An espionage drama pulsating with twisty revelation and drip-fed backstory, dealing with anarchy, agriculture and prehistory, it adds a killer plot and expert pacing to the reach and sophistication of her previous work, as well as vital fun.
Towards the end of the novel, Agnes reminds herself -- and readers – that "You will have to wait to see what the uncertain future brings...Accept the uncertainty. Do not yet try to resolve it. The dynamics of the provisional. The end is written into the beginning." It's quite a lead-in to the novel's disturbing climax, which certainly commands our attention -- and upends any sunnier views of this family's future we might have been harboring.
If you’ve ever had a friend who is brilliant, super-sarcastic, notices everything, can be incredibly mean but always is so in the service of some greater ideal, then you will recognize the authorial voice of Marin Kosut in Art Monster. Books about art that are both insightful and compellingly readable (not to mention funny) are exceedingly rare, but Kosut has written just such a work.