Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object

By: Kathleen Rooney

Narrated by: Eva Hamilton

Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object is a lively meditation on the profession of art modeling as it has been practiced in history and as it is practiced today. Kathleen Rooney draws on her own experiences working as an artist's model, as well as the famous, notorious, and mysterious artists and models through the ages. Through a combination of personal perspective, historical anecdote, and witty prose, Live Nude Girl reveals that both the appeal of posing nude for artists and the appeal of drawing the naked figure lie in our deeply human responses to beauty, sex, love, and death.

©2008 The University of Arkansas Press (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A compelling memoir that blends observation, personal revelation and scholarly inquiry." ( Los Angeles Times)

"This esoteric, organic meditation on life as an art object is itself a model of personal writing, perfect for those on either side of the easel." ( Publishers Weekly)

Loved the narrator, Eva Hamilton!

If you could sum up Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object in three words, what would they be?

Very well done!

Any additional comments?

I appreciated the research that must have been done, concerning art history. The novel was well thought out, nicely written, and presented in such a way to keep my interest.

Awesome!

What made the experience of listening to Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object the most enjoyable?

Lovely memoir mixed with critical essay. Rooney's prose is engaging and illuminating; she expertly crafts her personal experience as an artist's model against an underpinning of art history that makes for an outstanding read.

Have you listened to any of Eva Hamilton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator's voice was absolutely perfect for this book...engaging with just the right amount of sexiness.

Lovely

An interesting piece on non cliché topics. A good book for thinking, or just learning things from a different perspective about a world some people don't know about.

Poor reader, interesting memoir

The reader has very strange diction, robotic and disjointed. Interestingly, she was fine when reading other voices than the author's. Very distracting.

art from the perspective of a live model

The author addresses the most commonly asked questions for a live nude model. What do you family and friends think of you posing? How did you get started modeling? Do you get hit on? And perhaps the most persistent question, why do you do it? Rooney gives her personal experiences on the model-artist relationship. The author shares her attitude towards naked vs. nude. Rooney details what a typical modeling session consists of, and what was going through her mind the moment she disrobed. The author discusses the pay scale and describes the different artists she has worked with. I was surprised to learn that artists are usually seeking female models, as there is typically an abundance of willing male models to pose nude. Rooney opens up on her first experience and shares how models view their bodies. I found this book fascinating with my many intriguing insights. Additionally, Eva Hamilton provides captivating narration.