The Fatigue Artist

by Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Blending comedy and grief, the author of Leaving Brooklyn returns with the saga of a woman who finds herself alone and suddenly beset by Chronic Fatigue virus and turns to an alternative healer for help. 25,000 first printing.

Genres: Fiction, Illness

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 1995

About the author

Lynne Sharon Schwartz (b. 1939) is a celebrated author of novels, poems, short fiction, and criticism. Schwartz began her career with a series of short stories before publishing her first novel, the National Book Award–nominated Rough Strife (1980). She went on to publish works of memoir, poetry, and translation. Her other novels have included the award-nominated Leaving Brooklyn (1989) and Disturbances in the Field (1983). Her short fiction has appeared in theBest American Short Stories annual anthology series several times. In addition, her reviews and criticism have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. Schwartz lives in New York City, and is currently a faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars.

Reviews

[Eva Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading this book in my first trimester of pregnancy. At one point, a character compares chronic fatigue syndrome to my state. There are a lot of similarities, and you can consider that as having made me biased towards the book & its protagonist, although in which direction, I'm not sure.

My fundamental problem with this book is that it really never draws you into the story. It's a narrative told entirely from the point of view of Laura, a writer with chronic fatigue syndrome, and follows her life through the course of her several months' illness. During this time, she contemplates love, life, her work, everything in between, but the author of the novel fails to ever get Laura or us, the readers, out of Laura's head and into Laura's world. Thus, it is a very plodding read.

The only passages that resonated with me were the ones about Q, her sometimes lost and sometimes not love and their relationship. The entire novel could have focused there and been a much more compelling story. But instead, he is just thrown in every now and then in the cast of mostly entirely tedious characters that seem to wander through Laura's life and illness. In fact, finding out what resolution, if any, she reaches with Q was my only reason (besdies stubborness and being too ill to go find a book outside of arm's reach) to finish reading the Fatigue Artist, and (SPOILER) absolutely nothing happens or is resolved. In my opinion, the author just hasn't written a tight enough novel to leave her readers hanging like that without appearing, simply, to lazy or too short on ideas to finish what she started.

[JoyfulK · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Don't let anyone accuse of of malingering, [the doctor:] said.
"Little did he know how much I'd like to malinger, but I can't seem to get the hang of it. I keep shuffling to my desk to work on my book. ... tinker with a phrase here and there, until my brain short-circuits. Lights out. I sit holding the thin manuscript on my lap ... hoping it will grow from love alone." (p. 112)

As a novel, it's got some things to be desired. No particular plot, for example, although there's a romantic subplot wending its way through the book. (It's not strong enough to be the plot.) But as a meditation on the effects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (aka CFS, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), and Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS)), it's got much to recommend it. The author has the disease pegged, and has created a character who, not particularly *needing* to work, deals with the effect on the disease on that fact that she *wants* to, and can't. The title comes from the narrator's reflections on performance art. Ultimately, says the narrator, "my ailment no longer interests me. It's tolerable only as I keep finding metaphors and stories to wrap it in." (p. 291) Yes. When one is ill for years, it becomes just a fact of life, not the center of it. Except when it leaps up and grabs center stage again, and then it's boring unless one can find some new way to see it.

I don't know if I exactly recommend this book. But I'm glad I read it.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave me some useful insight into what Chronic Fatigue Syndrome must be like for some people.

[Marne Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is 25 years old, but it has probably never been more timely, as there are certainly many people these days who could identify with a story of recovery from a debilitating virus. Though billed as a novel, this book reads more like memoir. Even if it isn't entirely based on Schwartz's own life, I'm fairly certain that the health-related parts of it must be autobiographical, because they are so true-to-life and convincing. I'm especially taken with the recurring metaphor of her bed as a lover that she yearns for whenever they are separated.

There is a real human lover in the story as well, one that our narrator, Laura, refers to only as "Q." She and Q have a long history together, and when she's not ruminating on the virus and the fatigue it brings her, she's remembering her past with Q and trying to figure out whether they have a possible future.

Laura certainly has an active social life for a convalescent. Throughout the novel, she's constantly meeting people and talking with them, and all these conversations are related to us after the fact. The effect here is almost exactly like the work of Rachel Cusk, although I found it much easier to relate to Schwartz's Laura than I did to Cusk's Faye. Certainly, fans of Cusk would find it worth their while to read this book as well, while those who are exasperated with her works probably wouldn't have patience for this one, either.

I breezed through this book in five days, not at all my normal style. Although there isn't really a lot of plot to speak of, the strength of Schwartz's prose kept me going. I'm convinced that she could write about literally anything and make it interesting, and I probably should seek out more of her work in the future.

