Lulu in New York and Other Tales

Often featuring solitary figures, the brooding atmospheres and urban landscapes of Max Ferguson's paintings have a narrative and cinematic quality that hint at hidden stories, secrets, and conversations waiting to happen. Robert Power's critically acclaimed fiction of longing and resolution, alienation and loving, provides the perfect vehicle to breathe life into these luscious paintings. Lulu in New York and Other Tales, is an exquisite and beautifully crafted volume of sixty stories from Power, inspired by Ferguson's paintings. Some of the pictures, like Chess Players and Interiors leant themselves to whimsical or heart-rending conversations. Others, such as Woman in Bath, Subway and Billy's Topless have violence and menace simmering at their core. And then there are paintings that tell tales of refection and of love both lost and found. An aged Mr. Gordon looking over the East River. The couple in Bobby Short recalling their first meeting. And another Couple in Hallway stumbling over their words, saddened by infidelity. What binds Ferguson's painting and Power's storytelling is a common understanding and appreciation of the nuances, agonies and ecstasies, complexities and delicacies, of the human condition.