Review: The Curiosities

The Curiosities by Susan Gloss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Curiosities follows the life of Nell, a young woman with a Ph.D. in art history, who has recently suffered a miscarriage followed by a series of failed IVF attempts. Nell's husband Josh has overcome his feelings of loss by throwing himself into his work. And he's having great success as a junior faculty member in the University of Wisconsin, Madison Law School. Nell, however, is struggling, not least because she is ashamed to have hidden the significant credit card debt she has accrued for her IVF treatment from Josh. But more than that, she feels at a loss, since the entire past eighteen months of her life has revolved around trying to have a successful pregnancy. In that time, peers who graduated with her have moved on to positions at the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, the Smithsonian Advisory Committee to the White House and two have landed tenure-track positions at good institutions. Nell feels that all she has to show for the past eighteen months are credit card bills she can't pay, IVF articles from PubMed she can't bear to read, and lost opportunities. Thus, she's surprised that when she interviews for a position as the head of Betsy Barrett Foundation's non-profit, the Mansion Hill Artist's Colony, she is hired on the spot. Working at The Colony, as the residency program is called, marks a turning point in Nell's life. As Nell finds her way out of her grief and loss, her relationships with Paige, Odin and Annie, the first three artists selected to live in the Barrett House as artists in residence, help her reconnect to her sense of purpose and worth and define who she is regardless of her status as wife or mother.

This is a quiet, lovely book about overcoming loss, filled with interesting characters, and rich descriptions of the artists. I enjoyed the open ending of the book, which provides the clear sense that, no matter what, Nell is fine just as she is.


I received a Digital Review copy of this book from William Morrow via Edelweiss, along with a paper review copy, in exchange for an honest review.

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