Summer is the season for books \u2014 and when it comes to selecting a title to dive into on the East End, readers often gravitate toward beach-themed mysteries or romance novels.<\/p>\n
While many of these books are written by authors with a cursory awareness of this region, this summer, there is a new novel on bookstore shelves that was penned by an author who really knows this place. <\/p>\n
Rue Matthiessen has lived in Sag Harbor for decades, but her local roots (and writing chops) go much deeper. As the daughter of two writers \u2014 Deborah Love and the legendary Peter Matthiessen \u2014 she grew up on the family\u2019s property near the ocean in Sagaponack, surrounded by the literary and artistic crowd who were her parents\u2019 contemporaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cArt was a pervasive subject for me growing up in Sagaponack and in East Hampton in the \u201960s and \u201970s,\u201d Matthiessen explained in a recent interview. \u201cThere were a lot of arguments and discussions. They were writing, painting, making sculptures, living cheap \u2014 by and large because it was cheap here then \u2014 and they had raging arguments about politics and what they were doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did literature mean anymore? What did painting a picture mean anymore?\u201d she continued. \u201cIt was a serious art culture. There were a number of people who were after something big. Something genuine. They wanted it to have importance and impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of that energy and the debate can be found in the pages of \u201cWoman with Eyes Closed,\u201d Matthiessen\u2019s new (and first) novel, which was published by Latah Books on June 17. In recent weeks, Matthiessen has been speaking about her new book at events across the region, and on Sunday, August 17, at 3 p.m., she will take part in a reading and Q&A about \u201cWoman With Eyes Closed\u201d at Greenport\u2019s Floyd Memorial Library. <\/p>\n
Also coming up on September 13, at 5 p.m., Matthiessen will speak at Bridgehampton Museum\u2019s \u201cLiterary Legends Series\u201d at the Nathaniel Rogers House. Titled \u201cCourage for the Earth, Peter Matthiessen in Sagaponack,\u201d the event will be presented in partnership with Canio\u2019s Books and she will read passages from her father\u2019s work and reflect on the life of this celebrated local author, explorer and naturalist. Matthiessen recently wrote about her family in \u201cCastles & Ruins: Unraveling Family Mysteries & Literary Legacy in the Irish Countryside,\u201d her 2024 memoir which revisits a long-ago trip to Ireland she took with her parents and older brother.<\/p>\n
When it comes to writing fiction, it should come as no surprise that for her first novel, Matthiessen would use art as her jumping off point. \u201cWoman with Eyes Closed\u201d is a mystery that revolves around a European art heist, and it takes place in two very disparate locales \u2014 The Netherlands, where a trio of young thieves steal priceless works of art, and Sagaponack, where a wealthy Russian oligarch new to the beachfront community may or may not know where the purloined paintings have ended up.<\/p>\n
Also, in Sagaponack, Matthiessen introduces readers to Perrin, the 35-year-old daughter of Abstract Expressionist painter George Clayton, who was a contemporary of Pollock and de Kooning but never made it big. A widower, George lives modestly in a small house in need of repair that is over-run with his own paintings, none of which he can part with. Meanwhile, Perrin\u2019s husband, Jack Triplett, is also an artist. But unlike Perrin\u2019s father, he is a wildly successful one, having made a name for himself with colorful, fabricated sculptures that lack depth, but appeal to the masses. He and Perrin live in an expensive glass box on the beach, just four houses away from the Russian who demolished a beach shack (formerly George\u2019s studio) to build his own massive, showy house in the dunes. What, exactly, is in the oligarch\u2019s house is a mystery, which is why Kit Hobbs (a.k.a. Christopher Pinsmail), a spy for MI6, has arrived to infiltrate the Sagaponack art scene (and Perrin\u2019s less than happy marriage).<\/p>\n
On the other side of the ocean, the art thieves are doing their best to avoid being nabbed by the authorities. Though \u201cWoman with Eyes Closed\u201d may be purely fiction, Matthiessen\u2019s jumping off point for the art-themed plot is based on a true story.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a fictionalization of a real-life heist that took place in Rotterdam in 2012, where a couple of amateur thieves were able to break into the Kunsthal Museum and make off with millions and millions of dollars\u2019 worth of art,\u201d Matthiessen explained. \u201cWhen I first discovered that heist in 2012 and started following the story, I realized the thieves were really not trained at all. They weren\u2019t art world people. They were third-rate petty criminals who walked into this museum and walked out with millions of dollars of art. How did that happen and how embarrassing for the museum?<\/p>\n
