| Kate Christensen has created a masterpiece with "The Great Man." Ironically, it is really a novel about three great women and one very flawed man. Oscar Feldman is the so called "great man" of this story. Unfortunately for Oscar, he is dead for the duration of this retelling of his life. The story centers around the relationship between Abigail who was his wife, Teddy who was his primary mistress and Maxine, his lesbian sister.
Each of these women has something that they love about Oscar and much that they hate. They also are hiding a huge |
secret that if released to the public will forever reduce the stature of Oscar Feldman as a great painter of nude women. The story that transpires includes Oscar’s legitimate, but autistic son, his two illegitimate daughters and two men who are determined to write the ultimate Oscar Feldman biography.
The plot is interesting, full of surprises and the characters are believable. When I said that this is a masterpiece, I truly meant it. There is nothing about this book that I did not like. You can feel sympathy towards all the characters even though many show very human flaws. Perhaps the reason this book is so interesting is that what defines us as human is precisely these flaws.
If you don’t believe me when I say this book is great, then perhaps you believe the Pen/Faulkner Foundation which awarded this book the top award for 2008. Buy it and enjoy it.
