Sirens & Muses by Atonia Angress
Review of Sirens & Muses by Atonia Angress
“What did they have to look forward to but mountains of student debt, a 9% unemployment rate, a planet, on the verge of environmental collapse, and an art market that would ignore the vast majority of them while lavishing millions of dollars on a favored seemingly randomly selected few?”
Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress (2022). Published by Ballantine.
In several of my reviews now, I have brought up the fact I’ve become weirdly obsessed with art schools in fiction. Now, in this post, I have to admit this is the book that kickstarted that entire obsession.
I had my eye on this novel for awhile ever since I spotted it on an anticipated release section, and had a reserve at my library ever since it was available to do so.
I had a gut feeling I would become obsessed with this kind of novel, especially after attending the New York Film Festival and covering several films about the artistic life.
As a writer and artist myself, there comes an acute interest into how that plays out in a fictional world. I like novels that center this with female characters especially as a person who identifies as a woman, which is why I probably gravitated to this book in particular. It follows four characters, two who are women, and two who are men. All of their lives intersect in different ways while attending this art school where there are a lot of issues, including classism and privilege.
And while I’m on this kick, I have noticed all of the novels I have read so far have protagonists that are wealthy. In this way it is a critique of the art world, as all of the characters from other backgrounds clearly struggle. This book balances it by having half the main characters be wealthy, and the other half clearly not being so.
Four different people’s lives collide at an elite art school and New York City.
Sirens & Muses takes place in 2011, when the Occupy Wall Street movement is just starting to gain steam in cities around the United States. This setting in the first half of the book is an elite art school called Wrynn, and we’re introduced to our first protagonist in the opening pages.
Louisa is from the depths of Louisiana and speaks French at home, which is something one would not imagine in Louisiana if they didn’t know its history, and while her mother is a failed artist (failed in the sense that she never pursued her career or an education), she hopes to make it at Wrynn. She is on a scholarship and money is tight, so her successful literally rides on the finances that keep her there.
She is paired with a roommate named Karina, is the definition of nepotism baby. She’s the school’s darling and does painting, just like Louisa.
Her parents are two major art dealers in New York City, but as the novel unfolds, it’s revealed her parents are getting a divorce and selling off their entire collection due to the nature of their settlement. Karina could not give Louisa a time of day in the beginning of the novel, as she’s off dealing with her own issues, painting, and going to see Preston.
Preston, the third protagonist of sorts, is another somewhat wealthy kid who relies on his dad’s money to survive. He’s kind “meta-woke” and tries to call out the issues happening on campus, but, to be honest, he is a part of the issue.
His art isn’t seen as legitimate at times because he does a lot of work just photoshopping things, and he runs a blog where he makes fun of art and the establishment and people surrounding it.
This leads him to roast the fourth protagonist, a professor at the school who became famous off of an art piece he made of his childhood friend dying of AIDs. He’s known as a social movement artist, but he sees himself as having sold out in the name of having to make a living.
Everything begins to plummet outside of the typical art school narrative towards the middle of the book. Louisa, whose grandfather has dementia and cannot return home out of pride, needs to win an art show on campus to get enough money to stay at the school. She loses to Karina.
Karina’s parents are divorcing, opening an entirely different can of worms emotionally, Preston makes a fake school announcement that claims tuition is now free for every student, and he and the professor end up both getting kicked out of the school.
Because of this, each of the characters land in New York City whether they wanted to be there or not. Preston and Karina end up being represented by the same gallery owner, but he steals one of her paintings and ends up giving his to his douche friend that’s only after business opportunities.
The professor is now teaching a child art prodigy with lesbian parents, and instead of just giving the kid practical art lessons, he takes him out to protests at the MET and Guggenheim because why not? Let the kid know how the art world really is. Louisa, who was so talented, is stuck working at an artist’s studio make copies of the guy’s work because she’s desperate for money.
And, somehow, Louisa and Karina find their way back to each other. These two have major sexual tension and end up getting together towards the end, but at Karina’s and Preston’s first big show, they have a big spat.
Karina wants to separate herself from him, he doesn’t take to that too kindly, and he has a meltdown right in the middle of their combined show.
Naturally, Karina’s side is more popular, fueling his feelings of insecurity even more. He does eventually find his place with the protestors, but man is he unlikeable in these kind of moments. I couldn’t stand him as a character in general.
Sirens & Muses has many layers to it. A lot of it is about class and status in this kind of world, which is broken by the nature of Karina and Louisa’s relationship.
Granted, they both might be quitting art in NYC forever at the end of the novel, but every single character becomes disillusioned by this world and seeks out a departure through different means. I found the professor’s path to be the most interesting, because while he strays back and forth, he ends up coming back, giving this suggestion to me that every single one of them will try to slide back in eventually for money or ego.
Overall Thoughts
It’s an interesting book. It’s not perfect in my eyes, as I think the four character focus could be something reserved for another time,. I really enjoyed the two girls’ stories the most, and would have been perfectly happy just focusing on them.
By bouncing around stories it felt like at times something got lost in translation, and I’d have to backtrack sometimes to get a full understanding of what’s going on.
Besides that, I overall enjoyed the novel and think that someone should check it out even if vaguely interested. There’s a lot of nuance to these complex relationships, whether person and art or person to person, and definitely a lot to think about when it’s set to the beat of Occupy Wall Street in the background.
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