The Day the Bozarts Died

From Publishers Weekly The Blaisdell Street Artists Cooperative, carved out of an old Massachusetts college lab building in 1979 and styled after the Hotel des BeauxArts (or Bozarts for short) is petering out. Middleaged playwright and resident schlemiel Stanley Noseworthy, whose most successful play was written 20 years before the books present of 2004, has lived there since its inception and narrates. Stanleys romantic MO is to seek out arty 28yearolds and stay with them till the Bioclock d[o] us part: current partner Ninas clock has just gone off, just as young painter Rose Gately arrives at Bozarts. Intercut with Stans gently annoying first person is a series of articles in the local paper, The Day the Bozarts Died, detailing the history of the group and comically undermining Stans perspective. Other than the willheeverlearn? aspect of Stans romantic travails, the book lacks a central plot, but Duberstein (The Marriage Hearse) presents an entertaining tableaux of fractious minor artists (painter Monk Barrett, sculptor Arnie Cloud and installation artist Carla Freemantle, among others) trying do their work while managing the demands of conventional life. (Oct.)Correction: The title of Pam Jenoffs A Fine Crack of Light (Reviews, Aug. 7) has been changed to The Kommandants Girl and the month of publication to March 2007. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product Description Stanley Noseworthy is, at best, a serial monogamist. At worst, a faithless rake. Now his record breaking longterm lover (1001 betterthanArabian nights) Nina, is fed up with his inimitable bull%#$# and threatening to end their relationship. Show us there is some good in you, Stanleys best friend urges. Show us there is a brain. But Stanleys decisions do not tend to be made by his brain.He has profoundly mixed feelings about losing Nina, for he is nothing if not a profoundly mixed (up) fellow. Stanley is either a dedicated artist or a posturing fraud, a charming rogue or a shallow lothario, tragic victim or pathetic loser or all of the above. (Vote Online! Stanley might well say to this, for he is always prepared to satirize his own life as sharply as the life around him.)Meanwhile, Stanleys beloved artists cooperative, The Hotel BeauxArts (hence Bozarts) to its inhabitants, is also under threat. Since its endowment a quartercentury ago by the august Canterbury Institute of Technology, the Bozarts has had a frequently glorious, always rambunctious, characterrich history. Lately, mysteriously, it has been dwindling toward extinction.Stanley (who may or may not be paranoid) fears the reason for this is either that the Institute wants its building back for more profitable use, or that George W. Bush has declared an end to Art and Thought in America or both of the above.In The Day The Bozarts Died, we follow the many rich strands of Stanleys Tale through hilarity, absurdity, and wrenching sadness to an unexpectedly moving conclusion. Review I was hooked from page one couldnt get enough of Stanleys sarcasm and humor... This is a captivating tale of getting older, changing times and interwoven lives, and Stanleys many passions, the greatest of which is the Bozarts. A treat to read. Pam White, BookSense nomination (A BookSense Notable Book)The Day The Bozarts Died provides a heartwarming glimpse into the lives and high times of the Bozarts, when the joint was jumping, pharmaceutically, philosophically, artistically, sexually... For those of a certain age, the novel will provide an amusing nostalgic trip down memory lane, replete with literary allusions available only to a sardonic, educated protagonist (and his creator)... The setpiece paragraphs and zingy oneliners are right on; the facts and fictions of Stanley Noseworthys life are memorably portrayed and noteworthy. The IndependentDuberstein demonstrates the depth o