Another Star for Tuesday Nights in 1980

Esteemed critic Donna Seaman, at the prepublication trade journal Booklist, weighs in on Molly Prentiss’ debut novel, Tuesday Nights in 1980 (Coming from Scout Press on April 5) and this review is a thing of beauty! Plus: Starred!

“Prentiss’ debut novel captures the eruption of creativity and commodification precipitated by New York City’s 1970s crash into fiscal and criminal chaos. Painter Raul appears within this maelstrom after fleeing Buenos Aires before the onset of the Dirty War. He vamps his way into free studio space and, with the gruff mentorship of a veteran artist named Arlene, rapidly ascends toward the blazing beacon of fame. Art critic James makes a splash as he draws on the strange revelations of his synesthesia, which jumbles his sense and intensifies the force fields of the art he scrutinizes. Lucy is a lovely innocent from Idaho who stumbles her way into the molten heart of the art scene, at once foolish and brave. An agile, imaginative, knowledgeable, and seductive writer, Prentiss combines exquisite sensitivity with unabashed melodrama to create an operatic tale of ambition and delusion, success and loss, mystery and crassness. Though some characters are predictable, most, especially James an his wife, are fresh, funny, ardent, and magnetizing. Prentiss’ insights into this brash art world are sharply particularized and shrewd, but she also tenderly illuminates universal sorrows, “beautiful horrors,” and lush moments of bliss. In all, a vital, sensuous, edgy, and suspenseful tale of longing, rage, fear, compulsion, and love.” — Donna Seaman, Booklist Starred Review

You can see more about Molly at her website: Here.

Check out her phenomenal instagram: Here.

Contact me for a review copy: Here.