Saturday''s CityLit Festival at Baltimore's Enoch Pratt library promises a full day of fun for book lovers. Among the featured authors are Sam Lipsyte ("The Ask") and Elizabeth Kostova ("The Historian" and "The Swan Thieves").
The Sun's Mary McCauley wrote today about Kostova, whose first novel re-examined the legend of Dracula and was the first time a debut novel had launched at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List.
Here are excerpts from McCauley's article, which discusses Kostova's fascination with art: Her second novel, "The Swan Thieves," which was released earlier this year, goes back and forth between 19th century France and the present. In the novel, a psychiatrist tries to learn why his patient, a painter on the brink of greatness, attacked a masterpiece in the National Gallery of Art.
"Art can provoke a variety of strange reactions," says Kostova, 45, a resident of North Carolina. "There's a weird phenomenon that causes some people to faint in front of a great artwork, usually in big places like The Louvre or the Prado. Occasionally, they fall flat on the floor, there's actually a medical term for that condition."
"Then there are those people who attack paintings, either because the subject matter is upsetting to them, or they're jealous, or they're insane, or sometimes for reasons that are very particular and personal. And that doesn't even take into account the people who steal artworks, or the artists who destroy their own work. It's strange to think that an artificial object, a flat surface, can provoke so many strong emotions and weird human behaviors."
The CityLit Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St. in Baltimore. Call 410-274-5691 or go to citylitproject.org