The Modern (Anna Kate Blair, Scribner)

Art aficionados and literary enthusiasts will feel at home in The Modern, in which Anna Kate Blair navigates New York City’s modern art institutions. Sophia is a MoMA fellow in NYC, who grapples with her instinct to sentimentalise her past while standing on the precipice of her 30th birthday. The years between her youth, completing a PhD and becoming engaged layer like over-saturated watercolour, highlighting themes of modernity and self-awareness. Sophia stitches together childhood recollections with the colonial histories of Australia and the US, considering the consequences of intersectionality for marginalised queer communities. Away from work and her fiancé, she studies queerness and the realities of her past and evolving relationships. Sophia considers the what-ifs of alternate endings in her life. For readers who’ve considered sliding doors in their own lives, delving into the character’s self-discovery is as familiar as it is, at times, difficult to bear. Blair’s novel expertly blends dark, self-deprecating humour with a quest to know oneself through the lens of art. Blair offers vistas of Appalachia and takes readers to NYC borough hotspots to ponder contemporary life. Along the journey, readers are challenged to consider how concepts such as modern, queer and successful apply in an increasingly digital world. Sophia is a masterpiece of imperfection and an authentic millennial character. Blair’s debut methodically juxtaposes insights into artistic society with a compartmentalised lead and her troupe, reminiscent of those in Jessie Tu’s A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Sydnye Allen is a freelance writer and a member of Sweatshop. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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Category: Reviews