\u201cI was captivated by that story and followed it all along.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the seven modernist paintings stolen in the actual 2012 heist was Lucian Freud\u2019s 2002 painting \u201cWoman with Eyes Closed,\u201d which Matthiessen found particularly inspirational. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really liked the name, and as this real-life story unfolded, the back story of this particular painting interested me very much,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that point, the idea for a novel was born. There were so many places to go with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother thing that landed in my lap was the fact that the character Perrin is the woman with the eyes closed,\u201d she added. \u201cShe\u2019s landed in a marriage that is subpar and has to contend with it, and she has put blinders on.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Matthiessen\u2019s novel, readers also spend time in Amsterdam with brothers Luuk and Piet, age 25 and 19 respectively, and Inecke, a young woman in her late teens \u2014 who have stolen not seven, but four paintings from the Kunsthal museum, including a Picasso, two Monets and one work that shares its title with the Freud painting, but in the book is attributed to an artist named Hochberg. Also involved in the crime is Leonie, the brothers\u2019 mother. <\/p>\n
\u201cI took the original Romanian thieves and made them Dutch, and I added a third thief, the woman \u2014 a young femme fatale who has the two brothers wound around her finger,\u201d Matthiessen said. \u201cAlso, I created a mother for the brothers \u2014 a funny, tough character who works in a brothel in Amsterdam, and wants a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The novel shifts between the thieves\u2019 efforts to cover their tracks and the characters in Sagaponack. While set in present day, in her book, Matthiessen gives a longing nod to what Sagaponack used to be. There are shades of familiarity that longtime East End residents will surely recognize from the time when neighborhoods south of the highway were a series of endless dunes, picturesque farm fields, humble beach shacks and quiet roads. It\u2019s certainly familiar territory for Matthiessen, who feels a sense of nostalgia for the region and the people who populated it a half century or more ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cWriting a mystery is a lot of threads. You have to connect them and make them make sense. It\u2019s challenging, because I\u2019m not normally that kind of person,\u201d said Matthiessen. \u201cBut I feel like in order to write convincingly in a novel, you have to know a place inside and out.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of the themes Matthiessen wanted to focus on in her book was the transition that has occurred locally since she was a child. She recalls being struck by the changing values on the East End when she worked in real estate several years ago. \u201cI had to preview some beach shacks for rent, so I went down to this group of shacks previously owned by the White family in Sagaponack. <\/p>\n
\u201cI walked into this one place, and I remembered my brother and I spent several summers in this shack on stilts, almost in the dunes,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was so bare bones, it was so idyllic, and I remembered what it was like. I have strong feelings about those shacks, and I was just keeping it in my mind. We all idealize our childhoods. I do look back in fondness at the simpler things. I thought, I just want to go back there, like when I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if her character Perrin is a thinly disguised version of herself, Matthiessen responded, \u201cPerrin is much taller, thinner and beautiful than I am. Also, it\u2019s the art world, not the literary world. I think I chose the art world because I go to see everything. When I\u2019m sitting at my desk struggling with words, it\u2019s restorative to go and have a purely visual experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the mystery of the art heist itself, \u201cWoman with Eyes Closed\u201d asks the deeper questions about the price we place on meaningful things in our lives \u2014 including our relationships with one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book delves into the art scene and questions, \u2018What is the value of art and the value of people?\u2019 That\u2019s one of the things I wanted to address in the book and it\u2019s examined on many levels,\u201d Matthiessen said. \u201cThere are different aspects to this book. It\u2019s about espionage, yes, but it\u2019s also about art and artists. That was one of the things that was really impressed upon me. Plenty of people are trying to make art and trying to write \u2014 it can be difficult on the family. So, there\u2019s a cost. There\u2019s also something quite beautiful about being able to produce this work. It\u2019s a many layered thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just a fan,\u201d she said of her love for art. \u201cI grew up in this world, but I carried it on because that\u2019s where I found nourishment. Many of my friends in the area are artists, so it\u2019s easy for me to channel what they do and how they think. George Clayton is a hybrid of my father, but he\u2019s completely his own person. <\/p>\n
\u201cI loved writing George. He\u2019s one of these sort of gentile, but also rock and roll, counterculture guys,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s also concerned with the fine production of his art, or anyone\u2019s art. He\u2019s appreciative on a really authentic level. I feel like sometimes around here with all of us moving in the stratosphere of big money, what is the core thing you care about in the end? <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re touched by a piece of art, its worth, its value, is right there. We\u2019ve got to get back to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Floyd Memorial Library is at 539 First Street in Greenport. For details, visit floydmemoriallibrary.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer is the season for books \u2014 and when it comes to selecting a title to dive into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-63277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}