Publisher Description
From the author of Metropolitan Stories and a writer who spent twenty-five years working at The Metropolitan Museum of Art comes a sly and stylish novel—remarkably told through museum wall labels—about a twentieth-century woman who transforms herself from a precious object into an unforgettable protagonist.
Author Christine Coulson spent twenty-five years writing for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her final project was to write wall labels for the Museum’s new British Galleries. During that time, she dreamt of using The Met’s strict seventy-five-word label format to describe people as intricate works of art. The result is a bullet of a novel that imagines a privileged twentieth-century woman as an artifact—an object once prized, collected, and critiqued.
Told with poignancy and humor over the course of a century, One Woman Show revolves around the life of Kitty Whitaker as she is defined by her potential for display and moved from collection to collection through multiple marriages. Kitty emerges as an eccentric heroine who disrupts her porcelain life with both major force and minor transgressions.
One Woman Show unfolds with the flare of a blockbuster exhibition and brims with wit, precision, and surprising universality. As human foibles propel each delicately crafted text, we are seduced by flawless Kitty’s many imperfections and left to wonder who ultimately curates her story.
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“One Woman Show is a moving story of privilege, womanhood, and the sweep of the twentieth century told through a single American life. I loved this book.”
—
Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
About Christine Coulson
Christine Coulson began her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1991 as a summer intern in the European Paintings Department. She returned in 1994, and over the next twenty-five years, rose through the ranks of the Museum, working in the development office, the director’s office, and the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. She recently left the Met to write full time.
About the Narrators
Chris Henry Coffey is a film and television actor known for his role in David Schwimmer’s film Trust. He has also had roles on Broadway, including the play Bronx Bombers. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, he divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.
Fred Sanders, an actor and Earphones Award–winning narrator, has received critics’ praise for his audio narrations that range from nonfiction, memoir, and fiction to mystery and suspense. He been seen on Broadway in The Buddy Holly Story, in national tours for Driving Miss Daisy and Big River, and on such television shows as Seinfeld, The West Wing, Will and Grace, Numb3rs,Titus, and Malcolm in the Middle. His films include Sea of Love, The Shadow, and the Oscar-nominated short Culture. He is a native New Yorker and Yale graduate.
Emily Tremaine is an actress and audiobook narrator. She has acted in several major motion pictures, including The Wolf of Wall Street and Obvious Child, and was one of the narrators featured on the audio version of Chuck Klosterman’s Eating the Dinosaur.