The Chalk Artist - by Allegra Goodman (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Collin James is young, creative, and unhappy. A college dropout, he waits tables and spends his free time beautifying the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his medium of choice: chalk. Collin's art captivates passersby with its vibrant colors and intricate lines--until the moment he wipes it all away. Nothing in Collin's life is meant to last. Then he meets Nina"--Amazon.com.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>A tender affair and the redemptive power of art are at the core of this compelling novel from National Book Award finalist Allegra Goodman<i>, </i>"a romantic realist who dazzles with wit [and] compassion" (<i>The Wall Street Journal</i>).</b> <p/> Collin James is young, creative, and unhappy. A college dropout, he waits tables and spends his free time beautifying the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his medium of choice: chalk. Collin's art captivates passersby with its vibrant colors and intricate lines--until the moment he wipes it all away. Nothing in Collin's life is meant to last. Then he meets Nina. . . . <p/> The daughter of a tech mogul who is revolutionizing virtual reality, Nina Lazare is trying to give back as a high school teacher--but her students won't listen to her. When Collin enters her world, he inspires her to think bigger. Nina wants to return the favor--even if it means losing him. <p/> Against this poignant backdrop, Allegra Goodman paints a tableau of students, neighbors, and colleagues: Diana, a teenage girl trying to make herself invisible; her twin brother, Aidan, who's addicted to the games produced by Nina's father; and Daphne, a viral-marketing trickster who unites them all, for better or worse. <p/> Wise, warm, and enchanting, <i>The Chalk Artist </i>is both a finely rendered portrait of modern love and a celebration of all the realms we inhabit: real and imagined, visual and virtual, seemingly independent yet hopelessly tangled. <p/><b>Praise for <i>The Chalk Artist</i></b> <p/>"The virtual world Goodman conjures is as feverishly vivid as it is mysterious and alluring. Not since I pushed my way through C. S. Lewis's fusty mothballed wardrobe and stepped out into the frozen, pine-scented forests of Narnia can I remember being so effectively transported into a viscerally, sometimes terrifyingly plausible alternate universe. . . . This is a novel full of wit and spark. . . . Irresistible and arresting."<b>--<i>The New York Times Book Review</i></b> <p/>"Enjoyably sharp dialogue and convincing portraits of multiple mindsets and terrains . . . One can't help but marvel at how Goodman has captured the atmosphere of this virtual fantasy land so effectively in words."<b>--NPR</b> <p/> "Mesmerizing depictions of virtual-reality landscapes of 'Neverwhen' and 'Underworld' make the games' dangerous power over one of Nina's students very real."<b>--<i>People</i></b> <p/>"Goodman's latest combines fantastical flourishes (an imagined video game called 'Underworld') and realistic Cambridge details . . . in a narrative about art and ambition."<b>--<i>The Boston Globe</i></b> <p/>"Allegra Goodman creates suspense where you might least expect to find it."<b>--<i>The Atlantic</i></b><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"The virtual world Goodman conjures is as feverishly vivid as it is mysterious and alluring. Not since I pushed my way through C. S. Lewis's fusty mothballed wardrobe and stepped out into the frozen, pine-scented forests of Narnia can I remember being so effectively transported into a viscerally, sometimes terrifyingly plausible alternate universe. . . . This is a novel full of wit and spark. . . . Irresistible and arresting."<b>--<i>The New York Times Book Review</i></b> <p/>"Enjoyably sharp dialogue and convincing portraits of multiple mindsets and terrains . . . One can't help but marvel at how Goodman has captured the atmosphere of this virtual fantasy land so effectively in words."<b>--NPR</b> <p/>"Goodman's latest combines fantastical flourishes (an imagined video game called 'Underworld') and realistic Cambridge details . . . in a narrative about art and ambition."<b>--<i>The Boston Globe</i> </b> <p/> "Mesmerizing depictions of virtual-reality landscapes of 'Neverwhen' and 'Underworld' make the games' dangerous power over one of Nina's students very real."<b>--<i>People</i></b> <p/>"Allegra Goodman creates suspense where you might least expect to find it."<b>--<i>The Atlantic</i></b> <p/>"In Goodman's inventive and moving new novel, an interlocking set of characters raise provocative questions about art and relationships. . . . <i>The Chalk Artist</i> deftly contends with the commodification of art, the transformations being wrought by technology, and the ephemeral nature of human bonds."<b>--<i>The National Book Review </i></b> <p/> "The story is so fluid, traveling through each character's intensity with ease. Bits of their lives fall apart and come together just as quickly. . . . It hits close to home, reveling in isolation and the ways art can at once save you from it yet push you deeper in. Aidan, Diana, Nina, Collin--they live in all of us, pieces of them glimmering when we're irrational from passion or desperate from loss. It's an open, rough peer into our world, and it's difficult to not turn the page."<b>--<i>The</i> <i>Michigan Daily</i> </b> <p/> "Can Emily Dickinson compete with World of Warcraft? That's among the intriguing questions raised by Allegra Goodman in <i>The Chalk Artist</i>."<b>--<i>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</i> </b> <p/>"All the characters in <i>The Chalk Artist</i> are questers. An inexperienced English teacher yearns to inspire her students, an artist learns to embrace his talent and a gaming addict finds an unexpected connection to the non-virtual world. This deft novel is filled with the exquisite pleasures one expects from Allegra Goodman, richly layered and emotionally resonant. I absolutely devoured it."<b>--Geraldine Brooks, author of <i>March</i> and <i>People of the Book</i></b> <p/>"What begins as a sparkling love story of an idealistic young teacher, Nina, and artist Collin, who works only in chalk, becomes a stunning, rich exploration of whether love, art, literature, and nature can compete with breathtaking virtual worlds."<b>--Helen Simonson, author of <i>Major Pettigrew's Last Stand</i> and <i>The Summer Before the War</i> <p/></b>"Once again Allegra Goodman displays her extraordinary talent, range, and reach. Who else could write such a tender, soulful novel about love and speculative virtual realities?"<b>--Lily King, author of <i>Euphoria </i>and <i>Father of the Rain</i></b><br> <i> </i><br> "What do you do when ambition collides with love? Goodman answers this messy question with nuance in this heartfelt story about class."<b>--<i>Booklist </i></b> <p/> "Richly textured . . . Goodman probes the meaning and place of art in contemporary culture in her intricate and empathic novel."<b>--<i>Publishers Weekly</i></b> <p/> "Goodman's eighth novel takes place in two skillfully evoked worlds that are at war for the hearts and minds of young people: video games versus education. . . . . A very relevant love story with strong crossover possibilities."<b>--<i>Kirkus Reviews</i></b><br><b><br></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Allegra Goodman</b>'s novels include <i>The Chalk Artist, Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, </i>and<i> Kaaterskill Falls </i>(a National Book Award finalist)<i>. </i>Her fiction has appeared in <i>The New Yorker, Commentary</i>, and <i>Ploughshares</i> and has been anthologized in <i>The O. Henry Awards </i>and <i>Best American Short Stories. </i>She has written two collections of short stories, <i>The Family Markowitz </i>and <i>Total Immersion </i>and a novel for younger readers, <i>The Other Side of the Island. </i>Her essays and reviews have appeared in <i>The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Boston Globe, The Jewish Review of Books</i>, and <i>The American Scholar. </i>Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is writing a new novel.
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