Portrait Of The Walrus By A Young Artist

by Laurie Foos

Overview

A “baroque, surreal, and witty” novel (Ms.) about art, bowling, sex, and hairspray-”a mad tale of a mad genius, by a young author who may be a genius herself” (Kirkus Reviews).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780156005432
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/01/1998
Series:	Harvest Book Series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Laurie Foos, lauded as "the unholy love-child of Kafka and Erica Jong," is the author of four previous novels: Ex Utero, Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist, Twinship, and Bingo Under the Crucifix. She teaches in the Lesley Seminars in Cambridge and lives just outside of Boston with her husband and her dog Jesse.

What People are Saying About This

Fay Weldon

Fiction is not going to be quite the same ever again -- post Foos.

Reading Group Guide

1. Frances wants to become an artist like her famous sculptor father, despite her mother's claims that "art took everything (they) had." Why do you think she wants to be like her father, in spite of the fact that he was both a genius and a madman?

2. Despite the fame and fortune that art brought to their lives, Frances's mother, Arlene, marries the Kingpin and wants to live a simple middle-class life. Why does Frances reject the idea of a middle-class existence?

3. Frances begins to deteriorate after her mother marries the Kingpin and moves the family to Florida. How does the move contribute to her feelings of grief about her father and her inability to find her muse?

4. At the end of the novel, Frances says that she didn't choose art, but that "art chose me." Do you think that artistic inclination is an inborn trait, or is it something we choose? How do you think the novel answers this question?

Copyright © 1999. Published by Harcourt, Inc.

Editorial Reviews

Foos takes off from England's Jeanette Winterson and goes for the baroque, surreal, and witty.

Ms.