Woman in Bronze

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Antanas Sileika, the artistic director of Toronto’s Humber School for
Writers, has established his literary reputation with Dinner at the End
of the World and Buying on Time. Now he presents a novel that combines
ancestral Lithuanian stories with a prodigiously researched re-creation
of bohemian Paris in the 1920s.

Woman in Bronze is the story of Tomas Stumbras, a young Lithuanian
peasant sculptor who is forced to leave his family farm after the
serving girl, Maria, dies in an attempt to abort his child. He
eventually becomes an aspiring Parisian artist who supports himself as a
carpenter in the Folies Bergиre.

The story offers enough surprises to appease critics and maintain
readers’ interest. Those who have studied French may feel differently.
Tomas’s roommate is a fellow Lithuanian emigré who abhors naked
women, but loves an acrobat named “Barbette.” Since the name means
“little beard” and is probably adopted, perceptive people can assume
that that there is something odd about the performer. When that person
turns out to be a transvestite, it becomes the literary equivalent of a
telegraphed punchline; the rest can share Alphonse’s shock.

Other characters progress in less stunning “character arcs.” The
protagonist’s other roommate, a Romanian-born painter named Sorrel,
hooks up with a Canadian figure model named Estelle. Her superior
artistic talent is affirmed by a projected exhibition of the couple’s
paintings that turns out to be her showcase. Her mate’s jealousy is
understandable because female artists were less respected in the 1920s,
especially by egotistical jerks.

Sileika’s study of a Paris artists’ colony will appeal to art
lovers who are not interested in a re-cast version of La Bohиme.