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Art & Lies |
Each of
Winterson's poetic, philosophical, and witty novels, from Sexing the
Cherry (1990) to Written on the Body (1993), takes us by
surprise, and her newest work is no exception. For instance, the
characters in this metaphoric, historical, sensual, and often wrenching
tale are named Handel, Picasso, and Sappho, but Handel is a doctor and
Picasso a woman. Sappho is the much lauded yet vilified lyric poet of
antiquity, but she also walks the streets of London at the bitter end of
the twentieth century, and all three characters cross paths at odd or
pivotal moments. The fourth character, the bawd alluded to in the title,
is Doll Sneerpiece, the heroine of an old book Handel is reading on a
train. This train, spanning the distance from the city to the sea,
symbolizes time, just as a house is a metaphor for memory. As Winterson
spins the intriguing, dramatic, and significant tales of each of her
characters, she satisfies our craving for story but accomplishes so much
more, articulating the meaning of time, art, passion, and hypocrisy in
prose charged with the pulse and imagery of poetry.
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