Künstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine
I picked this book up purely based on the cover. I don’t know what actually drew me to the book initially, but when I saw it was a new book set to be published midway through March 2023 I added it to my ever growing to be read pile. Then as I progressed through the last book I finished (The Dark Window by Rachel Gillig) I could not stop thinking about this book. This book had me at hello, and there was no way to get it out of my head unless I actually sat down and cracked it open.
What it’s about: This book follows Salomea “Mamie” Kunstler who travelled from Europe in 1939 with her family. When they landed in the United States, they landed in New York and eventually found their way to Los Angeles, where they finally settled.
Present day: Julian Kunsteler is Mamie’s grandson, 24 years old, who has no real direction in his life. He travels from hobby to hobby obsessing about them until he loses interest and moves on to the next idea, without completing the previous hobby before moving on. He comes off as entitled and completely selfish. One night he has a raging dispute with his parents about his current living situation, and he fears that he will not be able to afford his apartment on his own. He demands that his parents help him with his financial struggles, when his parents tell him they will not be helping him, that he needs to figure it out on his own, he loses his cool. It’s while this fight is going on, that they receive a phone call, and the family offers to send Julian to Los Angeles to help with the provision of care for Julian’s grandmother.
When Julian arrives the reader is introduced to Mamie (Julian’s grandmother), and her close friend/housekeeper Agatha who have come together through what seems like fate. Agatha is the one who has been keeping the house together, and assisting in any way possible. Shortly after arriving at his grandmother’s home in LA, the Covid-19 pandemic occurs and the world goes into lockdown. Julian is trapped at his grandmother’s house with nothing to do, and no real budding aspirations. He finds that he’s become rather bored most of the time in LA. As the days begin to blend into a nebulous stretch where time seems to be completely irrelevant, Mamie begins to tell Julian stories from the family's past. Julian finds there is no structure as to when the stories come, so he begins to write them down as they come. With the telling of the stories, Julian finds that he has become inspired to become a screenwriter, and somehow wants to make Mamie’s stories into a science fiction screenplay.
The plot of the novel isn’t as much of historical fiction as it is contemporary fiction. There has been some mention of the past of the Kunstlers' life, but pretty much it has mostly been about the family’s arrival to the United states. The story line has become mostly stories being told from Mamie, but I don’t feel like it has been anything really painted to vividly. At first when I started reading this book, I thought it would be about Mamie’s struggles to the arrival in the United States with the rest of her family. To my surprise it seems her story is sprinkled into the main plot line which seems to revolve more about the character growth of Julian, and the finding of himself.
I didn’t think I was quite ready to read contemporary fiction set in a time around the Covid-19 pandemic. I think as a healthcare worker I have become quite fatigued/emotionally numbed in the idea of Covid-19. I found having the story set around the pandemic perhaps made it a little more relatable, with the whole quarantine loneliness, fears, and internal struggles that many of the general public had to face for 3 or so years that the isolation precautions had been in place.
The timeline also references some of the events that happened during the pandemic as well such as the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police department while attempting to arrest him on suspicion of attempting to pass counterfeit currency. Which actually rolled into the Black Lives Matter movement. Further adding to unrest in the United States.
As told in one of the stories shared with Julian, one day when Mamie is on the beach with the dog Garbo, when the dog runs up and jumps on the real Greta Grabo. After a short conversation of where the dog came from and the recognition of who Mamie is, the story ends, once Julian returns home from sharing the story with someone he seems to be romantically interested in, Mamie, recalls the memory where there was more of a connection than Mamie had let on. Further on in the book you find out that Mamie continues to bump into Greta Garbo and eventually some sort of relationship develops and leaves Mamie emotionally drained.
“When the air between them disappeared. When Mamie could hear herself breathing. The eyelashes, the long, long famous eyelashes that closed and opened. Mamie knew she was gaping like a child at the zoo. But she hadn’t felt childish. She hadn’t known what she felt, only figuring that out years later”
What I liked: I seem to be enjoying the easy writing style of the book, the flow of the language, and the thoughts the author has painted with her words. The writing is easy reading, nothing that I have to think too hard about to completely comprehend, and wrap my head around. Strangely enough I did enjoy the character development, Julian specifically.
All in all, there were for sure some dry patches in the book. At times I was uncertain as to where this book was headed. Not something I absolutely loved but not something I hated as well. I would give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. In comparison to the goodreads average rating, 3.57 ratings (879 total). It seems to be right on track.
Would I recommend it to a friend? I don’t think this book would come to mind if someone asked me for a book recommendation. Sure, if someone asked for a recommendation based around Covid-19, I might think of it. I doubt it though. All in all still enjoyable.
