Georgia (Tripp)

Georgia:  A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe
Dawn Tripp, 2016
Random House
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400069538


Summary
In a dazzling work of historical fiction in the vein of Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank, Dawn Tripp brings to life Georgia O’Keeffe, her love affair with photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and her quest to become an independent artist.

"This is not a love story. If it were, we would have the same story. But he has his, and I have mine."

In 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe is a young, unknown art teacher when she travels to New York to meet Stieglitz, the famed photographer and art dealer, who has discovered O’Keeffe’s work and exhibits it in his gallery. Their connection is instantaneous.

O’Keeffe is quickly drawn into Stieglitz’s sophisticated world, becoming his mistress, protégé, and muse, as their attraction deepens into an intense and tempestuous relationship and his photographs of her, both clothed and nude, create a sensation.

Yet as her own creative force develops, Georgia begins to push back against what critics and others say about her and her art. And soon she must make difficult choices to live a life she believes in.

A breathtaking work of the imagination, Georgia is the story of a passionate young woman, her search for love and artistic freedom, the sacrifices she will face, and the bold vision that will make her a legend. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1969
• Where—Newton, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University
• Awards—Massachusetts Book Award
• Currently—lives in Westport, Massachuessets


Winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for fiction, Dawn Tripp is the author of the novels Moon Tide, The Season of Open Water, and Game of Secrets, a Boston Globe bestseller. Her essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, The Believer, The Rumpus, Psychology Today, and NPR.

Her fourth novel, Georgia, is a novel about the American artist Georgia O’Keeffe. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her family. (From the publisher .)

Book Reviews
As magical and provocative as O’Keeffe’s lush paintings of flowers that upended the art world in the 1920s.... [Dawn] Tripp inhabits Georgia’s psyche so deeply that the reader can practically feel the paintbrush in hand as she creates her abstract paintings and New Mexico landscapes.... Evocative from the first page to the last, Tripp’s Georgia is a romantic yet realistic exploration of the sacrifices one of the foremost artists of the twentieth century made for love.
USA Today


Masterful.... The book is a lovely portrayal of an iconic artist who is independent and multidimensional. Tripp’s O’Keeffe is a woman hoping to break free of conventional definitions of art, life and gender, as well as a woman of deep passion and love.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
 

Georgia is a uniquely American chronicle...and, in the end, a book about a talent so fierce it crushed pretty much everything in its path—a rare story of artistic triumph.... Tripp expertly makes drama of two traditional themes in the O’Keeffe story—the romance with Stieglitz and the development of her art—but it’s the track about her art and his management of it and her struggle not to be dominated by him that makes her novel compelling.... In most first-person novels, the character talks to you. Here, she recollects with you—in her heart as well as her head. Which is to say that Dawn Tripp writes in much the same way as O’Keeffe painted: in vivid color and subtle shade.
Huffington Post
 

(Starred review.) [A] tour de force.... [Readers] will feel the passion that infused [Georgia O'Keefe's] work and love life that emboldened her canvases.... Tripp has hit her stride here, bringing to life one of the most remarkable artists of the twentieth century with veracity, heart, and panache.
Publishers Weekly


Tripp's writing is romantic, poetic, and flows as smoothly as her artist subject's brushstrokes.... However, the trouble with biographical novels is where the author's vision and history collide. Tripp's language and the dreamy feeling it evokes at times feels at odds with a relationship so tempestuous and flawed from its start. —Leigh Wright, Bridgewater, NJ
Library Journal


[A] powerful interpretation of [O’Keeffe’s] personal growth throughout her relationship with Stieglitz. As vibrant and colorful as one would hope for a story about this beloved artist.
Booklist

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