Robert Steiner; The Catastrophe

Series No.: SMC 134

ISBN: 978-1557132338, Pages:

American Literature, Fiction

A Sun & Moon title.

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The erotic, the sexual, the passionate; the life of an artist, the humdrum existence of husband and wife, the madness of sexual perversion, alcohol and drugs; love, hate, destruction. These are the elements of most of great literature, of opera, of even the popular daytime television dramas—and of The Catastrophe, the intensely told story of the life of the artist Edward Kite and his complex interrelationships with his wives Véronique, Francesca, and Mimi, their friend Pierre, and his son Paul.

This is a grand fiction in the manner of the Victorian novel, from its dramatic presentation, to it heightened language, its broad landscape, and its very length. Robert Steiner takes the breath away as he traces the history of an artist—and by metaphor the history of every American artist—from childhood to the great “catastrophe.”