[Nada · Rating 3 out of 5]

- a bit boring, was def pushing myself to finish it
- had some really fantastic bits of prose
- one of those books that doesn't really have a point... basically just the character reflecting on her life while she deals with chronic fatigue

[Elizabeth Roberts-Zibbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted something I could consume a bit more slowly, and this fit the bill perfectly. I was intrigued by the title, because the most pervasive symptom of migraine I still have is exhaustion. I love the way she described what chronic fatigue feels like; how she describes falling into her bed’s embrace; the Tao and the tides.

I wanted this to be autofiction. It seemed like the author had to have lived this, and the protagonist is a writer who realized she needed to write the exact book I held in my hands. Schwartz’s biographical information is lacking but I don’t think she lost a husband the way Laura did. She may have had ME / CFS though. I feel like she had to have.

Another thing I enjoyed was being immersed in the 90s, when everything was so simple and “good” and we had no idea what was coming even as we worried about the state of the world. AIDS, global warming, and violence were mentioned often and of course there was the obvious lack of cell and smart phones. New York City was described lovingly. I like this writer’s style, and requested “The Writing On The Wall,” her book about the aftermath of 9/11 in NYC, from work. Just one copy in our state consortium!

Not quite 5 stars but close. 4.5.

[Lesley Potts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another volume from the to-be-read shelf and another one that’s been there so long I can’t remember when or where it came from, except it’s an ex-library copy but that doesn’t tell me anything as the pocket page has been cut out.

It was a much better read than Schwartz's Seinfeldesque novel I read late last year. In fact, there was a lot to enjoy, although it was still very quirky. For one thing, there are obscure black and white photographs scattered throughout the book. The captions underneath consist of lines from the text, leaving the reader to wonder if they were staged or if the event they document really happened. Is that woman in a Tai Chi pose the author? Was this an autobiographical novel?

The basic story is quite simple: a writer has a bout of chronic fatigue syndrome and as she deals with it over several months, she re-evaluates her life. There’s a recurring lover, a murdered husband, step-children, a rodent living on her balcony, the building super, a wonderful Tai Chi teacher and his interpreter, a herbalist, and various friends and relations. She goes about her everyday life in New York City and gradually feels a little better.

[Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't even think of a comment to make other than "blah" and I didn't like this book at all.

From back cover:

"From the acclaimed author of Leaving Brooklyn and Disturbances in the Field comes a witty, sophisticated novel that confirms Lynne Sharon Schwartz as a major voice in American fiction.

At age forty, Laura is struggling with the violent death of her reporter husband as well as an obsessive on-again-off-again love affair with an elusive actor. Suddenly, she find herself incapacitated by a mysterious lethargy - a love affair with her bed, as she puts it. Though Western medicine can name her disease, and its cause, it can do nothing to cure her. As time and alternative methods gradually bring Laura back to health, she finds solace and meaning in writing about her encounters with often wrongheaded but well-meaning stangers, friends, lovers, and family.

Lynne Sharon Schwartz has created a haunting mosiac of a woman adrift in society: Laura's illness and recovery are a metaphor for the modern urban malaise, and for the spirit that can defeat it."

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an odd book, about a writer, writing a book, which in fact is this book, while wrestling with chronic fatigue. The interesting parts involved her tai chi teacher and a healer, the rest, an amalgam of her "notes" (recordings of conversations, etc., which she does in lieu of "writing") are sometimes intriguing, often tangential. Her dispiriting marriage and perplexing on-going affair might indeed inspire chronic fatigue, if there is an emotional element to the disease.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand how this author has flown completely under my radar all these years. If Ottessa Mosfegh hasn't read and been inspired by this book, I'd be amazed. " My year of R&R" feels like an homage or vice versa, but of course this book was written 30 years ago. I seem to be collecting books about sleeping it off, big time. I just can relate to the bed as refuge and lover. It makes so much sense.

[Jann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading about Laura, a forty year old woman suffering from some type of depression or chronic fatigue, I forgot I was in a book and thought she was a friend telling me her story on the phone. The prose is that REAL.

[jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this writer; this book was like a fresh pool of water in the dusty city on a mid-august sunday afternoon.

[Tab · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B-/C+)

[Catherine]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12911196

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice bits about Manhattan and about Tai Chi

[Ari Raliegh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great little love story. Realistic, brutal at times. The earth didn’t move but it did tremor. I learned a bit about tai chi that I never knew, and can appreciate that.

[Amanda D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will be honest, I didn’t much understand the purpose of this book. It was one that I kept reading thinking it would get better and it never did.

[Mystic & Noank Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

"With wry humor and intelligence, and using the push-pull of tai chi as metaphor, Manhattan writer Laurie is struck down by chronic fatigue syndrome as she tries to balance friends, stepdaughter, job, an exiting lover and a recurring lover while searching the city for a healer." -Holly