Leanne ShaptonImportant Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry

I am sucker for the detritus of relationships genre and this is sample of that genre at its most visual. I think I was particularly primed to appreciate this work because last weekend I saw Annie Liebowitz's show Pilgrimage, which similarly tries to show the soul of an individual through the objects that were a part of their daily lives. It has been said that who we are exists in the conversations that we are part of. If that is true then this book was an experiment in listening to voices of the objects both mundane and extraordinary that we bring into our lives.If you don't know people from NYC it could seem like the characters are unrealistic but I found Doolan and Morris to be, at least as seen through their possessions and notes, quite similar to a number of people I have met in the NY literary scene. Yes some of the notes seemed a bit forced but if they hadn't been the story would have been lost; so I am willing to suspend the tiniest bits of disbelief they engender.After reading this book I invite you to look up from the book and think about the stories the objects around you tell.

The concept of this novel (photo essay? manifest? collage?) is to present the auction catalog of the property of defunct couple Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris as it relates to their relationship. Through the stark, material lot descriptions of the detritus of coupledom, the author presents the falling in and out of love in a plausible, understated manner. We see numbers exchanged on napkins, polaroids, emails, letters, gifts, menus, and agendas from the couple's 4-year courtship laid out in chronological order.Some lots speak for themselves - letters exchanged by the couple, notes sent to friends, but the subtle nuances, the underlying evidence examines the psychology of a relationship. What the couple tells one another is contrasted and contradicted by letters sent (and, more poignantly, unsent) to friends, appointments made on the sly, possible betrayals (for example, Lenore makes a date with an ex-boyfriend, and later in the catalog we see Harold carrying an umbrella we are told belongs to the ex-boyfriend, left in Lenore's apartment - when was it left? did she cheat? we don't know). In notes to themselves, private musings, Harold and Lenore are ambivalent, doubt, make lists of pros and cons, visit therapists. But all the while, for a couple of years anyway, they present a loving, happy face to one another. Only later does the relationship collapse on itself, weighed down by the crushing force of incompatibility too long ignored. Harold reminiscences about ex-girlfriends, travels too frequently, gives Lenore gifts of things that belonged to other women in his life, resents Lenore's burgeoning career as a columnist. Lenore has a short temper, is much younger than Harold, cannot decide what she wants out of life, tries to daub the cracks in their love life with thoughtful gifts and food. Like most real world relationships, it ends not with a bang, but a whimper: trips ending in tears and indecision, a pregnancy scare, indifference, and finally a break that turns into a break-up.One of the strengths of the novel is that the author has created a couple that puts on such a convincing show of functionality and appeal. If you knew them, you'd admire them. They seem so together and fun - they travel, fill their apartment with bizarre kitsch, dress in beautiful vintage clothing, photograph well, and in all respects put on the mask of perfection you so often see in couples with whom you're acquainted and wish you could be like. Perhaps the message is that underneath the trappings, the stuff, the facade, no relationship is ever what it seems.All that said, I give this novel 3 stars, as it failed to arouse any strong feelings in me either way. Like a lengthy relationship that has long since reached its natural end, this book evokes neither love nor hate, just the resigned acceptance that it was what it was.

Of all the books I read last year, this has by far the best idea behind it, and is the one I'm grinding my teeth over for not having thought of myself! Leanne Shapton uses the device of an auction catalogue to tell the story of a love affair by listing its detritus and other possessions for sale at auction. Thus the only dialogue between the lovers appears as scraps of messages or inscriptions inside books: this is of course very telling. It makes you look around your own place and wonder what future generations might make out of your own stuff.... I bought this as a Christmas present for a dear friend and may easily retun and buy more as it is such an intriguing book!

