“He grew so intent on capturing her that sometimes he felt he had to get away from her.”

Some books remind you of things happening in your own life. With a daughter in college for Graphic Design and a son in college studying Game Design, the characters all felt familiar. Collin James is a chalk artist, he wipes away his art and it doesn’t last- nor does much else in his life. Naturally when Nina comes on the scene, love isn’t so easy to wash off. She sees in him so much potential and the need to change him, but for his own good. Isn’t it time he uses his amazing talent to his own benefit? I remember a discussion from class my daughter shared with me about how the moment art is saved it will never be fresh, new. It alters the creation, particularly when it’s reproduced, commercialized. Certainly there was more to the conversation, but most of us cringe thinking of art being erased. It reminds me of the beautiful sand mandalas the Buddhist monks create and destroy, of course that has to do with enlightenment, so I digress. Collin creates without demands and expectations attached, until Nina- the daughter of a tech mogul who has the edge on virtual reality gaming, knows she can help him get in the door. While it’s who you know, he has a gift, a very useful one in creating anything that can be drawn.

Nina is a school teacher, and while it’s true she could easily give up and still be safe with her family wealth, she truly cares about the job, the students. The problem is her freshness is the very thing students can smell and turn against. Enthusiastic or not, she isn’t reaching them, but Collin frees her and helps her find a new approach. He’s good for her, even if he doesn’t have ambitions, even if his apartment is squalid. Pushing him to work for her family company may sour their love, but if it’s helps him use his talent to make a life for himself, then it’s worth the risk. Nina doesn’t count on how much he will dive into the job, or the interest he will have in like minded co-workers. The company itself is like a wild beast, that may devour everything in it’s path, including the lovers.

Now for the students. Aidan and Diana are twins, and understand each other in ways not even their mother can divine. So while her brother is able to fool others, nothing gets past his sister, especially his addiction to the very virtual world that Nina wants her boyfriend Collin to work for, that her father’s company created. His addiction is growing like a disease, and he is not just being manipulated by virtual beings. Diana and her brother have always protected each other but can she save him now? Particularly when she is so lost herself and wants nothing more than to disappear. Once the twins were both full of energy and involved in sports until Diana changed, her body growing out as Aidan grew up. No amount of her mother Kerry’s wishing can change the heaviness that has settled over her body, and her heart. “Words could not change anything. ‘You’re a beautiful girl’ was like saying God is good. You didn’t say these things because they were true, you said them because you hoped the universe would take pity on you.’ Will it? Will the universe take pity on any of the characters within?

Using the students in this story works beautifully. It’s easy to cast your character as an idealistic teacher but better to show how her freshness rubs against the reality of students from backgrounds vastly different from her own. The ideal of a thing is always terrific, it’s the obstacles that are the problem. In fact, the same can be said for her vision for Collin. As Vikram Seth said, “God save us from people who mean well.” We step in it enough in our own lives to be thinking we can manage everyone else’s. Will Collin grow up? Will he use his artistry to finally be able to stand on his own or will he continue to wash away his days? Has Nina found her true calling in teaching, can she really reach these teens disinterested in dusty old literature, arts? Can you die of gaming addiction? Will Diana disappear or find herself? You’ll have to read to find out. For artists, gamers, misfits and anyone related to them.

Publication Date: June 13, 2017

Random House

The Dial Press

For the past 34 years .....every August is the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts. In past years has attracted 150,000 people. Besides the art exhibitors-music - and - food - one of the biggest crowd-pleasers is the Street-Painting Expo--gorgeous murals by 'Chalk Artist'. They're extraordinary. Larger than life creations -all weekend long. This August 60 'chalk artist' will be sponsored by the Palo Alto Weekly.
I attend every year - and every year I say the same thing, "how can the city just wash away the artist's work"? "Aren't the artist's crushed"?

In Allegra Goodman's New novel, "The Chalk Artist", when Collin James creates the backdrop for theater production, the boards get washed when the show ends.
His art - wash away! We get to look at the theme 'temporary'. Given that -in life - we often like to strive towards keeping some control in our lives - there are times when we are shockingly awaken to how much control we don't have. Throughout this novel, Allegra exams the nature of the beast --- ways of looking at temporary-ness....but I would have liked 'more'. I wish this theme was explore with all the characters.

At the beginning of this story we begin to get to know Collin, a talented artist, pretty quickly. He works in a bar - Grendel's - in Cambridge- he's nice looking- flirts with the girls easily- seems comfortable in his own skin as a server, yet we know he's frustrated and lonely. He doesn't get paid a dime for the artwork he does for a community theater..... 'chalk art' which gets wash away at the end of production.
Collin has his eye on a young teacher who comes into the bar a couple times a week to grade papers.
It's only a matter of time until he gets the girl to notice him.....'viva-la-melty'.

Nina is the young - new teacher - teaching in a small diverse experimental school with no exams. It's a type of school that has a reputation for "out-of-the-box" kids: artistic, or austistic, kids with special gifts, and learning differences.
She has her eye on Collin, too.

Nina's father is the owner of "Arkadia" ...a popular video game company.
The story is predicable in ares - Collin gets a job with Nina's father.. challenges unfold.

Nina lived with her grandparents until she was 4 years old. After her grandmother got sick, she went to live with her dad. Note: this is a side story -however.....
I've read several books by Allegra Goodman, and I enjoy her 'side stories'.
her 'description treasures'. -- I actually wished for more story about the grandparents. I had a soft spot for them right away.
Here's a 'description treasure' I liked from when Nina was just a tiny tot living with her grandmother.
"Her grandparents talk to her in Russian and read Russian books. They beamed at Nina, spending all their warmth on her. Left to themselves they sat for hours without speaking. They were a pair of armored lizards; they were stone. Slowly, Nina's grandfather climbed the stairs, and slowly he descended. The stairs are carpeted dark green like moss, The walls papered with lilacs, the soaps in the bathroom carved like cabbage roses. Everything in your grandparents' house looked like something else. The boot scraper took the shape of a hedgehog, the throw pillows were embroidered cats. Even Nina's grandmother began to look like something else, the Blue Fairy in Nina's book."
LOVE the way Allegra wrote that!!!!

Twin sixteen year olds - brother and sister Aidan and Diana were close. Aidan is hooked on the video game..... obsessively hooked. Lots of descriptions of the video game -conflicts and resolutions. Other characters in Collin's apt. Building. Friends of his mother - teachers and students at the school.

I usually LOVE Allegra Goodman's books - but this was just alright. I liked it--it had moments of 'Allegra Gems' ..... but the topic the subject matter wasn't my favorite - yet.... I still enjoyed many 'parts'.

Thank You Random House Publishing, Netgalley, and Allegra Goodman

A romance story about video games that leads to obsession does sound interesting - too bad it wasn't. I had to DNF.

Parts of this book were memorable and moving, Sections dealing with Collin's art, Aidan's gaming and Nina's teaching were vivid and involving, but the relationships between characters didn't quite work for me.
I think that the book could have been shorter, cutting out some minor characters, or longer, fleshing out the character's lives. As it stands it seems caught in the middle. At the same time, the ending was satisfying if a touch pat, but where did Collin's new job come from?

This book is well written and intriguing, but unfortunately too much like Allegra Goodman's past work--these themes of science meets love, rich meets poor, advantage meets disadavantage have all been done before by Goodman in earlier, better work.