Künstlers in Paradise

The new world meets the old when a millennial moves in with his grandmother in Künstlers in Paradise, Cathleen Schine's subtle, wistful and wry spin on the odd-couple novel. The Künstler family emigrated from Vienna to Los Angeles in 1939--"almost too late," notes the novel's omniscient narrator. "They were lucky to get out." The European Film Fund saves the family by hiring Ilse Künstler, an actress, to write for Hollywood. Ilse's daughter, Mamie, was 11 when she immigrated with her family; now a 93-year-old retired violinist residing in a Venice, Calif., bungalow, she and her ageless live-in assistant could use some help. Meanwhile, Mamie's 24-year-old grandson, Julian, is floundering--suddenly jobless, suddenly girlfriendless--in Brooklyn. The solution is obvious. But not long after Julian arrives in Venice, the pandemic hits, and what's meant to be a short visit becomes an open-ended stay.

Those who read novels for character will find rich rewards in Künstlers in Paradise, which has no plot to speak of; Mamie's chats with Julian about her past--her family's tender steps toward assimilation, her youthful brushes with Hollywood legends--keep things moving. Eventually, Mamie and Julian come to share an unlikely bond over a mutual sense of guilt: for her, it's for escaping Vienna; for him, it's for escaping New York, where the plague rages. But prospective readers who smell a heartwarming intergenerational tearjerker should fear not: Schine (The Grammarians; Fin & Lady; The Three Weissmanns of Westport) is at least as generous with vinegar as with honey. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer

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