LIU Brooklyn's English Department and MFA Program invite you to a reading and reception to celebrate the publication of
PORTRAITS AT AN EXHIBITION (Lethe Press)
a new novel by Patrick E. Horrigan
The hero of this absorbing, intensely lyrical novel is a 21st-century Dorian Gray, an alienated young man searching for his life’s purpose through a gallery of portraits at an exhibition. Afraid he may have contracted HIV the night before during an anonymous sexual encounter and only beginning to fathom the possible consequences, Robin winds his way through the rooms of an art exhibition, studying the portraits of people from faraway places and times, looking for clues in the lives of others to the mystery of his own discontent. Several masterpieces of portrait painting, reproduced in the novel, become the focal-points of Robin’s physical and spiritual journey through the exhibition, including works by such famous artists as Sandro Botticelli, Diego Velazquez, and John Singer Sargent. Each portrait opens itself like a time capsule to Robin’s gaze, releasing stories about the sitters, artists, and critics who, over the centuries, have turned their everyday struggles, disappointments, and dreams into transcendent works of art. In the gallery, Robin bumps into a flesh-and-blood stranger with whom he feels an uncanny rapport. Their meeting could change his life, but first he will have to confront a disturbing truth about himself. Rich in art history and psychological intrigue, PORTRAITS AT AN EXHIBITION plunges the reader directly into the mind of the protagonist, seeing as he sees, reading what he reads, and learning, along with him, the often unsettling life lessons that only the closest observation of great art can teach us.
When: Friday, November 13th, 3:30-5pm (directly following the Department meeting)
Where: 4th-floor Lounge, Humanities Building
All are welcome!
PORTRAITS AT AN EXHIBITION (Lethe Press)
a new novel by Patrick E. Horrigan
The hero of this absorbing, intensely lyrical novel is a 21st-century Dorian Gray, an alienated young man searching for his life’s purpose through a gallery of portraits at an exhibition. Afraid he may have contracted HIV the night before during an anonymous sexual encounter and only beginning to fathom the possible consequences, Robin winds his way through the rooms of an art exhibition, studying the portraits of people from faraway places and times, looking for clues in the lives of others to the mystery of his own discontent. Several masterpieces of portrait painting, reproduced in the novel, become the focal-points of Robin’s physical and spiritual journey through the exhibition, including works by such famous artists as Sandro Botticelli, Diego Velazquez, and John Singer Sargent. Each portrait opens itself like a time capsule to Robin’s gaze, releasing stories about the sitters, artists, and critics who, over the centuries, have turned their everyday struggles, disappointments, and dreams into transcendent works of art. In the gallery, Robin bumps into a flesh-and-blood stranger with whom he feels an uncanny rapport. Their meeting could change his life, but first he will have to confront a disturbing truth about himself. Rich in art history and psychological intrigue, PORTRAITS AT AN EXHIBITION plunges the reader directly into the mind of the protagonist, seeing as he sees, reading what he reads, and learning, along with him, the often unsettling life lessons that only the closest observation of great art can teach us.
When: Friday, November 13th, 3:30-5pm (directly following the Department meeting)
Where: 4th-floor Lounge, Humanities Building
All are welcome!
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