"The Masterpiece" by Anna Enquist

Please note:
As always, you are expected to have read the book and to be able to discuss it.

Description:
The Masterpiece (Het Meesterstuk) takes place during three days in the life of the painter Johan Steenkamer, and of the women closest to him. Is an artist as self-absorbed as Johan capable of expressing the deepest emotional understanding through his art, or is his seductive energy entirely selfish, a surface gloss?

Enquist's impassioned novel revolves around the artist Johan Steenkamer, the women who are drawn to him, and his troubled family relationships; an absent father, manipulative mother, emotionally crippled brother. The three days leading up to the opening of his grand exhibition are depicted with a dramatic sense of light and shade; Enquist describes making jam and making love with equally vivid intensity. Present events are shadowed by the past, and the section describing the loss of Steenkamer's daughter is an exploration of grief that will leave no reader unmoved.

There are undertones of Don Giovanni in the portrayal of the central character and in moments of the narrative; timeless dilemmas are counterpointed with those familiar to all contemporary working women. This elegantly translated, beautifully observed and affecting novel introduces to English-speaking audiences the work of one of Europe's finest writers.