Title: The Dissemblers
Author: Liza Campbell
ISBN: 978-1579622053
Hardcover: 199 pages
Publisher: Permanent Press (October 1, 2010)
Category: contemporary fiction
Review source: publisher

The spring equinox came and went, and days and nights balanced, then tipped to the other side. It had been a dry winter, and there was a week, maybe two, of melting snow. Grass was green in optimistic patches, tentative purple flowers uncurled beside the trickling arroyos.

Through lyrical prose and stimulating descriptions, debut novelist Liza Campbell deftly transports the reader to Georgia O’Keefe’s New Mexico. She propels us inside an artist’s mind and twists a complex morality tale. Ivy Wilkes, a recent art school graduate, moves to New Mexico for inspiration. Being in the same setting as her idol; Ivy hopes to unleash her innate talent. She takes a day job at the Georgia O’Keefe museum and soon discovers that her creativity is stifled not flowing as she’d hoped. As a soothing side-project, she begins to paint landscapes in Georgia’s style and soon her neighbor involves her in a forgery scheme. Ivy struggles with right and wrong and her desire to be a famous artist while her life unravels around her. The Dissemblers enthralls from the first page to the last. An exquisite wordsmith, Campbell has successfully crafted a magical novel about the allures and realities of any artistic life. The Dissemblers is by far the best book I’ve read this year.

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The Dissemblers