An Object of BeautyA Novel

The comedian gets serious about art in his third novel
Shortly after this novel was first published, Steve Martin made news by headlining a speaking engagement that disappointed attendees so much that they received refunds. The reason: just about all Martin and his interlocuter, the New York Times‘ Deborah Solomon, talked about was art. Maybe Solomon should have presented a condensed and edited edition of their talk instead; whatever the case, it points to just how seriously Martin takes the stuff. He’s collected art for decades, and An Object of Beauty, his third work of fiction, is where Martin stakes his claim not only as a novelist (his earlier books were much shorter), but works as a kind of manifesto of the consuming role art and the art world can have, particularly during the insane price run-up of the decade before the 2008 crash, as well as a number of more or less straightforward examinations of various works that make their way into the story.

That story demonstrates both the up and down sides of the book’s arena. Lacey Yeager is a magnetic, ambitious, attractive young woman climbing the art-world ladder by working in the basement of Sotheby’s as a cataloguer. It’s dull, but she develops an eye for spotting hidden gems, and as she realizes she can make a profit as a gallerist, she becomes increasingly ruthless, moving from on-the-sly deals to bigger game, arcing skyward before the market cuts her down. She can sometimes seem more of a prop than a human being — a way to talk about art while still telling a popular story — but it’s less of an obstacle than it might be given how expertly Martin controls his scenes’ temperature.