Friendship and Art in Valerie Martin’s I Give It to You

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Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For an extended treatment of the claims of art versus life as mediated by the imagination throughout Martin’s career, see Makowsky.

2. Although I Give It to You has not been widely reviewed as of this writing, two reviewers recognize the novel’s theme, but they do not explore it. Cristobel Kent notes, “There is, too, the vexed question of ownership, and of how far the creative intelligence can, may, or must wrest control of actual lives and turn them to its own purpose in the name of art.” Michael Upchurch asks, “Where does history stop, and invention begin? That’s the question guiding Valerie Martin’s splendidly wily new novel.”

3. See McGill for a thorough and nuanced exploration of this ethical conundrum.

4. Also see Derrida’s The Politics of Friendship, in which he considers friendship in a broader political context.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Veronica Makowsky

Veronica Makowsky is Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Connecticut. Her first two books, on Caroline Gordon and Susan Glaspell, were published by Oxford University Press, and her latest book: The Fiction of Valerie Martin: An Introduction was published by Louisiana State University Press in 2016. She is the author of numerous articles on F. Scott Fitzgerald, American women writers, and southern writers.