Art in America

One of my fondest memories of McLarty's excellent novel Traveler was Riley's work in New York as a bartender and actor. The description of Riley acting in obscure plays before audiences that usually numbered in the low single digits in a theater that seated 12-15 people was a real delight. Being a patron of the arts, a performer of the arts, and an artist took on a whole new meaning. You wonder--does this subculture really exist in New York? Is McLarty exaggerating for dramatic (you'll pardon the pun) effect? So after the first dozen or so pages of Art in America I thought that McLarty would be expanding on that memorable part of Traveler.

Steven Kearney is a writer--novels, plays, musicals--but not a successful one. The prologue lists "selected works"(all unpublished): 10 works that run to well over 17000 pages, for an average length of 1700+ pages, and if you omit the two "short" works of only 822 and 231 pages, the remaining 8 works average over 2000 pages. Typical of these is "The Barrelli Retrospective Works", 1930 pages: "A failed Rhode Island artist looks back over his long career as oil painter/short-order cook at Manny's Big Eats in Cranston". It's a great prologue! After reading it I sent (through Amazon) 4 copies to friends and family--perhaps prematurely. Kearney soon leaves New York for Creede (called Creedmore for some reason in the novel) Colorado, where he's been commissioned to write a play. So the rest of the novel mostly takes place in the greater Creede area.

Creede should certainly be a culture shock for a New Yorker. McLarty introduces a lot of characters, almost all of whom seem rather, well, eccentric. There's Sheriff Petey Myers, a New England transplant, who talks a lot to his deceased partner, the very rich Ticky Lettgo, entrepreneur Red Fields, and these seem quite normal compared to many others. There is a lot going on--almost too much going on--and it gets a bit confusing at times. Traveler was a much tighter novel--focussed, carefully-drawn. You were pulled into the mysteries and the decades-old questions and uncertainties. Art in America has a wonderful core to it, and some pruning of distractions might have been beneficial: leaving out the radicals, the bomb-throwers, and the like and concentrating on how Kearney adjusts would have worked well. Creede is a fascinating place--narrow streets, towering canyon walls, precariously-situated mine entrances, and the memories of Soapy Smith who went on to notoriety and death in Skagway and the town's motto "It's day all day in the daytime and there is no night in Creede". Art in America captures some of this flavor, but there are too many other things happening. Traveler took a part-time actor back to his roots in Rhode Island--a rediscovery. Kearney's roots are not in Creede, but the voyage and the effect on his character in many ways match those in Traveler.