Conversations with Mr. Prain by Joan Norlev Taylor

Conversations with Mr. Prain Reviews

• 
  Proustitute (on hiatus)

  3.5 stars
  
  The premise of Conversations with Mr. Prain is very intriguing, and Taylor's verbal wordplay is wonderfully executed here—one would hardly think that this was her first novel as one begins reading. However, this soon devolves and the very witty verbal banter between Stella, a bookseller and writer, and Mr. Prain, a publisher, becomes laden with ejaculatory statements that are somewhat juvenile, especially when considered amid the very fascinating debates about aesthetics, the artist as prophet, the culture of commodity, etc.
  
  About three-quarters of the way through, I felt that Conversations was taking a dangerous route; I even thought I would be reviewing this briefly and calling it some Fifty Shades of Grey for bibliophiles (not that I've read that, but just going on what I've heard). With that said, and without giving anything away, I think that Taylor was wise to end the novel in the way that she did: although I can see how some people might feel differently, I think this was a wise choice on her part. The only thing I wish she had done was to tighten the middle of the novel slightly and make its pace less brooding and more in tune with the very quick and alluringly seductive beginning, complete with its ars poetica. It is when Taylor turns to actual seduction that the seduced reader—at least this one—felt an original work become contrived and fall back into the constraints and perils of genre conventions.
• 
  Robert Carraher

  Stella is an expatriate New Zealander, artist, poet, author of short stories and one single novel. She keeps a book stall in Camden Yard, London, where she earns her living selling secondhand books. Stella is a daydreamer, and idealist whose politics are just barely right of Marx. She is a “Green”, a staunch environmentalist. She lives with a handful of like mined young people, all artists, actors, musicians, activists in search of “the truth”. She has moved to London because she sees for herself a career as a great author of important literary works, and New Zealand is just too small to contain her search for that universal truth.
  
  One day, in springtime, a man wanders into her small shop. A man of obvious breeding and a higher social station than the usual collection of Bohemians, hippies, yuppies and punks that usually haunt Camden Market. When Stella looks up from her pricing of books a second time, the man is staring intently at her and holding a book on the early works of Cézanne. Stella is not so much a against capitalism as to pass up a joke about over charging him. Soon, Mr. Prain is showing up every Saturday and they fall into an easy conversation about literature, art exhibits, politics and various other things that passing acquaintances would discuss.
  
  After a few months, Mr. Prain shows up at Stella’s stall one day and she is working on one of her poems. Upon request, Stella shows it to him and Mr. Prain reveals that he is the managing director of Coyman’s, England’s largest independent publishing house. Mr. Prain ask Stella whether she has written other things, at which point she admits her literary aspirations. Mr. Prain asks if he might read her work. The next weekend, she boxes up what she considerers her best efforts and gives them to Prain. After reading them, he asks her around to tea to discuss her writing. Around, being a train trip north, near Oxford, to his his opulent country estate.
  
  Stella is naturally giddy at the prospect of her art reaching the hands of one of the countries most important publishers. She is also dreading the appointment for the same reasons. Does she stack up, or has she been deluding herself. Are Prain’s motives literary or romantic?
  
  At Prain’s mansion, the conversations of the title take place. We hear Prain’s capitalistic approach to publishing, which, profit driven, are also very pragmatic and realistic. We also explore Stella’s motivations as an artist. Her artists confidence and what she might trade for the chance to create and create freely. The two discuss the question, “what is the purpose of art?” “should art be profitable? should it make money and who does it belong to?” It also explores Stella’s psyche and how she views herself as an artist and a women.
  
  The story is erotically charged without being an erotic novel. Shortly after Stella’s arrival, Prain reveals a nude photograph of Stella taken by a famous photographer. Stella has worked as a “life” model for serious painters, photographers and art classes. Prain was drawn to the photo for what it represented to him as the ideal female form. It also has elements of a mystery, without being a mystery. Does Prain’s interest in Stella and his admiration of the photo objectify Stella as a woman, or is he drawn to her romantically and on a personal level because of it? Or, yet more, is she really a writer worth discovering?
  
  Perhaps the most overlooked, but interesting, aspect of the plot and the story is there are really only four characters in the book, outside of the teenage niece and nephew who were Prain’s reason for visiting the book stall in the first place.
  
  Upon arrival at Prain’s estate, Stella meets Monique, Prain’s French housekeeper, who is not all she seems at first glance. The fourth person is Prain’s grumpy gardener. These two characters serve the purpose of revealing aspects of Prain’s personality and history. Since the story is told as a first person narrative, these characters prove necessary, but they are more than just literary devices. Is there a sexual relationship between Prain and Monique? How does Prain react and inter act with the “lower social classes”; the gardener?
  
