A national art museum wants to finally exhibit and recognize the startling work of a long-forgotten surrealist, Vivienne Volker. Vivienne and her family are heartened by the news. They live distantly from the city and their lives are constrained. There is Vivienne’s much younger working class lover; there are also her daughter Velour Bellmer and granddaughter Vesta Furio, whose own father has recently died at the center of this odd family: the kitchen table. Vesta is the most solid member of the family, yet she reels from their lifestyle chaos.
The author creates a Greek chorus of internet comments about the artist which act as another character in the book: the public at large. Vivienne is condemned for the usual female sins; stealing a man thus causing his wife’s suicide; not being feminist enough—or being too feminist before her time and even her appearance. When the museum drops the exhibit, an opportunistic gallery owner picks it up to create a promotional stir for his gallery, thus fanning the flames of public disapprobation. An interesting and unusual story.
