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Spending: A Novel Paperback – March 11, 1999

by Mary Gordon (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 57 ratings
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Monica Szabo, a middle-aged, moderately successful painter, encounters B, a wealthy commodities broker who collects her work. B volunteers to be her muse, offering her everything that male artists have always had to produce great art: time, space, money, and sex.
Passionate, provocative, and highly engaging, Spending displays Gordon's maverick feminism, her extraordinary wit, and her unique perspectives on art, money, men, sex -- and the desires of women.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    301 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    March 11, 1999
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0684852047
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0684852041
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Rebecca Radner San Francisco Chronicle Book Review Creamy, witty prose.

Susan Lowell The Plain Dealer By turns as subtle as Colette, as funny as a slapstick comedy, and as steamy as a bodice-ripper, Spending is Mary Gordon's most seriously entertaining novel yet.

Dan Cryer Newsday Gordon has created a believable artist....The book [has] a remarkable sensuousness...the bedroom scenes resound with the loveliness and mystery of the human form. Meals become vivid exercises in sense-enhancement.

Sandy Asirvatham Time Out New York [A] smart, seductive book...with an abundance of wit and charm.

About the Author

Mary Gordon is also the author of the novels The Company of Women, The Rest of Life, and The Other Side, as well as a critically acclaimed memoir, The Shadow Man. Winner of the Lila Acheson Wallace Reader's Digest Writer's Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 1996 O. Henry Prize for best short story, she teaches at Barnard College and lives in New York City.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; First Edition (March 11, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 301 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0684852047
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0684852041
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 57 ratings

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Mary Gordon

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
57 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Aspen Leaf
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, instructive, gratifying: HE serves HER
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2015
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Our fifty-something heroine Monica Szabo grows from a moderately successful artist into a wildly successful one thanks to unlimited financial, emotional, and sexual support from a male muse who happens to be a stock trader. Ahhhhhhhhhhh . . . if only. Gordon subtitles the book “A Utopian Divertimento,” but the outspoken Monica makes it seem as if this utopia could be real. Her attitude is instructive: no pleasing of anyone but herself, absolute commitment to her need for creative breathing space and time, no apologies for her lack of social grace. (Some would call this selfish, but not if she were a man.) Some surprising plot twists and real growth in the characters and their love for each other raise this above escapist fiction. Surely there are legions of women artists like me who will find this book, always entertaining and at times laugh-out-loud hilarious, to be a tonic.
6 people found this helpful
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Pat McK
5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative, interesting, and unusual
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2007
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This books grabbed my attention almost immediately - what does it mean to be a muse? What are the motives of a muse? Have you heard of any MALE muses? Hmmm! What is the nature of relationship? The title "Spending" is a great play on words of the artist's search for capturing her 'spent' muse - and also raises a lot of questions about relationship, money, art, - and some comments on catholicism. I loved this book - but did not find it typical Mary Gordon. I found it a cut above other Mary Gordon novels.
One person found this helpful
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katydid
1.0 out of 5 stars utterly loathsome characters, shallow plot
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2021
I have read a number of Mary Gordon's books and have always enjoyed her excellent writing and usually engrossing stories. This book didn't at all measure up to previous and later works. The idea of an artist who is embraced by a patron who provides her with ample funds to stop "working" and just pursue her art and the new ideas she is germinating is interesting. But neither the artist nor the patron are at all likable and the repetitious and ludicrous sex scenes tore away any semblance of a well-thought-out plot line or arc of character. It was hard to imagine a menopausal woman with the sex drive of a teenager, and hard to imagine what she saw in the one-dimensional "B", other than the funds and the non-stop sexual aerobics. I had to force myself to finish it, and the over-the-top party at the end, while brilliantly described, was so self-congratulatory that the horrible Monica sank even lower. No one I would ever want to meet.
2 people found this helpful
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john e.
5.0 out of 5 stars Hats off to Mary Gordon!!
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2020
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Great book! Mary Gordon is a fantastic story teller!
J McGreevy
Petaluma,Ca.
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2016
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Not as good as her other novels.
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awahlgreen
2.0 out of 5 stars too boring
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2013
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ididnt finish this because I was afraid I would die of boredom. not my cup of tea. mary Gordon can tell a good story but not here

mary Gordon can tell a good story, but not here.
3 people found this helpful
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chela
5.0 out of 5 stars A well-written book.
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2015
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The connection between art and sex. Not porn, but probably erotica.
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Bob Dog
5.0 out of 5 stars Insight Into Mary Gordon
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2009
I like reads that disclose alot about the author. What do we know about most authors? We are lucky to know in what state they live, and whether they have a dog. What do we know about Mary Gordon? From reading "Spending," we know all kinds of great personal things about Mary Gordon. We know she must be of jewish heritage. How else could she have written so intimately, confidently, and with such wonderful humor. She is arrogant and humble at the sime time. She is sensual, creative, and.... feeling very guilty! The guilty part discloses her catholic upbringing. How else could she be such a feminist, while having such respect for all the catholic traditions that devalue women? Her knowlege of Christ in the context of the catholic church, juxtaposed with her marvelous characterization of Christ as "spent," (post coital vs. post crusade) is virtually without precedent (Sarah Silverman, "Jesus is Magic").

