Optic nerve / Maria Gainza ; translated from the Spanish by Thomas Bunstead.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gainza, María, 1975- author.

Contributor:

Bunstead, Thomas, translator.

Standardized Title:

Nervio òptico. English

Language:

English

Spanish

Subjects (All):

Art--Fiction.

Art.

Artists--Fiction.

Artists.

Women art historians--Fiction.

Women art historians.

Social classes--Fiction.

Social classes.

Buenos Aires (Argentina)--Fiction.

Buenos Aires (Argentina).

Genre:

Fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Autobiographical fiction.

Fictional autobiographies.

Novels.

Physical Description:

209 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Harvill Secker, 2019.

Language Note:

Translated from Spanish.

Summary:

"Whenever I'm in survival mode I find myself magnetised by museums and galleries, like people running for air raid shelters in wartime." The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art. The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her. Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her. In these pages, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo's bodies. The mystery of Rothko's refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator's husband receives chemotherapy. Episodes in art history interact with the narrator's life in Buenos Aires - her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies.

Notes:

Originally published in 2014 in Spanish as El nervio òptico.

ISBN:

9781787300279

1787300277

9781948226165

1948226162

OCLC:

1088420953

Publisher Number:

99979498913