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Product Description
Worldly, sardonic art instructor Otto Guest enthralls 19-year-old Simone. When he invites her to Mexico, she agrees with no thought of the consequences. But she soon finds herself in an unfamiliar world of heat and grit and uncertain of her presence in Otto's life. What begins as a young woman's infatuation rapidly escalates into a piercing study of power, obsession, and the difference between art and reality.
Amazon.com Review
And they say the art of letter-writing is dead. In her second novel, The Instructor, Ann Ireland resurrects the practice by craftng her book as one long letter that recounts the unhappy love affair between Simone Paris and her art instructor, Otto. The letter, written by an older, wiser Simone, has the benefit of perspective--a quality that this book examines both in life and in art. Simone is writing to her ex-lover six years after their liaison; she is now the director of a summer arts festival, and Otto has asked her for a job. Under the circumstances, a simple yes or no is not so simple--hence the letter.
Simone was 19 when she met Otto, a man old enough to be her father, but intriguingly everything her own father is not. She is attracted by his aesthetics, his persona as an artist, and so she seduces him, then follows him to Mexico. It isn't long, however, before Simone discovers that Otto still loves his ex-wife, and her carefully constructed idea of love begins to unravel. Simone's painfully garnered perspective--on herself, on Otto, on the nature of love and need gives The Instructor depth, making for an interesting read.
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