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Art in America: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Ron Mclarty
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $9.50
You Save: $16.45 (63%)
New (36) Used (18) Collectible (1) from $9.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 77340
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0670018953
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780670018956
ASIN: 0670018953
Publication Date: July 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: excellent conditon - read once
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Product Description
A funny and heartwarming novel about a down-on-his-luck writer who finally finds success and love
Steven Kearney is a bumbling, overweight writer who has produced thousands of pages of novels, plays, and poemsnot a single one of which has ever been published. After being thrown out of his Manhattan apartment, Kearney is offered a position as playwright-in-residence for three months at the Creedemore Historical Society in Colorado, who want him to write and direct a historical play about the town. When Kearney arrives, all hell breaks loose. A dispute between an elderly landowner, Ticky Lettgo, and a young man named Red Fields escalates into a battle that pits local ranchers against a fringe anti-property group. Town sheriff Petey Meyers, still haunted by the death of his police partner, tries to keep the peace. As the national media descends on the town, the most extreme member of the activist group initiates a diabolical plan that could sabotage everything.
Amid all the tumult, Kearney pens a play that brilliantly captures the history of the town. In the process, he realizes hes too old to keep beating up on himself and finds lasting love. With its lively characters and spellbinding pace, Ron McLartys new novel is sure to please.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Give Me More September 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ron McLarty proves over and over that he can tell a story. I was captured from the beginning and did not want to put the book down. I hope he is writing more, because I am waiting for his next book. This is a must read.
 A Trip to Avoid August 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Memory of Running and Traveller were two books I embraced and even bought for others to read. I thought that McClarty's fine characterizations and easy going style of prose made for wonderful reading. But I am sorry to say this book was a chaotic mess, filled with too many sub-plots, half developed characters and a terf war going on that I found just too hard to follow. I dould not keep the characters straight, and quite honestly after reading 174 pages had so little interest in the plot, that the effort it took to follow was not worth it.
This book is surely written well, and the premise could make for an interesting read, but it just never seemed to settle. The book was all style and had no heart, something that McLarty's other books possessed.
I would have found a book about Steven's literary efforts, his insane ex-wife and his Manhattan friends would have been much more fullfilling, but McClarty chose this whole Colorado land war issue to develop and the book just fell flat. It was just plain boring, tedious to get through.
I know McClarty has another Memory of Running in him, but forget this one. It just does not work at all.
 some great moments, but not up to traveler July 24, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
One of my fondest memories of McLarty's excellent novel Traveler was Riley's work in New York as a bartender and actor. The description of Riley acting in obscure plays before audiences that usually numbered in the low single digits in a theater that seated 12-15 people was a real delight. Being a patron of the arts, a performer of the arts, and an artist took on a whole new meaning. You wonder--does this subculture really exist in New York? Is McLarty exaggerating for dramatic (you'll pardon the pun) effect? So after the first dozen or so pages of Art in America I thought that McLarty would be expanding on that memorable part of Traveler.
Steven Kearney is a writer--novels, plays, musicals--but not a successful one. The prologue lists "selected works"(all unpublished): 10 works that run to well over 17000 pages, for an average length of 1700+ pages, and if you omit the two "short" works of only 822 and 231 pages, the remaining 8 works average over 2000 pages. Typical of these is "The Barrelli Retrospective Works", 1930 pages: "A failed Rhode Island artist looks back over his long career as oil painter/short-order cook at Manny's Big Eats in Cranston". It's a great prologue! After reading it I sent (through Amazon) 4 copies to friends and family--perhaps prematurely. Kearney soon leaves New York for Creede (called Creedmore for some reason in the novel) Colorado, where he's been commissioned to write a play. So the rest of the novel mostly takes place in the greater Creede area.
Creede should certainly be a culture shock for a New Yorker. McLarty introduces a lot of characters, almost all of whom seem rather, well, eccentric. There's Sheriff Petey Myers, a New England transplant, who talks a lot to his deceased partner, the very rich Ticky Lettgo, entrepreneur Red Fields, and these seem quite normal compared to many others. There is a lot going on--almost too much going on--and it gets a bit confusing at times. Traveler was a much tighter novel--focussed, carefully-drawn. You were pulled into the mysteries and the decades-old questions and uncertainties. Art in America has a wonderful core to it, and some pruning of distractions might have been beneficial: leaving out the radicals, the bomb-throwers, and the like and concentrating on how Kearney adjusts would have worked well. Creede is a fascinating place--narrow streets, towering canyon walls, precariously-situated mine entrances, and the memories of Soapy Smith who went on to notoriety and death in Skagway and the town's motto "It's day all day in the daytime and there is no night in Creede". Art in America captures some of this flavor, but there are too many other things happening. Traveler took a part-time actor back to his roots in Rhode Island--a rediscovery. Kearney's roots are not in Creede, but the voyage and the effect on his character in many ways match those in Traveler.
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