"An Object of Beauty" Discussed by Fiction Book Club

Fiction Book Club meets at Westfield Memorial Library to discuss "An Object of Beauty"   (December 15, 2011) - On Wednesday, January 11 at 7:00 p.m., the Fiction Book Club meets at the Westfield Memorial Library to discuss "An Object of Beauty" by Steve Martin. The library is located at 550 East Broad Street.   According to Publisher's Weekly, "Martin compresses the wild and crazy end of the millennium and finds in this piercing novel a sardonic morality tale. Lacey Yeager is an ambitious young art dealer who uses everything at her disposal to advance in the world of the high-end art trade in New York City. "After cutting her teeth at Sotheby's, she manipulates her way up through Barton Talley's gallery of 'Very Expensive Paintings,' sleeping with patrons, and dodging and indulging in questionable deals, possible felonies, and general skeeviness until she opens her own gallery in Chelsea. "Narrated by Lacey's journalist friend, Daniel Franks, whose droll voice is a remarkable stand-in for Martin's own, the world is ordered and knowable, blindly barreling onward until 9/11. And while Lacey and the art she peddles survive, the wealth and prestige garnered by greed do not. Martin (an art collector himself) is an astute miniaturist as he exposes the sound and fury of the rarified Manhattan art world. "If Shopgirl was about the absence of purpose, this book is about the absence of a moral compass, not just in the life of an adventuress but for an entire era."    The Book Club is free and open to Westfield Memorial Library and MURAL cardholders. (MURAL cardholders belong to libraries that are part of the Middlesex Union Reciprocal Agreement Libraries. Check our website to see if your library participates.) To register for the program, visit the library's website at www.wmlnj.org , click on the Online Calendar, or call 908.789.4090 x7951.   Founded in 1879, the Westfield Memorial Library-the community's destination for discovery and ideas-engages minds, entertains spirits and facilitates lifelong learning for people of all ages. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.   For more information call 908.789.4090, visit the library's website at www.wmlnj.org , and sign up for the monthly e-newsletter "Library Loop," or stop by the library at 550 East Broad Street for a copy of the award-winning quarterly newsletter "Take Note."