The Spectacle, Anna Barrington (Review by Stacey Lorenson)
Rating: 4.0/5 Stars
The Spectacle, Anna Barrington’s debut novel, is a sharp introspective into the intense, cutthroat, international art scene, set during the Trump era (circa 2016), where aesthetics and mega profit are instrumental to survival in this intense and provocative thriller.
Rudolph Sullivan is a contemporary conman with a few sociopathic tendencies. He tosses around flattery, lies, and money, like snowflakes in a windstorm. This handsome, morally detached young man, has insinuated himself amongst the wealthiest of art collectors. Rudolph meets Ingrid, a pretty, unassuming former artist who works in an art gallery and is about to play an important role in the con of a lifetime. Complications arise when Rudolph’s investors force his hand, and he must outrun the web of lies he has manufactured.
Before Ingrid met Rudolph, she led a pedestrian life of mediocrity. After meeting at a party, the two begin a whirlwind romance that sweeps her into a vortex of drugged fueled parties, questionable characters, and liberal elites. Ingrid becomes the Yin to Rudolph’s Yang, in what becomes a co-dependent relationship, until the risks outweigh the benefits.
The Spectacle is a fascinating contemporary suspense novel that is loosely based on several real-life Ponzi schemes committed over the past few decades. Barrington provides a spicy anthropological commentary on art, love, money, cancel culture, classism and a panoramic examination of current day political and moral crises. Readers have a backstage view of international galleries, auction houses, and the deliberate manipulations applied to creative works to maximize profitability. The Spectacle embodies prose dripping with bold rebellion that delivers you into a deliciously captivating world of pretense and splendor as it unravels into an avantgarde game of cat and mouse.