The Glamour of Strangeness

Starred review from April 4, 2016
In this exciting book, novelist and critic James (The Snake Charmer) examines six artists (and many interesting secondary figures) whose travels allowed them to find inspiration and belonging far from their homelands in locations across the globe. James primarily focuses on the painter Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), who left Paris to settle in Tahiti; Raden Saleh (1814–1880), a Javanese painter who traveled across Europe; and French poet and doctor Victor Segalen (1878–1919), for whom China became a second home. Also dominant are Isabelle Eberhardt (1877–1904), a Swiss writer who emigrated to French Algeria dressed as a man; Walter Spies (1895–1942), a painter nearly forgotten in modern Germany, who moved to Bali; and the American filmmaker Maya Deren (1917–1961), who immersed herself in voodoo culture in Haiti. In addition to analyzing his subjects’ art, James details their rich lives, mining their published works, personal archives, journals, and letters, and often revealing serendipitous connections between the artists. Many of his subjects refused to conform to the social norms of their birthplaces, namely monogamy and heterosexuality, and the description of these struggles is illuminating. James also includes his own perspective, reflecting on his travels through Asia, South America, and Europe, and his permanent relocation to Bali, where he has witnessed firsthand the effects of globalization. This well-written text is a sharp, thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing conversation about transculturation. Illus. Agent: Katina Matson, Brockman Inc.

Starred review from May 15, 2016
Six artists in quest of the exotic.Throughout his career, novelist, cultural critic, and travel writer James (Rimbaud in Java: The Last Voyage, 2011, etc.) was drawn by "the romantic allure" of the mysterious and remote; since 1999, the Houston-born writer has made a home in Indonesia. Like the artists he profiles in this richly detailed, absorbing cultural history, the author well understands the motivation of "exotes," "an elite group of travelers who seek to immerse themselves in otherness." His major focus is on painters Paul Gauguin, Walter Spies, and Raden Saleh; writers Isabelle Eberhardt and Victor Segalen; and filmmaker Maya Deren. All from different places, they shared a cosmopolitan background, confused cultural identity, unconventional private lives, and an overwhelming desire to reinvent themselves. Gauguin, "sexually frustrated and perpetually in debt," left France for Tahiti, intent on starting a new, liberated life but always with an eye on the Paris art market. James sees him as "a pioneer of a new vision of travel as a one-way proposition." Like Rimbaud before him and Spies after, he was motivated "more by a disgust with the homeland than by an informed attraction to the new home." Unlike James' other subjects, who fled from the stultifying materialism of Western culture, Saleh, "an enthusiast who fervently idealized Europe and European ways," left Java for Germany, where he became a dandy, painting and socializing with aristocrats. Handsome, blond Spies left his famous lover, filmmaker F.W. Murnau, in Germany when he sailed to Bali, where he "created a cosmopolitan social whirl of his own," with guests who included Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, and Leopold Stokowski. James does not argue for the artistic greatness of his lesser-known characters, but they prove to him "that cultural identity can be a choice," pursued with joy. Abundant primary sources inform James' sharply drawn, sympathetic portraits.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from July 1, 2016
James' seductive title refers to the fascination that inspired artists to travel far from their birthplaces to find a land that truly felt like home. An art critic, travel writer, and author (The Snake Charmer, 2008) from Texas and long based in New York, James came under the spell of the exotic and moved to Bali in 1999, an experience that infuses his zestful inquiry in earlier transcultural adventures with simpatico perceptions. After a fresh look at Gauguin in Tahiti, James turns to lesser-known, more alluring seekers. Raden Saleh was a Javanese painter who, at 18 in 1829, left Indonesia for Holland with a Dutch colonial official and launched a triumphant European career as a flamboyantly attired high-society painter. A century later, Walter Spies, an openly (at great risk) gay German painter and musician, found his paradise in Bali. The French naval doctor and writer Victor Segalen flourished in early twentieth-century China. The marvelously audacious Swiss writer Isabelle Eberhardt roamed late nineteenth-century North Africa dressed as a man. And the avant-garde American filmmaker Maya Deren discovered her spiritual wellspring in Haiti. James is merrily entertaining in his exceptional erudition and nimble eloquence, and fluently and movingly insightful in his psychological, sexual, social, and aesthetic interpretations as he tells these astonishing, often tragic tales of intrepid self-creation and ardently chosen homelands.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)