  The plot is really an exploration of the publishing world, the artistic mind set and motives, the class differences that still exist in England, and a sort of odd ball love story. Or hate story, perhaps. How much of ones soul as a person would they trade for their art?
  
  The plot is intricate. It moves in and out of Stella’s imagination as she congers, in her artists brain, different strategies and motives she might attribute to Prain. We visit Stella both as an artist and a women and as she explores her own artistic values and personal motives and how those mesh with Prain’s.
  
  First ignored, when published in 2006, by the critics, what Taylor has crafted here is at least a minor classic. Perhaps a major classic. Parallels will be drawn with John Fowles works, particularly “The Magus” but there is nothing of the supernatural here. Nothing of the deep drama with Gothic touches. Instead the story is told much ,more directly, if intricately. Only Stella’s artistic daydreaming and explorations of her own worth makes the novel more than a straight narrative. Taylor writes in an original and engaging way and has a finely crafted plot that is very easy to be absorbed into. It’s very modern while still remaining familiar. She knows her characters well, even though they are extremes on a scale and her use of literary symbolic metaphor is marvelous. This is a work told on many levels, both in its crafting and its subject matter, and a tale that the reader will revisit again and again and find new elements of attractions.
  
  Review copy provided by NetGalley and Melville House Publishing
  
  Article first published as Book Review: Conversations With Mr. Prain by Joan Taylor on Blogcritics.
  
  
  
  The Dirty Lowdown
  
  Copyright © 2011 Robert Carraher All Rights Reserved
  
  Posted by Robert Carraher at 4:06 PM 0 comments Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookLinks to this post
  Labels: Book Reviews
  
• 
  Melville House Publishing

  As this erotic mystery unfolds, the conversation whips and snaps between Stella, a vivacious bohemian writer and eco-activist, and Edward Prain, a refined connoisseur of the rare books on hand in Stella’s fusty London bookstall.
  
  While Prain is mysteriously aloof about his background, Stella finds his insights into art more and more stimulating, until one rainy afternoon she makes a surprising discovery: Prain is the head of England’s most prestigious publishing house and a leading collector of art.
  
  And now, he would like her to come to tea at his country estate... to discuss her writing.
  
  Stella is too intrigued to say no. Yet their cat-and-mouse game only intensifies at his sumptuous estate, where she finds herself engaged in an increasingly devilish conversation on the making of art, the selling of art, and the protection of self until Prain reveals that he knows more about her past than he has ever let on....
  
• 
  Michael Gallagher

  Stella’s a creative, young ex-pat Kiwi who runs a second-hand bookstall at London’s Camden Lock Market. Enter the mysterious, older and more sophisticated Edward Prain, a connoisseur of rare books, who slowly draws Stella into his net.
  
  This is a novel of puzzles and games where the rules are seldom clear and much could be at stake; it’s also a novel that examines the precarious relationship between an author’s creativity and the soul-destroying, commercially-driven process that defines traditional publishing. It’s told in the first-person so we get to see what’s going on in Stella’s head: her fears, her frustrations, her bewilderment, her anger. It’s a rather intense experience, as the narrative voice is pitch-perfect and the story unfolds with controlled precision in what feels exactly like real time. I’ve read this twice now and I enjoyed it immensely both times.
• 
  Josh Ferguson

  Picked this up at this little publishing house bookstore in DUMBO. While initially intrigued by the possibilities of the plot I ultimately thought it was a written excerpt of the author living out some personal fantasy or maybe even embellishing upon true events. Not that conceptually there's anything wrong with that. Basically a character study of two drastically different individuals it did have its moments but nothing about either one grabbed me enough to feel passionately about the outcome.
• 
  Rosanna Leo

  This book was seriously interesting; it grabbed me and held me. I was never quite so curious to see how something ended. Ms Taylor did an excellent job. The narrative was sexy, and I was never sure how the relationship would develop between the heroine and the mysterious Mr. Prain. For a book that was mostly about conversation, it was entirely stimulating enough to keep one's attention. I'd recommend it heartily!
• 
  Janet Clark

  Thought it was a terrific read until half way through when Stella becomes difficult to believe. Having very fond memories of the Camden Lock market,I may have been a sucker from the first page on. Readers will need a dictionary--the author uses a few big ones. Whoever said the story is erotic is nuts!
• 
  Starre Vartan

  Almost a novel-as-play, this short, tight book is an intensive study (like a Picasso sketch) of the interior life of a creative young woman. I love being so deep inside a character's head; i don't use the word "delightful" often, but Conversations with Mr. Prain is delightfully melancholy.
• 
  Rob

  Dull, dull, dull. This is billed as an erotic mystery - it's neither. It's actually a dull, poorly written story about two people who talk a lot and do little. Give it a miss.