The Problem With the Genius Myth
The label erases the complication and collaboration that are central to the artistic process: Your weekly guide to the best in books
In her debut novel, The Vexations, the author Caitlin Horrocks fictionalizes the life of the precocious French music composer Erik Satie. In her telling, Satie was talented and successful—and entitled. He made waves in music circles across Paris, but was also immature and cruel to many of the women in his life, including his sister and the girl he loved. He was, in other words, : “a hero, Artist above all,” yet still deeply “broken,” Horrocks writes.
