The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty: A Novel by Amanda Filipacchi

Author:Amanda Filipacchi [Filipacchi, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Friendship, New York, USA, Suspense
ISBN: 9780393243871
Amazon: B00L4HAXKA
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2015-02-09T06:00:00+00:00

THE FOLLOWING EVENING, my friends arrive early to our Night of Creation so that we can watch Peter on the six o’clock local news before he joins us. They’re excited I’ve invited him, and it works wonders to lighten the mood, which frankly was a bit weighty last time, when all we could think about was which one of us was the killer.

We wait for Peter. He finally bursts into my apartment carrying a large drawing pad and exclaiming, “My friends!” with such an air of relief and yearning, it makes us laugh.

When he sees my mysterious, dim, cavernous living room filled with upright, human-sized animals wearing my costumes and masks, he falls silent.

“Oh my God. This place is amazing,” he says, walking in slowly, taking it all in. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful room.”

I’m glad he finds it beautiful. Everyone finds it striking but not everyone finds it beautiful.

“These costumes are gorgeous. Are they your creations?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“It’s like walking into a fantasy land of imagination, of endless possibilities. No wonder your friends like to work here. Did you put this whole decor together yourself too?”

“Yes, but the lighting is what makes it work, and that was done by a lighting designer friend of mine.”

He looks at me and laughs. “The lighting? So on top of being astonishingly talented, you are also breathtakingly modest.”

During the session, he draws imaginary landscapes, but his output is low and his skill is poor. Georgia whispers to me in the kitchen, “If he spent less time gazing at you and more time turning that gaze inward, he’d boost his productivity. If you want to help him, you should sleep with him. It would get that sexual tension out of his system and allow his creative juices to flow.”

I laugh her off. “If you spent less time surfing the Internet and more time working on your novel, perhaps you’d boost your productivity.”

“I can’t. My novel makes me nauseated.”

“Then write a new one.”

“I can’t. I’ve put too much time and work into this one. I can’t just abandon it.”

Peter seems endearingly concerned that Georgia hasn’t been able to write since she lost her laptop and got it back four days later.

He asks her, “If your laptop had been returned to you more quickly, say after one day, do you think you’d be experiencing the same difficulties with your writing now?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

He turns away. “I’m just always interested in how creativity works.”

“It’s not like I do no writing. I do write in my journal.”

“That doesn’t count,” Peter says. “Not to belittle journal-writing, though. I wish I could keep a regular journal. I’ve tried it, but I can never stick to it for more than a few days. I should give it another shot at some point.”

We invite him to join several more of our Nights of Creation. He seems delighted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.