A portrait of my desire
By: MacDonald Harris.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1993
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 315
Subjects: California -- Fiction.
Description: Harris sets his tale against the decadent eccentricities of a wealthy California beach community. At the center is Harry, a handsome gallery owner, an epicurean lover of all things beautiful, a man who counted his late wife among his most valuable possessions. When he hires Velda Venn, an unsophisticated yet powerfully sexual housekeeper, the order of his exquisite household is gradually subverted. Like the pull of the ocean waves outside his window, Velda draws Harry.

From calm self-absorption to erotic obsession. He must possess her - and a spectacular painting that changes everything, a painting that seems the very mirror of his strange, uncontrollable desire.