Book review of Villa E by Jane Alison

 

Name of Book: Villa E

Author: Jane Alison

ISBN: 978-1-324-09505-7

Publisher: Live right 

Type of book: 1965, memories, reminisces, France, creativity, taking credit for something that doesn't belong to you, feud, struggles of elderly, leaving legacy 

Year it was published: 2024 

Summary:

From the author of Meander, Spiral, Explode , an astounding novel inspired by the collision of Irish designer Eileen Gray and famed Swiss architect Le Corbusier. Along the glittering coast of southern France, a white villa sits atop an earthen terrace―a site of artistic genius, now subject to bitter dispute. Eileen, a new architect known for her elegant chair designs, poured the concrete herself; she built it as a haven for her and her lover, and called it E-1027. When the hulking Le G, a founder of modernist architecture, laid eyes on the house in 1929, he could see his influence in the sleek lines―and he would not be outdone. Impassioned, he took a paintbrush to the clean, white walls. . . . Thirty years later, Eileen has not returned to Villa E and Le G has never left―his summers spent aging in a cabin just feet away. Mining the psyches of two brilliant, complex artists and the extrordinary place that bound them, Jane Alison boldly reimagines a now-legendary act of vandalism into a lushly poetic and mesmerizing novel of power, predation, and obsession.

Characters:

The two main characters are Eileen and Le G. Eileen is a passionate woman who has eye for detail and attention and desired to create a house for her friend/lover Bado by adding a lot of personal touches. Throughout the week, she reflects a lot on the love and work she has done and how ultimately she has lost it all. With the help of her niece, Pruny, she tries to get through each day, but quite often falls into reverie. Le G is a famous artist who was friends with Bado and was invited to stay at a villa. But either a remark or situations caused him to draw graffiti on the walls thus he also tries to get through memories that haunt him. Secondary character is Bado who seems to be lost and doesn't know what or who he DESIRES. 

Theme:

How do human schemes fall into grander designs? 

Plot:

The story is told in third person narrative from Eileen and Le G's points of views, each chapter devoting to thoughts and stream of consciousness taking place in the week of August to September 1965. It is definitely a visual novel where story and history plays a very small part if at all. The sentences are incredibly poetic and there is an expansive focus where it's not just Eileen or Le G who are characters, but instead the nature and stream of consciousness are just as main characters as Eileen and Le G. Perhaps the catalyst of the story is that one day while being a guest, Le G paints a graffiti on one one the walls, forcing Eileen and her friend/lover Bado to vacate the house she built.  

 
Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Jane Alison was born in Canberra, Australia, and grew up in the Australian and U.S. foreign services. She attended public schools in Washington, D.C., and earned a B.A. in classics from Princeton University. Before writing fiction, she worked as an administrator for the National Endowment for the Humanities, as a production artist for the Washington City Paper, as an editor for the Miami New Times, and as a proposal and speechwriter for Tulane University. She also worked as a freelance editor and illustrator before attending Columbia University to study creative writing.

Her first novel, "The Love-Artist," was published in 2001 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and has been translated into seven languages. It was followed by "The Marriage of the Sea," a New York Times Notable Book of 2003. Her novel, "Natives and Exotics," appeared in 2005 and was one of that summer’s recommended readings by Alan Cheuse of National Public Radio. Her short fiction and critical writing have recently appeared in Seed; Five Points; Postscript: Essays on Film and the Humanities; and The Germanic Review. She has also written several biographies for children and co-edited with Harold Bloom a critical series on women writers. She has taught writing and literature at Columbia, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, and for writers groups in Geneva, Switzerland.

Jane Alison's most recent book, "Nine Island," is an autobiographical novel forthcoming from Catapult in Sept. 2016.

She is currently Professor and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, and lives in Charlottesville, VA.

Opinion:

It's definitely best described as expansive, poetic yet very visceral as both the older artists reflect on creation, the legacy left behind as well as how do feuds begin? I also have to wonder if the author is a former poet because it was a lot like PARADISE CLOSE by Lisa Russ Spaar. For me, over the whole week of 1965, it is more like meditation with a lot of tangents from art to nature and destruction. I did enjoy it, and I do plan on reading it in the future to see if there is something more I can glean and understand.  

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)