Here is a useful technique for reading "La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl" by David Huddle (Houghton Mifflin, $24, 196 pages).
Imagine you are back in college, sitting in a darkened lecture hall. The art history professor flashes slides on a screen, one after another, drawing your eye to certain details in the paintings before rapidly moving on. The pictures don't seem to connect in any way.
This story begins with a flash on Suzanne Yarborough, growing up poor in the mountains of Virginia. After forming an unusual bond with a mute classmate, who communicates by drawing on his notebook, she treats him in a heartless manner.
Another picture. Jack Nelson, a young man of privilege, helps a disturbed girl at a summer camp. Although he is proud of his perceptions and generosity of spirit, the girl ultimately rejects him.
We are shown a slide of the village of Luneville in 17th century France. The aging but powerful resident artist Georges de La Tour swaggers through town with his nasty dogs, annoying and despising the peasants. He wants Vivienne Lavalette, the shoemaker's daughter, to pose for him and he is willing to pay for her.
The novel moves back and forth in time and place. Jack and Suzanne meet and marry. Suzanne is an art historian. Jack is " ... the public relations genius of the state of Vermont" and has an affair with a teacher in Suzanne's department. Suzanne dedicates her career to becoming an expert on Georges de La Tour.
La Tour makes a discovery while painting Vivienne. She possesses the "wolf shoulder," a pelt of silky dark hair on her spine, positioned in such a way that she is innocent of its existence. Horrified and fascinated, the artist makes her aware of it and thus changes her nature.
Huddle tells his story by interweaving themes and imagery, forcefully unifying his tale. Suzanne poses nude for a college professor. Vivienne never poses nude for La Tour, but allows him to sense her body when he is old and blind and no longer painting. La Tour asks questions of Vivienne as she poses hour after hour and she answers him with lies. Jack '... tells the same lie over and over ..." in both his professional and personal life. Suzanne looks down on her inferior students. La Tour disdains the villagers.
The characters repeatedly behave in cruel and hurtful ways to one another. Yet they are not despicable. There is a kind of calm and stirring energy throughout the book. The people do what they must to create their lives.
Creation is at the heart of this story. The author asks us to ponder the meaning of truth and humanity in art. Does it matter if a picture factually represents its subject? Must an artist be a kind or "nice guy" to create inspired work?
Did La Tour exist as Huddle describes him, ending his life alone, ancient and blind, feeding off a pliant girl? I don't think so. A glance at his biography reveals he died at 59, depressed from his wife's death a few weeks previously and with nine of his ten children still living.
The artist in the novel is Huddle's own compelling interpretation, wonderfully drawn and unsentimental. He portrays La Tour as a fierce old man, kicking up dust and scaring people. The pictures and words ring true.
Joseph Conrad famously said that the business of the novelist is to make us see. Without lecturing, David Huddle has made us see the influence of art in our lives. Novels that use real artists as main characters have practically become a genre by themselves. I would say "Wolf Girl" is a worthy contender in this form. Huddle's use of detail to reflect and interpret emotion is masterful.
One caution. If you are a reader who likes linear stories with a definite beginning, middle and end, do not choose "La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl." This novel is all middle.
I happen to like middle.
