The latest novel from ghost writer and memoirist Liam Pieper, Appreciation, follows the life of fictional Australian painter Ollie Darling.
Darling has been coasting, this much is clear from the jump. He was once a promising talent and now cemented in the cultural zeitgeist, he has begun to flounder. From this set-up Pieper’s Appreciation takes the reader through the painter’s tumultuous past and his even more tumultuous present.
After a series of tactless, drug-induced comments on a talk show, Darling is removed from his cultural position. Despite the complaints of Twitter, he embarks on a mission to save his reputation by, among other things, writing a memoir.
It’s from the coalescence of the visual arts and the literary that Appreciation pulls its branding as a satire of the Australian arts industry. While the set-up seems promising, the plot seems willing to meander in favour of snarky, lightly disguised jabs at cultural institutions and prominent Australian figures.
The problem is that too often these jabs are too non-specific. Every character is coded as ‘the …’ so you have “The Miner”, “The Paperman”, “The Money”, and institutions are rarely named. So, “The Paperman” works at a litigious broadsheet newspaper and ‘it is the paper you’re thinking of. Even if you’re thinking of the other one, they’re all the same in the end’. The likes of which are fine little remarks on their own, but to sacrifice so much of the narrative flow for them, and for them to never really eventuate to much beyond the platitudinal, feels unengaging.Â
Additionally, occasionally the narrative voice will make meta-commentary on the plot of the novel. Remarks are often made on just how unbelievable or unlikely the events of the novel are. It confronts the reader with the construction of the novel, forcing them to question whether they believe the events before them. And while there is a narrative explanation for this meta-commentary, it comes too late into the novel, and feels like little pay-off for the inconsistency it adds to the reading experience.
Despite this, the reading experience is held together by Pieper’s great skill as a ghost writer. His experience biographing real world figures puts him in good stead to create luxuriously compelling sentences that flow seamlessly from one to another. Even when the book is at its least absorbing, it’s still easy to read 40 pages in a flash, without quite noticing.
However, at a line level, and because of the quality of Pieper’s sentences overall, an odd sentence can stick out like a sore thumb. Pieper, especially on the rare occasion when transness or queer identity is concerned, seems to fumble.
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Ultimately, Appreciation is a bit lopsided, with beautifully flowing sentences sometimes conveying too little and a narrative that feels weighted to the detriment of its middle. But still, while perhaps not introducing anything new to the literary landscape, when it does well, it excels.
Appreciation, Liam Pieper
Publisher: (Hamish Hamilton) Penguin
ISBN: 9781760890193
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368pp
Publication date: 12 March 2024
RRP: $34.99
