num_pages: 134
description: Throughout this collection, Dennis Vannatta combines artwork and storytelling to distill them into a core matter—the human comedy. He also peppers in his authorial persona by inserting anachronistic forays into the Vietnam War, thus pushing storytelling’s envelope a step further. His stories run from the first cave artist and cave storyteller (who must tell a captivating tale or be killed by hunters), through a modern aluminum siding salesman whose amorous obsession for an art historian traps him on an academic panel discussing the Mona Lisa. This salesman must also weave a story before the panel of strangers or lose—not his life certainly, but all self-respect. Both caveman and salesman inject emotion into their stories, to find redemption. Just so, Vannatta’s authorial persona injects Vietnam throughout the collection as if to say that story-telling can heal even the grossest of war.
language: English
title: Lives of the Artists
titlecomplete: Lives of the Artists
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Livingston Pr