Art for the Ladylike: An Autobiography Through Other Lives
Whitney Otto. Mad Creek, $23.95 trade paper (312p) ISBN 978-0-8142-5782-1
In this inviting blend of biography and memoir, novelist Otto (
How to Make an American Quilt) examines her life in terms of the women artists who influenced her, asking, “Is there any social effect when a woman is explicit in her observing?” She starts with photographer Sally Mann, whose controversial photos of her children (sometimes nude) grew out of a summer vacation: “Kids are careless early chapters that only adults see as stories they mistakenly believe they can write,” Otto reflects. The author asks “why did I fall so hard” for the work of Madame Yevonde, a color photographer from the 1930s when color was considered “lesser” and feminine, concluding she “is exactly my kind of feminist.” A chapter on “quintessential Bad Girl” Lee Miller has Otto ruminating on familial gender roles: “why is it that a traditional heart can still beat in the wildest girl,” Otto asks. While there are a few unconvincing claims—that Humbert Humbert “loved” Lolita, for example—Otto provides a fascinating tour of art through the lens of her own experience. Creatives of all sorts will enjoy Otto’s wide-ranging insights.
Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary. (Mar.)