It’s one of those days where I’m utterly distracted. It’s typical of me to be restless when I have too much time on my hands. I swivel between pending work, reading, entertainment, mindless scrolling like a carousel. Stopping only to onboard my latest whim. My thinking echoes my feelings and I’m having one of those thought whirlwinds. The ones where you’re thinking about everything and nothing at the same time. It’s one of those days.
Don Delillo’s The Body Artist feels like one of those days. Laura Hartke, the titular body artist has typical marital repartee with her husband Rey Robles, a film director, at breakfast. A breakfast exchange that feels seemingly never-ending. She heads out for a drive and the next thing we encounter is a news report about Robles’ suicide by gunshot. What follows is Laura’s descent into the blues with the house they were renting acting as a constant reminder of her late husband. She undergoes a period of extreme disconnect from the real world while using the time to prep her body for upcoming performances by indulging in mundane tasks. Amidst all of this, one fine day, she discovers a gnome-like human residing on the first floor, previously undiscovered. The mysterious individual, referred to as Mr. Tuttle as an ode to one of her school teachers, seems to channel her dead husband’s thoughts and words. What follows is a confusing period where Laura accepts Tuttle’s existence in the house as-is and imbues all of what he says as she struggles to deal with his loss. The text closes with a write-up about her latest performance where Laura seems to have channeled Tuttle’s being into her art, in an androgynous representation and an ambiguous ending where throws open a window to “feel the sea tang on her face and the flow of time in her body, to tell her who she was”.
The Read: It’s typical for one to look and dig deep for a hook in plotless narratives, something to hold on to. I can usually deal with this. Perhaps I’m evolving as a reader. But in this case, this read felt like I was stuck in a smooth crevice with nothing to grapple at. I wouldn’t call it a chore, but reading The Body Artist felt like a mindless procession into nowhere. Now don’t get me wrong, Delillo can write. Some of the prose is really well constructed and poetic but easily buried amongst the nothing-ness. But I cannot deny that it is a really strange read. Funnily enough, I’m still motivated to try White Noise by the same author. Let’s hope I don’t treat that book like the title suggests.
23/365.
Trivia: Johannes Stoetter is a famous body artist who received a lot of eyeballs, pun intended, courtesy of his appearance on Britain’s Got Talent.
His speciality lies in mimicking nature, flora and fauna. Check out her work and an interview about her process and background.
Documentation:
Book: The Body Artist
Author: Don Delillo
Year of Release: 2001
Publisher: Scribner