The Suicide of Claire Bishop: A Novel

by Carmiel Banasky

Overview

Greenwich Village, 1959. Claire Bishop sits for a portrait—a gift from her husband—only to discover that what the artist has actually depicted is Claire’s suicide. Haunted by the painting, Claire is forced to redefine herself within a failing marriage and a family history of madness. Shifting ahead to 2004, we meet West, a young man with schizophrenia obsessed with a painting he encounters in a gallery: a mysterious image of a woman’s suicide. Convinced it was painted by his ex-girlfriend, West constructs an elaborate delusion involving time-travel, Hasidism, art-theft, and the terrifying power of representation. When the two characters finally meet, in the present, delusions are shattered and lives are forever changed.

The Suicide of Claire Bishop is a dazzling debut, evocative of Michael Cunningham's The Hours (and Virginia Woolf's classic Mrs. Dalloway), as well as Donna Tartt's bestseller The Goldfinch. With high stakes that reach across American history, Carmiel Banasky effortlessly juggles balls of madness, art theft, and Time itself, holding the reader in a thrall of language and personal consequences. Daring, sexy, emotional, The Suicide of Claire Bishop heralds Banasky as an important new talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938103087
Publisher:	Dzanc Books
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	725,092
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Carmiel Banasky is a writer and teacher from Portland, OR. Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, American Short Fiction, Slice, Guernica, PEN America, The Rumpus, and NPR, among other places. She earned her M.F.A. from Hunter College, where she taught Undergraduate Creative Writing. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from Bread Loaf, Ucross, Ragdale, Artist Trust, I-Park, and others foundations.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/06/2015
Banasky’s memorable, intricate, and inventive debut novel uses vulnerable characters to probe themes of time, identity, perception, and love. In 1959 Manhattan, Freddie Bishop commissions an artist known only as Nicolette to paint a portrait of his wife, Claire. Unexpectedly, the finished work depicts fragmentary moments in Claire’s life, ending with a leap off the Brooklyn Bridge. Despite Nicolette’s reassurance that the painting will protect her from the fate it depicts, Claire—fearful of her family’s history of mental instability—attempts unsuccessfully to destroy it. When schizophrenic West Butler sees the painting in a gallery in 2004, he becomes convinced that it is the work of his artist ex-girlfriend, also named Nicolette. Spiraling into a delusion of conspiracy and time travel that explains her disappearance from his life and the contradiction in dates, West concludes that the canvas can change reality as well as help him find Nicolette. In the course of stealing it, he meets a man with knowledge of the painting’s past, setting up an encounter between him and Claire that will have transformative effects on both. With its dancing time frames, recurring motifs, glimpses of history, and shifting realities, all united by striking prose, the novel is both an intellectual tour de force and a moving reflection on the ways we try to save ourselves and others. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A memorable, intricate, and inventive debut....both an intellectual tour de force and a moving reflection on the ways we try to save ourselves and others."

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)




"Banasky writes beautifully and with great empathy."

—Kirkus Reviews




“A twisty, satisfying story about truth and madness. … Fans of Siri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World and Judith Claire Mitchell’s A Reunion of Ghosts have a treat in store.”

—Foreword Reviews




"This thriller of a debut novel by Carmiel Banasky throws any tired stereotype about women's fiction right out the window. Intellectually provocative and elegantly rhapsodic, The Suicide of Claire Bishop celebrates the arrival of an uncommonly ambitious and inventive writer."
—Ploughshares




"Daring, precise, and linguistically acrobatic, this novel brings a history of America alive, from the war protests in the sixties to turn-of-the-twenty-first-century art theft. A fearless portrayal of madness and its consequences, Carmiel Banasky's debut novel tracks the life of a suicidal housewife and her unlikely, schizophrenic counterpart. This is a new writer to savor, reminiscent of Nicole Krauss, Michael Chabon, and Andy Sean Greer."

—Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin




"Vivid, strange and always compelling, The Suicide of Claire Bishop weaves together art, politics and the specter of madness in an unforgettable New York story. Carmiel Banasky, a writer like no other, is a talent to watch."

—Claire Messud, author of The Emperor's Children and The Woman Upstairs




"A magnificent, astute debut that portends greatness, The Suicide of Claire Bishop whisks us through one of the most epic eras of American history. While her heroic scope rivals that of The Goldfinch and her boldly lush storytelling nods to Let the Great World Spin, Carmiel Banasky's pages unfurl with an intense artistry all their own. A fantastically captivating and beautifully rendered book!"
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—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn and Gold Fame Citrus




"The Suicide of Claire Bishop - a story of obsession and art, haunted and complex - is amazing, and Banasky's descriptive skills are extraordinary. Not to be missed."

—Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells

From the Publisher

★ 11/01/2015
In 1959 New York, Claire Bishop, young and pretty but a willful, heavy-drinking fabulator who married Freddie to escape what felt like a doomed life, is sitting for a portrait he has commissioned for her birthday. She's drawn out by the artist, Nicolette, who then paints a shocking portrait of Claire's broken-bodied suicide. In 2004, the earnest, schizophrenic West sees the portrait of a woman's suicide that he's convinced has been painted by a woman named Nicolette with whom he's been trying to connect. But given the time difference, how can that be? Debut novelist Banasky offers a brilliantly, sleekly told puzzle piece that snares readers to the end. VERDICT Highly recommended.

Library Journal

2015-07-01
A complex exploration of tricky memories. Relying on an unreliable narrator is always risky, and Banasky elevates that risk to high art in her audacious but uneven debut. First we meet Claire, a gloomy 1950s housewife sitting for a portrait. The painter, Nicolette, attracts and disquiets her—then renders an oil-and-canvas vision of Claire's suicide that haunts everyone who sees it, including the subject. Fast-forward to 2004, the era of West, whose compulsions propel much of the story. West has schizophrenia, and as he tries to track down a former lover (also a painter named Nicolette) whose work obsesses him, he yanks us deeper into the unsolvable labyrinth of his mind. Each section tackles a different point in the years between the painting's creation and West's attempt to recapture it, and though it frequently gets lost or stolen or damaged, Claire's portrait is the only focal point in a craggy landscape. This can feel either exhilarating or exhausting, depending on the strength of your stomach. It bears mentioning that Banasky writes beautifully and with great empathy: in one quiet sequence, Claire cares for her estranged mother as the older woman succumbs to Alzheimer's; in another, West pays his parents a surprise visit so he can try to connect with Nicolette via a portal in his childhood bedroom. Come to think of it, all the broken souls here do share one thing besides a sinister painting—a dicey relationship with the past. So if you're comfortable with uncertainty, you'll feel right at home in Banasky's imagination. Come for the author's gift with language, but don't expect it to offer you peace of mind.

Kirkus Reviews