The Caricaturist (The American Novels)
Oliver Fischer is an art student and general ne’er-do-well in 1897 Philadelphia. On a lark (Oliver does almost everything on a lark), he and his friend Robert decide to recreate Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe as a living tableau, photograph it, and colorize it.
The lark quickly turns into a misadventure. Over the next several weeks, Oliver finds himself expelled from art school, spending time in jail and in the poor house, and then arrested again at an anti-imperialist protest. He is apparently saved when his caricatures of poor house denizens lead to a job as a newspaper illustrator. But when the Spanish-American War breaks out, the newspaper sends Oliver and Robert to Cuba. As illustrators for Stephen Crane’s war stories, they will find more adventure than they dreamed of.
Oliver starts as a rather unappealing character, a spoiled rich boy with a banker daddy, playing the bohemian, rash and self-centered. But he grows and matures as he dashes headlong through his misadventures. The voice in this novel is powerful. Oliver’s voice starts out full of drama, braggadocio, and wry wit. His hyperactivity and over-confidence echo the over-confidence of 1897 America, a swaggering nation of flimflam, skullduggery, and self-promotion. In the midst of his own breakneck adventures, Oliver encounters a nation spoiling for a fight even before the Maine incident and the declaration of war.
As Oliver allows his experiences to change him, the voice in the novel also subtly changes, sounding more thoughtful and skeptical. This is a masterfully written book that brings light to America’s almost-forgotten first imperialist adventure.
