Alexander Maksik

Somehow a compelling read; I don't know much about Art Criticism, and if I did, not sure I would agree with the. book's premise, which is based on the work of John Berger. But the writing is good and I was sucked in.

In this book our narrator, Solomon, an art journalist turned advertising exec visits an art community run by a rich patron who provides support for struggling artists, but at a cost. Themes include how patrons and critics can influence artists and the role of art in our lives. A good companion read, actually, with The Latecomer… (mer)

THE Publisher Says: Set in an international high school in Paris, You Deserve Nothing is told in three voices: that of Will, a charismatic young teacher who brings ideas alive in the classroom in a way that profoundly affects his students; Gilad, one of Will's students who has grown up behind compound walls in places like Dakar and Dubai, and for whom Paris and Will's senior seminar are the first heady tastes of freedom; and Marie, the beautiful, vulnerable senior with whom, unbeknowst to Gilad, Will is having an illicit affair. Utterly compelling, brilliantly written, You Deserve Nothing is a captivating tale about teachers and students, of moral uncertainties and the coming of adulthood. It heralds the arrival of a brilliant new voice in fiction.

I RECEIVED THIS TREE BOOK AS A GIFT. THANK YOU!

My Review: A brief review of my sexual history: I was sexually abued by my mother in my teens; I, in turn, used my youth and physical charms to seduce a man (who was not my teacher and held no authority over me) more than twice my age; I can never repay him for the glory of introducing me to the raptures of consensual sex. So, while I understand coercive sex from the victim's PoV, I also know teens are sexual creatures and fully aware of the power and pleasure of being desired. Sex itself needs no justification, it's just fun as anyone who's had it knows. (Rape is not sex it's abuse of power by bodily means.)

It's the consent part that troubles me here, not the age gap nor the idea that a seventeen-year-old could set out to bed someone more than twice their age. A teacher is in a position of power and a student wants to level the playing field by using sex? Yes, makes sense...but the adult needs to be the one who says a firm "NO" while in a position of power over the young bundle of hormones. I'm not discounting Maksik's assertion that Marie wanted to do it with him; I've been that youthful aggressor myself; I'm saying it was his job to stop the situation because he was the adult and could...or should...see the dreadful consequences of this power imbalance. The young woman maintains she's dealing with a lot of shame and guilt for (I gather) having had an abortion.

A few quotes I quite like, but also point to Maksik not quite hiding the truth of the matter at hand from us:

I would fight for him and against anyone who wouldn't. It wasn't complicated. In the beginning love never is.
–and–
Everything can change, but only with abandon.
–and–
Cowards spend their lives alone. Either with people who can't hurt them, or with no one at all.
–and–
The thing is you have to fight the whole time. You can't stop. Otherwise you just end up somewhere, bobbing in the middle of a life you never wanted.

I find it hard to fault the beautiful simplicity of these aperçus, yet equally hard not to see them as coded mea exculpas for his past behavior.

I don't presume to tell you what you should think of Maksik, or his behavior; I trust you can make up your own mind about him as a person. I think the reality of reading for many, if not most, of us is that we don't or can't separate the writer from the writing (eg, I'll never consume anything at all by Jo Rowling the TERF), so I think you should know whose bank account you're notionally fattening before you buy the book to read it.

Should you, in fact, read it? I say a qualified yes to that, because I like but don't love the writing; and because I don't respond to cishet desire with any kind of enthusiasm. But it's a first novel, so one forgives the occasional longueur without much effort. Since many of y'all are yourselves heterosexual, that won't be a problem (so I assume). There's nothing explicit in the text except reciprocal sexual desire.

Over to you, then; but don't ignore it just because the author's not a nice guy.… (mer)