An Object of Beauty

A Novel

By Steve Martin (Hardcover Book, 2010)

Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her magnetic charisma and liveliness. Her ascension to the highest tiers of the city parallel the soaring heights--and, at times, the dark lows--of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through today.

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- Format: Hardcover Book
- Price: $26.99 US/$29.99 CAN
- ISBN-13: 9780446573641
- On Sale Date: 11/23/2010
- Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
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Formats Available: Hardcover Book, Trade Paperback, Electronic Book, Audiobook, Audiobook, Hardcover Book
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Steve Martin is a legendary writer, actor, and performer. His film credits include Father of the Bride, Parenthood, The Spanish Prisoner, and Bringing Down the House, as well as Roxanne, L.A. Story, and Bowfinger, for which he also wrote the screenplays. He's won Emmys for his television writing and two Grammys for comedy albums. In addition to a play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, he has written a bestselling collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel, and a bestselling novella, Shopgirl, which was made into a movie. His work appears frequently in The New Yorker and The New York Times.

At first you think that An Object of Beauty will be a romantic comedy, starring a strong-willed, very smart and very ruthless heroine-adventuress in the New York art world; then, as its irresistibly rendered scenes unfold, you realize that you are experiencing, from the most intimate of perspectives, the quasi-tragic history of an era. Like Steve Martin's heartrending Shopgirl, this very different novel will captivate your attention from start to finish. I was reminded of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence--we gain admission to a world of glittering surfaces to which few have access, and we are made to feel the perimeters of this world, the abruptness with which its doors are shut against those who violate its taboos. An Object of Beauty is the equivalent of any number of "art histories" of the late American 20th century in the guise of a doomed love affair. (Joyce Carol Oates).