The May 8th bookclub will be exploring So Much Blue by Percival Everett.
"A new high point for a master novelist, an emotionally charged reckoning with art, marriage, and the past.
Kevin Pace is working on a painting that he won’t allow anyone to see, not his children; not his best friend, Richard; not even his wife, Linda. The painting is a canvas of twelve feet by twenty-one feet (and three inches) that is covered entirely in shades of blue. It may be his masterpiece or it may not; he doesn’t know or, more accurately, doesn’t care.
What Kevin does care about are the events of the past. Ten years ago he had an affair with a young watercolorist in Paris. Kevin relates this event with a dispassionate air, even a bit of puzzlement. It’s not clear to him why he had the affair, but he can’t let it go. In the more distant past of the late seventies, Kevin and Richard traveled to El Salvador on the verge of war to retrieve Richard’s drug-dealing brother, who had gone missing without explanation. As the events of the past intersect with the present, Kevin struggles to justify the sacrifices he’s made for his art and the secrets he’s kept from his wife.
So Much Blue features Percival Everett at his best, and his deadpan humor and insightful commentary about the artistic life culminate in a brilliantly readable new novel." - Goodreads
In this book club, we will meet monthly to explore novels that touch the world of art. Texts will include work by Margarat Atwood, Patricia Highsmith, Oscar Wilde, Percival Everett, Maggie O' Farrell, Irving Stone and more.
Literature and Art have long been involved in an epic love affair, endlessly complimenting and inspiring each other. Both forms of expression seek to explore the human experience, conveying emotion and meaning through language and imagery. From The Portrait of a Lady to The Da Vinci Code, these novels do what art itself does best. They intrigue. They seduce. They grab our attention and pull us inside.
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The John F. Peto Studio Museum received funding this year from a grant administered by the Ocean County Cultural & Heritage Commission from funds granted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division of the Department of State.
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