Regardless of how you feel about the plot and the story, its difficult not to fall deeply in like with Mary Gordon. What a wonderful, creative, and affirming woman! Mary Gordon is the kind of person with whom you want to be trapped in an elevator, because the longer it takes to be rescued, the more you are going to learn, and the more your world is going to be expanded from the experience.

One could take issue with her failure to more extensively personify "Bernie," or take issue with some aimlessness to the plot about halfway into the book. Or you could take issue with the microscopic tempo of Gordon's writing style (nearly every paragraph is an introduction to a new and interesting concept or observation). But for me that misses the point. What is my point? Read on, because if I haven't lost you yet, you are going to be perplexed by my next comment.

I enjoyed "Spending" because taken as a whole, it reaffirms some of what is best about healthy, balanced relationships. What, you are now asking, could possibly be balanced and healthy (for Christ's sake, pun intended) about a relationship where a man pays a woman to have sex and paint? I'll admit, the premise seems a bit far fetched, particularly for some wealthy guy to pay a 50 year-old woman to have sex. But if you remove the money part, on which the main character, Monica, dwells considerably, I think you have the basis for what would otherwise be a very affirming relationship for both people. I think its the money part that makes no sense. I don't think "B" was paying for sex. I think he greatly admired her from afar, and in a gesture I interpreted as modesty, he offered her money almost as a way of saying "otherwise, why would someone like you give me the time of day, let alone be willing to sleep with someone so otherwise so unworthy of your attention?"

Anyway, in short order, Monica seemed to need and enjoy the sex every bit as much has he did. And I think Monica would have painted anyway. The money just gave her freedom to do more. I think these two people cared for each other, trusted each other, laughed with each other, gave each other space, overlooked unattractive things, celebrated each other, etc. People are critical of how Monica treats "Bernie." I don't see it, except in the most traditional viewpoints, where the woman has to be subservient to her man. What's wrong with balance? Perhaps not realistic, because its more likely 50ish women who focus on their work won't be able to find and keep an otherwise desirable man, unless she prioritizes his needs above her own. Oh well. Its fun to imagine.

I wonder how much Mary Gordon stewed over the premise of the money. I wonder if she considered crafting the plot without the money, and hanging the book on the hook of simply a great relationship. Certainly plausable. But not as much fun I think, particularly in the context of a self-proclaimed "utopian divertimento." How thrilling it would be for the middle aged woman to be paid by her muse for her sex and her genius. And why not? To me, a mature, talented, sensual, caring, and funny woman like Monica is very worthy. If not told her age, what would we have assumed by her behavior - early 30s?

What else is more powerful than money as the currency of affirmation for many things important to men and women of all ages and stations in life = 1.) my value/skills, 2.) my beauty/sex, and 3.) my family/friends. By this I mean, if someone says, "I'm going to pay you alot of money for one or more of these things, then you have a very clear and direct way of understanding how the payee measures their value.

So its ( - spoiler alert - ) alot of fun when Monica happens into some big time cash at the end. This event serves as a huge affirmation of what they have built together when their relationship survives the blow to his self-esteem and she decides to re-stake Bernie to the tune of $1 million in the commodities biz. As far as Monica is concerned, heaven forbid one should ever hide money under a mattress. (Too bumpy?) Mattresses and money don't go together - or do they? Wow, I just now came up with that double entendre. Not bad, eh?

Anyway, perhaps "Spending" is a little too personal, too utopian, and too feminist affirming for some people, but this was exactly why I liked it. Add Mary Gordon to my short list of people I'd like to meet.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Helen Bailey
2.0 out of 5 stars A dog's dinner of a novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2014
Verified Purchase
Mary Gordon can write and write well. Her book is filled with challenging and thought provoking themes - art patronage, what it is to be a female artist and the sexualised undertones inherent in imagery of the deposed Christ. The latter theme I felt was crassly handled - those appalled with her contentious use of the post coital male as an overlay to images created by Renaissance masters - were narrow minded parodies. Our female artist - the sexually liberated heroine - was a victim of a Catholic upbringing who'd broken free from buttoned-up pettiness was painted as the heroine. This I found offensive and crude. Sex comes frequently and our heroines stamina is amazing, but I found it boring - 'oh God they're at it again!'. I was waiting for a point to be made about the voraciousness of her libido - none came. Maybe Mary Gordon would benefit from an author who could reign her in and help her explore her worthy themes without veering into a 50 shades type chicklit?
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