CultureZohn Book Club
Sunday Reading: Two books that will take you inside the minds of artists- though very differently. Rachel Cusk departs from her trilogy and her unflinching memoirs to look at the intersection between one woman’s fantasy about an artist and the real thing when the artist she has admired from a distance takes up residence in her guest house. What ensues opens her eyes to the fact that artists: they’re just like us- as needy, as complicated, as tortured by insecurities and achievement. Celia Paul’s memoir of her life-with and without Lucian Freud-is another unvarnished look at what it’s like to be in thrall to a powerful artist and try to maintain an equilibrium for yourself and your own work. In both cases, these talented women must lose their sense of powerlessness and return to their own creativity to survive.