Steve Martin’s new novel, An Object of Beauty, is a true delight if you’re into Sex and the City, art world scandal, and coming-of-age stories. As with his first book, Shopgirl, Steve Martin continues to amaze me for his effortless impersonation of a twenty-two-year-old girl. Sometimes I feel like he has employed a ghost writer who fits my exact profile. Maybe he hired a young woman my age to sit next to him in his LA mansion while he writes. Sounds like my dream job.

The new book is all about Lacey Yeager whose first job out of college is in the bowels of Sotheby’s. She moves up in the ranks and becomes a player in the contemporary art market. The novel follows Lacey through the extreme ups and downs of the stock market from 1990 until the recent crash (and the corresponding art world bubbles and bursts).

I think that Steve Martin writes books that can be deeply appreciated by girls just like me. He’s a great writer, but perhaps my vision is skewed by the fact that I relate to his subject matter firsthand. Why do you think that a famous sixty-six year-old comedian and banjo player writes books for and about depressive WASPy young women? Perhaps it’s for dating purposes. But writing a series of well-received novels seems like a lot of trouble to go to to get a young woman into bed. That being said, I’m definitely intrigued.

- Haley Hogan

Tweet This Post