Joukovsky has written a brilliant book. I found the psychological depth of this novel striking, even while it was uncomfortable because it alludes to a secret at the heart of social relations: the hidden machinations of desire that we are all, at some level, caught up in. The way that Joukovsky narrates the psychological machinations of an argument between partners, for example, was chilling. It's like the author discovered a secret key to relationship dynamics that she embedded—beautifully—in a very modern story about some of the most fundamental of human questions: how do we know what to want? And how are those desires generated and shaped in the first place?
Though the characters in Portrait exist in high-society, they are subject to a universal force that Joukovsky has written about with penetrating insight, and that any attentive reader will see in themself. The book is called "The Portrait of a Mirror", and it is clearly a portrait of a mirror that a reader is meant to hold up to themselves. It works.
This book can be read at multiple levels. It could be a fun beach read on the one hand if you enjoy the witty dialogue (I have never seen text messages more true to life in a book), the corporate intrigue, the romantic whirlwind, much of it just pure fun and page-turning delight—but it's also a book that I could use to teach a seminar at my university (and I may do just that): there are three or four layers deeper that one can go for insights into human nature, from the psychological to the social and cultural and even workplace dynamics. The reader even gets a crash course in art history as one of the main characters describes several important masterpieces. I was entertained, but I also came away having learned something new about the world and about myself.
The novel is extraordinarily ambitious, but Joukovsky pulls it off based both on the strength of our prose and the depth of her experience, which becomes apparent throughout the book in the vividness of the scenes that at times made me laugh out loud and at others nearly made me cry.
I highly recommend this book.
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A must read - five stars!
A stunning debut for an author who has the writing skills necessary to delight readers for decades to come. Portrait skewers a subset of the population who largely deserves it in a rich, layered look into the ridiculous lives of two well heeled couples. Book of the summer? Book of the summer!
