The Triangle

Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: James O’Neil

Despite being titled "Black + White," the story within is anything but that - Dani Shapiro's gripping novel examines the gray areas between art and exploitation through a mother-child relationship.

The slow beginning picks up quickly as the reader becomes entangled in a web of past and present, memory and reality. Clara Dunne has spent her adult life hiding from what she perceives to be the smothering gaze of the art world and the notoriety of being the girl in the pictures. Clara's mother, distinguished photographer Ruth Dunne, built her career on a series of nude portraits of Clara, ages three to 13. These images haunt Clara through grade school until the age of 18, before her completion of school, when she flees to New York City. Eventually ending up at Yale's campus, she meets the man who will become her husband and begins a new life with him on a small island off of Maine.

Now 14 years later and a mother herself, Clara must face the reality of a dying mother and a past she thought she'd closed forever.

Returning to New York not only dredges up painful memories of a childhood shattered by humiliation, but also forces Clara to explain the truth of her past to her daughter, Samantha - a spitting image of young Clara in the photos. She realizes that by trying to protect her family from so much of her past, she actually impedes her relationship with Samantha. The reunion of Clara's family with that of her sister's and her mother does not fully erase the damage caused by years of anger and resentment, but it is a step towards forgiveness.

Shapiro's narrative expertly moves from Clara's present life with her family and the tragedy of watching her mother die, to her past of sitting for uncomfortable portraits and hiding from her infamy. While at times the sequence of events tends to drag or lose focus, the overall novel is a riveting tale of complicated familial relations. Most poignant was Samantha's acceptance of the ill and difficult grandmother into her life with no questions or resentment. The novel's ending is thought provoking and satisfying, leaving no questions unanswered.

"Black + White" has been optioned for a film by Christina Ricci's production company with the intention that Ricci will direct and star as Clara Dunne. Look for the movie in theaters down the road, but for now, pick up a copy of "Black + White" to enjoy between studies.

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