Intermission,: A novel

by Calvin Tomkins

A first novel which projects, with some indirection, the troubled, tentative relationships which exist between Elliot and Jay Whittaker, brothers, Elliot and his oldest friend, Roger Faxon, and Camilla Onez de la Torre, who married Roger but left her imprint on both Elliot and Jay. For Jay, who tells the story, responds with a naive admiration to Camilla, in her late thirties, whose alien fascination is a mature one, while Elliot conceals his lack of immunity to Camilla in an overt hostility. And at intervals, First in Banta Fe, then New York, then New Jersey where Elliot submits to the predictable, protected pattern of a social marriage, these four meet again and again, witness the weak integration of Hoger, question the doubtful influence of Camilla whose charm also corrupts... A story which reflects a first exposure to experience with a fresh awareness and talent. Kirkus Review

247 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Calvin Tomkins has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1960. He wrote his first fiction piece for the magazine in 1958, and his first fact piece in 1962. His many Profile subjects have included Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson, Julia Child, Georgia O’Keeffe, Leo Castelli, Frank Stella, Carmel Snow, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Frank Gehry, Damien Hirst, Richard Serra, Matthew Barney, and Jasper Johns. He wrote the Art World column from 1980 to 1988. Before joining The New Yorker, he was a general editor of Newsweek, a post he held from 1957 through 1959. In 1955, he joined Newsweek as an associate editor. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including “The Bride and the Bachelors,” “Merchants and Masterpieces,” “Living Well Is the Best Revenge,” “Off the Wall,” “Duchamp: A Biography,” and “Lives of the Artists.” A revised edition of his Duchamp biography came out in 2014.