With the outcome known if you have read reviews or featured articles about the book, it is with a voyeuristic morbidity you view the book. You know they will not end up together and so you look for the clues to the unraveling of the relationship. It makes you think about your own archeological digs when contemplating an ended love affair which is rather depressing. The mood captured, either by intent or not, is of a dated perspective on love and relationships. It as if two people, too in love with living a lifestyle that ended thirty- to forty-years ago found each other, and got lost in the affectations of love, as opposed to the working on the reality of a relationship. And, maybe that's the point. It was hard to determine who the real Hal and Lenore were. Were they two people who loved vintage, literature to excess, vintage clothing and expensive gifts that captured their current mask? Or, were they just two people who were too narcissistic and self-absorbed in the persona they present to the outside world to drop it inside a relationship?Even with these questions, there is a sense of doom from the moment you open the book and see the black and white photographs. You read it, examine their lives, analyze the meaning behind the items to be auctioned off, and know it all is leading to the dissolution of their relationship. This does not lead to a sense of optimism, but instead a practical dread of inevitability.Ultimately, you wonder why they would then dump everything to do with the relationship if it was that painful. And, the "artifacts" do not indicate this was anything other than a passionate infatuation for two people who were trying on a "relationship".

Such a clever concept. Experiencing their relationship through life's clutter was so intimate. It also makes you think about what ones own relationship would look like to an outsider. I read a review that found the overt brand references annoying. Maybe I am too brand conscious, but I felt the brand specificity made the two personalities all the more tangible. This is a quirky but magnetic read that I will return to again.

This was such a wonderful, interesting read. I've never read a book written in this kind of format before!You follow the lives of a married couple through auction listings, you go through holiday postcards, souvenirs, gifts, clothing, all sorts of different objects that at first glance wouldn't hold much meaning, but each piece comes with a description of where they're from, who owned them, and what they meant to the owner.A great little quirky read, definitely something I feel needs to be read physically. I'd love to see more like this.

This is by far the most original novel, if indeed that is what it can be called, that I have read this year. I am struggling with the classification, as what Leanne Shapton has created here is the story of a relationship, told via an auction catalogue containing various bits of material evidence of that relationship, and the possession that chart its ebbs and flows.It is told via the black and white photographs in the catalogue that being with the meeting of Lenore and Harold, affectionately know as Hal and Buttertart, at a friend's Halloween party and tracking their relationship in a very revealing, intimate and entirely original way. Indeed it is so obvious that it's a wonder no-one thought if it before. We all do it (or maybe that's just the females of the species). We keep mementos of our lovers in the form of cards received, tickets from events we have attended together, e mails we have exchanged, gifts we have given, and photographs to chart all this so lovingly.Lenore is a Canadian living in New York who is starting out on her career as a food writer with an occasional newspaper column about cake. Fellow New Yorker Hal is a British slightly older man whose career as a photographer frequently takes him away from his girlfriend. The way is which this book takes us right to the heart of the intimate little exchanges between this couple feels almost indecent.And we see the relationship blossom, flounder, and unravel before our eyes. He is a bit of a commitment phobe who also needs a psychiatrist. She is a lively cake creator who catalogues the minutiae of their partnership in a borderline obsessive manner.Shapton makes us like these characters, and really feel for them as we take the journey with them. The only words are the descriptions of each catalogue entry, but it feels as if we have lived each intimate and argument moment with them. A very original and creative idea which is very well executed and enjoyable, if a little sad in its seemingly inevitable conclusion.

Very creative and interesting idea for how to construct a story via seemingly random items with stubs of narratives. Worth a read for that. Ultimately not a very exciting storyline though.

I bought this book to read something a bit different in format - if you want to read a story, but in a different format e.g. a catalogue - give this a try. It kept me hooked in and i read it within a week.

I ordered this because I read a review of it on Boldtype, but even that didn't really prepare me for how well the cool idea behind the book is put into practice. The book poses as an auction catalogue for the sale of all the shared objects exchanged by two lovers during their now-ended relationship. But it's just so amazingly well done. How a mere auction catalogue can tell the story so well... of how they fell in love, of how they experienced a few tricky times, of what they hated about each other as well as what they loved.. it's astounding.Leanne Shapton made the book by 'casting' two people to play the main parts of Leonore and Hal, then assembling all the things that they gave each other, which is just the most unbelievable labour of love on her part. But the result is really a brilliant book. Makes you think about how ordinary fictions are constructed, and how original this is; but also it is a great love story. The best present - I just ordered three more copies for my sister, best friend and cousin as I know they will all love it. I cannot recommend it more highly.PS updategoogling looking for my original reference i found that Brad Pitt and Natalie Portman are rumoured to be taking on the parts for a film...