The Museum of Modern Love

As it says on the cover, this is "a novel inspired by Marina Abramovic". It won the 2017 Stella Prize, which was awarded to the best work of literature published in 2016, written by an Australian woman, .Marina Abramovic is a Serbian performance artist. In 2010, at the MOMA, she performed The Artist is Present, where 6 days a week she sat at a table and gazed into the eyes of the person opposite. Towards the end of the seventy-five days of Abramovic's performance, people were queueing overnight for the privilege of sitting opposite Abramovic. The performance space was surrounded by a gallery, where people watched the sitters below. Some of the watchers in the gallery returned day after day to watch what had become for them a mystical, life-changing experience.The central character, other than Abramovic, is Levin, a musician who writes film scores. His wife, a famous architect, is in a semi-coma. Before she became incapacitated she legally banned Levin from visiting her (sounds like BS!). Levin spends every day in the gallery, and this participation changes his life.I would like to say some positive, or at least thoughtful, things about this book, even though I thought it was utter twaddle. My biggest problem is that Rose has inserted herself into the mind of Abramovic, who is a real person whose life is nothing like Rose's. The only thoughts Rose can put into Abramovic's mind are Rose's own; she imagines what she would think if she were Abramovic. So to me, this book is inauthentic. It has borrowed its significance from the life of Abramovic, and has none of its own. Levin, another artist, also strikes me as a fake, a straw man constructed to embody the self-absorption of the artist and to undergo the transformation essential to the plot. Rose's writing did not appeal. In the following example, the omniscient narrator makes an appearance: I have stood beside artists a very long time. I was there at the rape trial of Artemisia Gentileschi. I was there as she drove the painted blade through the neck of Holofernes. I stood beside her as she wrote "I shall show you what woman is capable of. You will find Caesar's courage in the soul of a woman." Imagine that, five hundred years ago!The good thing about the book is that it introduced Abramovic and her art. I read about Abramovic's life and her work and really stopped to think about what she had done. She pushes her body to its limits, and some of her performances have put her life at risk. The extremes she goes to shocked me. I think it's presumptuous of Rose to interpret Abramovic, and that the connections Rose makes between Abramovic's performances and her Serbian upbringing are banal.I don't think this is a good book, but I do think it's worth the read.

While this story spun around Marina Abramovic's installation at MOMA and its architecture was Abramovic's 'Seven Steps in Every Project' - think Arky Levin's journey was the centrepiece. I liked this book, a lot! I liked some new insights into art and music. I liked the wisdom of Jane and Hal. I admired Lydia's talent and braveness. I liked witnessing Arky's growing self-awareness. I liked reading about Arky & Lydia's beautiful home. I liked the vulnerability and honesty of Sally. I loved that all these people could look into Abramovic's eyes, and see their soul.*** NEXT LINE MAY BE A SPOILER ***I especially appreciated the Marina/Olay and Lydia/Arky contrast - Marina and Lydia could both see 'the greater person he might be' - but whereas Olay's response was 'you can't love me for something I might become', Arky stepped up to meet Lydia's expectations.I'll be reading 'The Museum of Modern Love' again (and possibly again).

Well written, with multiple connected storylines, revolving around the real-life 2010 performance work by Marina Abramović, which happened daily for 75 days during open hours at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Abramović simply sat at a table and invited anyone to sit across from her, silently, with eye contact, for as long as the person wanted or was able to. The novel includes Abramović and several other fictionalized real people in her circle. It also tells the stories of a fictional movie conductor, his wife who has suffered a stroke and other medical problems, his associates, and people he meets at the performance space when he becomes fascinated by the sittings.Over 1500 people sat with Marina, and more than 800,000 came to watch, some of them returning many times.Heather Rose writes lyrically about the deep connections between people, about private thoughts, and about what silence means in today's world. She shows what kind of artist Abramović has been, how her career has changed what art is like, and how, now in her 70s, she is able to do a show like this. This is the kind of book to savor, and to return to.

I found this book to be about 70% good, about 30% pretentious. As the book went on the aspects that I perceived as pretentious tended to dominate, so in the end I was left with a feeling of disappointment. But I know nothing about art and perhaps even less about the existential questions supposedly being addressed by the performance artist Marina Abramović. The novel really went well beyond my comprehension. What can you make of this: "It was easy to gain strength from chaos because it had about it the abyss - always so tantalising-as the heroin addicts knew." WTF?! I did like the story of the people's reaction to her art, their relationships, and the experiences of participating in such an event. I liked the New York setting and the light shed on that environment . And I was also somewhat bemused by Allen & Unwin's back cover blurb: "Arky Swann is a film composer...". But inside the book the character's name is Arky Levin. In fact, one review I read stated that there was a deliberate significance in the name Levin - a reference to Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I'm guessing that the American edition had his name changed but Allen & Unwin were too careless to bother matching the blurb with the text. And why would they change his name - to make him seem less Jewish?? If I were Heather Rose I wouldn't pick that publisher again, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.

An interesting look at Marina Abramovic, the definition of art, and the meaning art has in people's lives. A composer, Arky, his wife Lydia, Jane, a woman from the south, Brittika from Amsterdam, Healayas, a French/African art critic, all relate to Marina's work 'The Artist is Present' in different ways. I was particularly moved by Rose's chapter 42 that renders the impressions of someone who's had a stroke, a stunning passage.

Great book - though there are challenges here. This book is full of wisdom and contemplation, but doesn't get bogged down in either. There's a neat foreground plot, but of course the star of the show is the amazing artist Marina Abramovic. The story is set around Abramovic's performance art, The Artist is Present. I learned a lot and thought a lot and loved every minute.

This wasn't what I expected, but then again, what did I expect? An exploration of art, identity and relationships, it's immersive and (often) gently thought provoking. Sometimes confronting. Very real, but empathetic with it. The flaws and mistakes of the characters are laid bare, but without judgement. Beautifully written.