Sirens and Muses

 
 
Sirens and Muses
by Antonia Angress

Ballantine

2022

 

 

Sirens and Muses is a recent literary novel set initially at a prestigious New England art school, and later amidst the art world in NYC. This one caught my eye at the book store, and I read it quite quickly; I felt invested in the characters, and wanted to keep reading more than I wanted anything that might've distracted me.

 
Angress follows four viewpoint characters in close third-person. We follow them for a semester at art school in part 1, and then return to them after they've all moved to New York in part 2.

 
In art school, Louisa is a working-class scholarship student trying to find her artistic voice, and crushing on her roommate Karina. Karina is the daughter of wealthy parents, already on the cusp of commercial success, crushing back on Louisa, and dating bad boy Preston. Preston is an insufferable bro, trying to make a name for himself as a provocateur (or less generously, as a troll,) and semi feuding with visiting professor Robert. Robert is a has-been, a former political artist who's been coasting on his past glory for years, and who once briefly had an affair with Karina's mom.

 
In New York, Louisa gets a job as a studio assistant, and struggles to find the time and energy to continue her own art. Karina and Preston score a high-profile joint gallery opening - Karina rises to the occasion while Preston increasingly flounders. Robert is reduced to tutoring rich children, but also finally learns to stop feeling sorry for himself. All the characters end the book with just a hint of resolution, of either finding the next step in their life, or at least being positioned to make a decision rather than being forced into one.

 
Structurally, Louisa is the first among equals. She gets the first and last chapters, and is probably the most sympathetic character. Karina is at the center of the web of connections between the characters, and depending on your social class, probably either Louisa or Karina will seem like the most relatable character. 

 
Preston is very enjoyable to hate, although to her credit, Angress finds empathy for his actions without condoning them, and he's never reduced to a caricature. Robert's links to the others are tenuous at first and nearly non-existent later, but his presence keeps the book from 'just' telling the story of a love triangle, and he provides a kind of balance by being near the end of a journey that all the others are just starting.

 
Each of the young characters wonders about what kind of artist they want to be, worries about their romantic relationships, fears becoming like their parents, aspires to professional greatness, struggles with young-adult milestones like getting jobs and apartments, deals with troubles with family back home, each in their own unique way. All this happens against the backdrop of Occupy Wall Street, and a period of tumult within the art world about the roles of money and politics in art.

 
As I said, I really liked this one. Louisa and Karina's relationship nearly glows with emotional intensity that reminds me of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (as does Karina's decision to attempt to prioritize her more conventional heterosexual relationship over that bond.) Preston and Robert's involvement in politics and agitprop are more reminiscent of Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys. Preston in particular reminds me of the most annoying contestant of Bravo's old Work of Art show.

 
I like that we combine the campus novel and the post-college novel into a single package, and that we get to clearly see the almost-contemporary setting through eyes with just enough hindsight. We see the earliest effects of Bitcoin and AI art, and the kind of behavior by powerful men that will soon lead to MeToo.

 
Among Agress's strengths, she trusts her readers to notice connections between the characters without her explicitly pointing them out. To Louisa, Preston's blog is just 'that blog that's so popular on campus.' Preston sees Karina's sketches of Louisa as just 'a bunch of drawings of some girl.' A lesser author would go on to provide more detail to make sure you don't miss it, but Angress stops there, because that's what the characters would see. She doesn't lavish extra attention onto something the characters wouldn't notice just to ensure that her audience will.

 
I don't feel comfortable predicting that a book will get a lot of attention, but this one deserves to.