The Last Nude

In this account of art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka's relationship with her model, Rafaela, buildings look like confections and sewing machines sound like cicadas. In fact, nearly every detail thrums with lush, sensual imagery. Rafaela is stumbling her way through Jazz Age Paris when she meets Tamara and becomes her lover and muse. ThÄrÅse Plummer voices young Rafaela with a contemporary inflection and captures her appealing energy. Plummer also balances the young woman's naòvetÄ with her somewhat desperate edges. Barbara Caruso narrates the artist's part just as convincingly, immersing herself in the role of the emotional Polish painter. Her accent and direct tone provide an appropriate contrast to Plummer's performance. This is an excellent production of a fascinating story. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

September 26, 2011
In Avery’s second novel (after The Teahouse Fire), poor young Rafaela meets Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka in 1920s Paris. Rafaela is no stranger to the currency of sex (“I had traded sex for a train ticket, for an apartment, for a coat and hat and shoes, and most recently... for money”). Before meeting de Lempicka, however, Rafaela had never gone to bed because she wanted to, and the artist awakens the young woman’s desire. Centered around de Lempicka’s provocative nudes of Rafaela, the novel chronicles the shifting boundaries between artist and muse over the course of a heated affair. The relationship is tested when the prestigious Salon d’Automne jury accepts two of de Lempicka’s Rafaela paintings, The Dream and La Bella Rafaela. De Lempicka receives an offer for the latter work before the exhibit even opens, and Rafaela’s portrait becomes a sensation, leaving her uncertain of what to expect in the wake of success, especially from her lover. Though at times contrived, the strength of Avery’s novel lies in her depiction of a driven and accomplished artist and an impressionable waif who finds that her beauty no longer belongs to her.