Rating: 
Summary: LOVE AND ART
Review: This is a marvelous love story-and an exciting novel of ideas. An unsophisticated, idealistic archaeologist, Tara Niforous, falls in love-or thinks she does-with Leon Skillman, a potentially great sculptor who seems to embody her ideals. In fact, he has betrayed his soul, becoming a vicious, opportunistic cynic. Meanwhile, Tara's long-time mentor, the noble but aloof Dimitrios, realizes that he himself is in love with her. The action moves from an exciting underwater dive off the Greek islands to the corrupt, intellectually bankrupt New York "art" scene-and to a showdown in which Tara finally sees what kind of "sculpture" Leon has been spewing out.This is a richly imagined novel. Alexandra York is a vivid stylist, and probes her multi-layered characters deeply, taking us inside their minds with enormous technical skill. She also understands how the choices we make affect our lives-as we stand at "crosspoints" (Tara's immigrant father's insightful confusion of "crossroads" and "turning points"). The first 9 chapters appeared (under the title "Becoming") in the "Atlantean Press Review," a showcase for writers inspired by Ayn Rand's literary legacy. Ms. York is now the third of the Review's authors to see their completed novel in print-preceded by Edward Cline's "Sparrowhawk" and Andrew Bernstein's "Heart of a Pagan." Writing a good novel of ideas is a challenging task. The characters and events must be meaningful. They must also be exciting; one must never forget that one is writing fiction, not a treatise. As Ayn Rand said, the function of art is not to teach, but to show. But if a writer uses characters merely as vehicles for ideas-if he sacrifices them to some message he wants to convey-if he piles ideas on their backs like hods on a hod-carrier-the result may be closer to a tract than a novel. (That, sadly, was the case with "Heart of a Pagan.") As Miss Rand observed: "... abstract ideas are proper in fiction only when they are subordinated to the story. Not when the story is artificially devised to expound some thesis. That is why propaganda writers fail. That is why propaganda stories are always so false and dull." ("Letters," p. 159) Alexandra York's focus is where it should be-on story-telling-at least 90% of the time. Halfway through "Crosspoints" I did find it was getting too preachy; the characters were talking (albeit beautifully) at greater length about art than the story warranted. And I cringed at the name Ms. York inflicted on her art gallery-a heavy-handed borrowing from the world of "Atlas Shrugged." I winced when one of her minor characters started lecturing about Aristotle. (Fortunately, the other characters cut him off.) Admirers of Ayn Rand's novels would do well to note how seldom Miss Rand mentions or refers to Aristotle in her own fiction (as opposed to non-fiction); three of her four novels do not mention the great philosopher even a single time! Her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged," refers to him only 3 times in more than a thousand pages. Fortunately, "Crosspoint"'s occasional faults are far outweighed by its virtues. It is full of exciting plot twists, as well as dramatic insights about the role of art in life-an issue about which Ms. York, a prime mover in today's revival of romantic, representational art-knows a great deal. This book deserves to be the # 2 bestseller-right after Ed Cline's "Sparrowhawk."
Rating:
Summary: LOVE AND ART
Review: This is a marvelous love story-and an exciting novel of ideas. An unsophisticated, idealistic archaeologist, Tara Niforous, falls in love-or thinks she does-with Leon Skillman, a potentially great sculptor who seems to embody her ideals. In fact, he has betrayed his soul, becoming a vicious, opportunistic cynic. Meanwhile, Tara's long-time mentor, the noble but aloof Dimitrios, realizes that he himself is in love with her. The action moves from an exciting underwater dive off the Greek islands to the corrupt, intellectually bankrupt New York "art" scene-and to a showdown in which Tara finally sees what kind of "sculpture" Leon has been spewing out. This is a richly imagined novel. Alexandra York is a vivid stylist, and probes her multi-layered characters deeply, taking us inside their minds with enormous technical skill. She also understands how the choices we make affect our lives-as we stand at "crosspoints" (Tara's immigrant father's insightful confusion of "crossroads" and "turning points"). The first 9 chapters appeared (under the title "Becoming") in the "Atlantean Press Review," a showcase for writers inspired by Ayn Rand's literary legacy. Ms. York is now the third of the Review's authors to see their completed novel in print-preceded by Edward Cline's "Sparrowhawk" and Andrew Bernstein's "Heart of a Pagan." Writing a good novel of ideas is a challenging task. The characters and events must be meaningful. They must also be exciting; one must never forget that one is writing fiction, not a treatise. As Ayn Rand said, the function of art is not to teach, but to show. But if a writer uses characters merely as vehicles for ideas-if he sacrifices them to some message he wants to convey-if he piles ideas on their backs like hods on a hod-carrier-the result may be closer to a tract than a novel. (That, sadly, was the case with "Heart of a Pagan.") As Miss Rand observed: "... abstract ideas are proper in fiction only when they are subordinated to the story. Not when the story is artificially devised to expound some thesis. That is why propaganda writers fail. That is why propaganda stories are always so false and dull." ("Letters," p. 159) Alexandra York's focus is where it should be-on story-telling-at least 90% of the time. Halfway through "Crosspoints" I did find it was getting too preachy; the characters were talking (albeit beautifully) at greater length about art than the story warranted. And I cringed at the name Ms. York inflicted on her art gallery-a heavy-handed borrowing from the world of "Atlas Shrugged." I winced when one of her minor characters started lecturing about Aristotle. (Fortunately, the other characters cut him off.) Admirers of Ayn Rand's novels would do well to note how seldom Miss Rand mentions or refers to Aristotle in her own fiction (as opposed to non-fiction); three of her four novels do not mention the great philosopher even a single time! Her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged," refers to him only 3 times in more than a thousand pages. Fortunately, "Crosspoint"'s occasional faults are far outweighed by its virtues. It is full of exciting plot twists, as well as dramatic insights about the role of art in life-an issue about which Ms. York, a prime mover in today's revival of romantic, representational art-knows a great deal. This book deserves to be the # 2 bestseller-right after Ed Cline's "Sparrowhawk."
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