystery of Rothko's refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator's husband receives chemotherapy. Episodes in art history interact with the narrator's life in Buenos Aires - her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies.

Item details

ISBN: 9781787300279
ISBN: 1787300277
ISBN: 9781948226165
ISBN: 1948226162
Physical Description: print
209 pages ; 23 cm
Publisher: London : Harvill Secker, 2019.
Copyright: ©2019

Contents / Notes

General Note:	Originally published in 2014 in Spanish as El nervio òptico.
Language Note:	Translated from Spanish.

Find similar items by subject

Subject:

Art Fiction
Artists Fiction
Women art historians Fiction
Social classes Fiction
Buenos Aires (Argentina) Fiction

Genre:

Domestic fiction.
Autobiographical fiction.

Currently available copies

0 out of 1 copy are currently available at PINES. (Show)
0 out of 1 copy are currently available at Athens Regional Library System. (Show)
0 out of 1 copy are currently available at Athens-Clarke County Library.