Optic Nerve

De: Maria Gainza, Thomas Bunstead - translator

Narrado por: Kyla García

The narrator of Optic Nerve is an Argentinian woman whose obsession is art. The story of her life is the story of the paintings, and painters, who matter to her. Her intimate, digressive voice guides us through a gallery of moments that have touched her.

In Optic Nerve, El Greco visits the Sistine Chapel and is appalled by Michelangelo's bodies. The mystery of Rothko's refusal to finish murals for the Seagram Building in New York is blended with the story of a hospital in which a prostitute walks the halls while the narrator's husband receives chemotherapy. Alfred de Dreux visits Gericault's workshop; Gustave Courbet's devilish seascapes incite viewers "to have sex, or to eat an apple"; Picasso organizes a cruel banquet in Rousseau's honor.... All of these fascinating episodes in art history interact with the narrator's life in Buenos Aires - her family and work; her loves and losses; her infatuations and disappointments. The effect is of a character refracted by environment, composed by the canvases she studies.

Seductive and capricious, Optic Nerve marks the English-language debut of a major Argentinian writer. It is a book that captures, like no other, the mysterious connections between a work of art and the person who perceives it.

©2014 María Gainza; English translation copyright 2019 by Thomas Bunstead (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Optic Nerve is one of the best books I've read in years. How did María Gainza pull off something so risky when it never reads as anything less than delightful and engrossing? This is a book that loosens the restraints on literature and gives us a new way of seeing." (Gabe Habash, author of Stephen Florida)

Clever vignettes

As I listened to the audiobook version, I must start with the narration. Hated it. Unfortunately, the narrator can make or break a book (at least for me.) Narration was uninteresting for a book/story that really needed an interesting narrator to carry it off.

I enjoyed the artists stories/histories and how they were interwoven throughout the author's personal story. However, I would recommend the paper book over this audiobook version to get the most from the reading.