THE TROUBLE WITH BEAUTY (literary fiction) by Leo Kamen
Much as today, the New York art scene in the 1980s trafficked in money, power, and glamor. In the midst of all the preening and posturing, there is Samuel Schecter, an idealistic, middle-aged art dealer whose gallery teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. When Sam decides to host a “Hail Mary” exhibition called How I’m Going to Murder My Mother, he sets himself on a collision course with the siren songs of beauty and desire he has spent his entire career avoiding. The story that unfolds is by turns art-full, funny, and reflective—an emotionally layered journey of a man learning to navigate between ego and authenticity in a world daring him to betray himself at every turn.
