Enigma Variations - Tapa dura

and what is not art today--whether in the humid workshops of the Amazon or in the galleries of SoHo. goes into establishing the status of particular objects. "Enigma Variations" is, in short, a "tour de force"--and lots of fun. anthropological experiences. The Prices certainly have the great novelist's ability to breathe life into the people they invent--and also, it appears, to breathe life into the living. "Enigma Variations," an allegorical novella, is a true gem...[T]he promise of literary ethnography is fulfilled...in "Enigma Variations": to educate and, just as a lark, to entertain. -- Bennetta Jules-Rosette "African Arts" (07/01/2004) Strikingly well crafted...A useful account of the social and commercial processes whereby art objects are 'authenticated, ' and of the roles scholars play in those processes. The theoretical arguments raised by the novel (concerning the epistemological status of 'real' versus 'fake' objects) are not new, but "Enigma Variations" will give readers a three-dimensional sense of the intellectual and social work that goes into establishing the status of particular objects. "Enigma Variations" is, in short, a "tour de force"--and lots of fun.--Richard Handler,"Museum Anthropology" (07/01/2004) What is authentic? Where do we draw the lines? In this unusual, distinctive, and very engaging work, Richard Price and Sally Price show that the elusive answer to these questions is less cut and dried than we might think.--Elizabeth Wein"Journal of American Folklore" (07/01/2004) A genre-busting meditation on the nature of genre-busting...One might even say the mask of mystery and steamy tropical adventure this book wears is exactly the right outfit for approaching the question of what is and what is not art today--whether in the humid workshops of the Amazon or in the galleries of SoHo.--Harvey Blume"Art New England" (07/01/2004) "Enigma Variations", an allegorical novella, is a true gem...[T]he promise of literary ethnography is fulfilled...in "Enigma Variations" to educate and, just as a lark, to entertain.--Bennetta Jules-Rosette"African Arts" (07/01/2004) A fabulous and unique artifact, an art-historical whodunit told with great flair, intelligence, and sensitivity. Like the art it tells us so much about, "Enigma Variations" is a hybrid work that keeps tempting you to read it as fact although it is officially labeled fiction...For the reader, puzzling out which is which is part of the enigmatic charm of the Prices' book--a novel based on the authors' anthropological experiences. The Prices certainly have the great novelist's ability to breathe life into the people they invent--and also, it appears, to breathe life into the living.--Raymond Sokolov"Wall Street Journal" (07/01/2004)

In a steamy colonial city, an eccentric Frenchman offers for sale an extraordinary collection of primitive art. The two anthropologists called in to appraise the pieces for the national museum quickly find themselves in a murky world where the boundaries of authenticity and deception blur in the tropical heat. What begins as an intellectual puzzle threatens to turn into a deadly confrontation. As the game of cat-and-mouse unfolds, the trail leads from the fashionable living rooms of French expatriates to the thatched huts of the Amazonian rainforest, from a Princeton seminar room to a cluttered warehouse not far from Devil's Island, from a chic Parisian cafe to the cobbled streets of northeastern Brazil. Are the objects in the collection world-class masterpieces of primitive art? Or do they reflect the agile and twisted mind of a brilliant forger? Or might the ultimate enigma be of an entirely different nature? Under the equatorial sun, the anthropologists' obsessive pursuit of Truth gradually undermines their academic certainties about art and culture - and, ultimately, their vision of reality itself. Noted writers on art, culture and the tropical Americas, Richard and Sally Price have crafted a mystery at the intersections of art and anthropology. Drawing readers into their quest for a solution, they build an unusual partnership between text and pictures, daringly expanding the possibilities of academic discourse. "Enigma Variations" - in the tradition of "The Recognitions" and "The Crying of Lot 49" - is an entertainment as readable for its intellectual power as for its irresistible drama.