Cover of Life Studies: Stories

Life Studies: Stories

With her richly textured novels Susan Vreeland has offered pioneering portraits of the artist's life. Now, in a collection of profound wisdom and beauty, she explores the transcendent power of art through the eyes of ordinary people. Life Studies begins with historic tales that, rather than focusing directly on the great Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters themselves, render those on the periphery—their lovers, servants, and children—as their personal experiences play out against those of Manet, Monet, van Gogh, and others. Vreeland then gives us contemporary stories in which her characters—a teacher, a construction worker, and an orphan for example—encounter art in meaningful, often surprising ways. A fascinating exploration of the lasting strength of art in everyday life, Life Studiesis a dazzling addition to Vreeland's outstanding body of work.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 352 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Life Studies: Stories? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Life Studies: Stories. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. As Above, So Below: A Novel of Peter Bruegel Shares historical fiction, art, art fiction
  2. With Violets Shares historical fiction, art, fiction
  3. The Painted Kiss Shares historical fiction, art, fiction
  4. Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper Shares art, historical fiction, fiction

“People who read Life Studies: Stories tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Cézanne's Quarry
  2. Stealing Athena
  3. The Private Lives of the Impressionists
  4. Leaving Van Gogh

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about art), start with these.”

  1. Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet
  2. Cooking for Picasso
  3. Imagined Lives: Portraits of unknown people
  4. Depths of Glory: A Biographical Novel of Camille Pissarro

“If it was the art that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Sunflowers
  2. The Artist's Wife
  3. Artemisia
  4. Arrogance

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Art Is a Way of Knowing
  2. Tuesday Nights in 1980
  3. The Art of Teaching Art to Children: In School and at Home
  4. Girl Reading