Late and Soon: a Novel

by Robert J. Hughes

Encountering the young man her husband left her for five years earlier, Sotheby's art specialist Claire begins to question herself and her past and prepares a painting sale that could make her career, a situation that places her under the wing of an elderly art owner. A first novel. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2005

About the author

ROBERT J. HUGHES is a former cultural and publishing industry reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the author of the novel Late and Soon. Together they are the authors of the forthcoming Be Famous.

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audio Book -

Written and read in a very elegant stuffy fashion . A classy dry story about an art dealer , with a gay ex-husband , falling in love with her ex-brother-in-law , an ex-priest. EX this one off your list !

[DaniLanglie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, if I were allowed to give half stars. This wasn't the worst thing ever, but it was pretty darn tedious. And super pretentious. I don't think real human beings are actually this reflective and introspective. The prose are SO PRETENTIOUS. Every sentence is overwrought and full of too many commas and tangents and it was occasionally painful to read. Everything was so grandiose, none of the characters felt like real people, and the descriptions of art went on wayyyy too long.

If I were to say anything positive, I'd just say that there were some bits of prose I found compelling, and a couple of the descriptions of the paintings were a little bit fun in the way that they dove so deep into the inner life of a work of art. I think there were some decent ideas floating around in this novel, but the author's desire to seem artistic and cultured got in the way of telling a better story.

[Marisa M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awful

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel with an art auction house in New York as the setting. I was very interested in reading this book. Unfortunately, it was not that great of a story. Every main character labored over and over with their internal angst and examination of relationships. I never felt like I really cared for the characters...maybe Claire to an extent, but as the story tolled on and on, not even her. The story builds up to an auction of paintings that Claire has arranged, in particular, a painting being sold for an elderly, wealthy widow, but I never really felt the building tension or relief when the painting sold. This was a first novel and I am sure the author poured his heart and soul into his story. A second novel might allow him to relax and let the story flow, rather than direct the reader with every thought of every character. There is as much to be learned from the inferred as the directly told. I did note one line early in the book, when Claire went to meet with Mrs. Driscoll, the above mentioned widow. Claire is watching Mrs. Driscoll's reaction to the painting she is selling, which had belonged to her husband. Claire thinks
"When, for instance, did love actually enter in? But what seemed to count for Mrs. Driscoll here were the pointillist distances that gave the individual dots of experience the shimmer of the whole world, her past." That is a beautifully written sentence. Hopefully, there will be another book in Robert Hughes.

[liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

So...Claire is an art appraiser for an auction house. She was married to Peter, until he came out to her and left her for Toby five years ago. Now Peter's left Toby for Sean. Peter and Claire are frinds, as are Toby and Claire. Peter's brother Frank, an ex-priest, is coming to New York to work on his book, and also because he maybe has feelings for Claire? First novel. Lots of commas. Not bad, but nothing I'd go out of my way to recommend to anyone, either. It's trying very hard to be post-modern, but the author is an old dude who writes for the Wall Street Journal. I mean, come on! Not as transgressive as he thinks it is, nor can he get the flow he's trying for with all of those commas.

She though, too, that her confidante role was one she played throughout her life, her career, even -- and she was a confidante who had so little regard, she thought, for the essential other humanness of those who chose her for verbal intimacies.

Yeah. Like that, pretty much. The dialogue is a little better...

[Vivencio · Rating 4 out of 5]

probably my current state of mind, but i find this whartonesque story quite a delight. thoughtfully rendered characters, with the ny art auction world in the backdrop, had me hooked from the the first paragraph.

[Kelli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried twice to read this book. Couldn't make it passed page 60. A lot of artsy terms. Big words that I don't know the meanings of. Big disappointment.