I didn't get around to reviewing this, even though I did read it. It was brilliant, the first time I read Goldberg, but not the last.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

I ended up dnfing Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg. I was expecting something different then what I got. It was hard to get into the writing was mixing well with me at all.

This book was absolutely beautiful. It is written as a type of scrapbook by a fictitious daughter for her mother's photography for a museum. I loved this book couldn't put it down.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Feast Your Eyes is told as an exhibition catalog for a posthumous MoMA exhibit of photos by Lillian Preston, a photographer who came to infamy due to semi-nude pictures she took of herself and her daughter. The exhibit catalog is put together by her daughter Samantha, and consists of Samantha's memories of the photos as well as excerpts from letters, Lillian's journal, and interviews with important people from Samantha's life. First off, this is a brilliant conceit for a novel. You can picture each photo as Samantha describes them, and some of the language echoes the type of thing you'd read in a real catalog, except that it kind of goes off the rails diving into Lillian and Samantha's lives, since Samantha is not an art historian or curator. This structure could have been weird or jarring, but Goldberg handles it beautifully as we see both Lillian and Samantha struggle in a society that doesn't know what to do with women artists, but also women in general. While Goldberg obviously took inspiration from real life women artists trying to make art and motherhood work (among them, Sally Mann seems an obvious example), Lillian is so real this feels like it could almost be nonfiction. It did take me a while to get into this book - the beginning, with Lillian moving to New York and getting pregnant was a bit slow for me - I ended up reading the rest quite quickly. Highly recommended.

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Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson's Reviews > Feast Your Eyes: A Novel
Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg
Feast Your Eyes: A Novel
by Myla Goldberg (Goodreads Author)
F 50x66
Mary Robinson's review Apr 23, 2019 · edit
really liked it
bookshelves: advanced-reader-copy-titles, historical-fiction, literary

Written in the form of a museum catalog, Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg tells the story of the life and photographic work of Lillian Preston. In 1955, Lilly flees Cleveland after high school to go to New York City to attend photography school, to the dismay of her conservative parents. Soon she is perfecting her technique and moving in a circle of artists, poets and young New Yorkers. After having a child out of wedlock at 19, she continues to subsist on a bookstore job and waitressing while pursuing her photography. The controversy over an exhibit produced by a new-friend and gallery owner drives a wedge in her art, in her relationships, and in her daughters view of her and the world.

Told alternately by her daughter describing the prints in the exhibition, interspersed with journal entries and letters to friends, lovers and Lilly's parents, we follow the mother and daughter through a rocky relationship with each other and with Lilly's art. The story telling is intense and intimate, coming full circle as Lilly battles Leukemia in the 1970s while Samantah Jane enters college. Her daughter does not reckon with Lilly's art until well after her mother's death, and then begins to understand the controversy and the decisions they each made in reaction to the controversy and in reaction to each other. Well written and engaging, highly recommended.

I love, love, loved this novel. So smart and the format was engaging and different and I was right there with Sam/Jane through the last words. I hope this finds a large audience!

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, Netgalley.com and Scribner Publishing. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review.

Written as a catalogue for an exhibition we never actually see, we are introduced to Lillian and Samantha Preston. Brilliantly executed, the premise is so different than what readers have seen before, although the artist's inner turmoil and struggles and joys are still there to be experienced.

Do not miss this book! I look forward to reading more from Ms. Goldberg in the future.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

This book is written like a museum catalog or a scrapbook. I didn't care for the style of writing, and was disappointed as I was looking forward to reading it.

What a beautiful book. I was dubious about the conceit of writing the novel in the form of a museum catalogue, but Goldberg handled this so well. In my memory, I see the photos she described as if they were part of the novel itself. From the annotations of Lillian’s journal, her daughter’s interviews with roommates, parents and lovers, and the daughter’s own memories, we come to know so many facets of the woman as she developed over time.

"Some mornings I’m so heavy with dread I can hardly move.” What mother hasn’t felt like that at some point? And Lillian has so much talent and such a compelling drive to exercise that talent. It is hard to imagine her choosing to share her life with a child, and yet how impossible to imagine her life without her daughter Samantha in it.

The characters in “Feast Your Eyes” are multi-dimensional and sympathetic. I very much look forward to the publication of this novel and to discussing it with others.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Any time you have a novel that tries to blend multiple perspectives and voices, it has to nail making them distinct, otherwise you run the risk of having 4 or 5 characters that all sound like the same person. Myla Goldberg's Feast Your Eyes add on the additional difficulty of framing her latest novel as the accompanying catalog for a MoMA exhibition of her main character's photography, as authored by her daughter.

The book pulls this off with aplomb - the photos (which we never see) are described in a way that makes them real in the mind, and the supporting interviews, journal entries, and remembrances from her daughter build a picture of who this artist was, how her relationships with the people around her changed, and what became of everyone. I love books that play with format, so I came to it for the art catalogue-y details and layout, but found myself very impressed with the characters as well.

Feast Your Eyes was a wonderful story surround about the love of photography.  I love how this book was written. It was almost like being a part of the story. 

Myla Goldberg is a brillant writer and I look forward to reading more from Myla!

Goldberg's latest novel introduces the reader to Lillian Preston, a talented photographer whose work is being shown in a posthumous greatest hits sort of show. The novel is told as an annotated catalog of the works being shown, dividing Preston's work into creative eras. This format is exciting and fresh and mostly successful. The catalogue is supplemented (or perhaps these pieces are included in the catalogue, I couldn't really tell) by snippets from Preston's diary, letters she wrote to others (but didn't send? Not sure how they came to be in her papers otherwise?) and commentary by her daughter and a few close friends.

Principally, the story is one about a mother and daughter. Lillian's daughter, Samantha was the subject of a series of controversial photos and the story that unfolds tells about their strange relationship both through Lillian's work and Samantha's commentary and curation of this final show.

I love Goldberg's writing and the relationship between Lillian and Samantha feels real and visceral. However, the format holds this book back for me in several ways. First, I found myself time and again going back to read the title of the "picture" and the trying to picture the art without actual photographs was sometimes difficult. Second, the format slows the pacing and limits the telling of the primary story. Finally, I was much more interested in Samantha than Lillian, and the format necessarily pushes Lillian to the foreground when I wanted Samantha to be the focus (of course, this is the roles they played in real life and is part of the point, but I craved Samantha when the Lillian bits got too long).

A compelling story of a photographer, Lilly, as told through her journal entries and letters, interviews with her friends, and her daughter Samantha's memories and are interspersed with a catalog with descriptions of her work for an art exhibit. Both Lillian's and Samantha's lives were shaped to an extent by a series of eight highly controversial photos taken by Lilly of Samantha as a young child. The book speaks to the times in that it shows the inequality of men and women, the struggles of a single mom, how public opinion sways justice. Lilly was a very talented photographer who was a compulsive perfectionist about her art - it absorbed her completely. This almost read like a memoir rather than fiction. Very well done!

Thanks to Myla Goldberg and Scribner through Netgalley for an advance copy.

A must read book for anyone remotely interested in photographic art! Especially women. This is a wonderfully presented book about the life of an artist. Her passion drives her life. The camera is an appendage of her as is the dark room. We see the impact of the times (1950-1970’s) and their impact on culture. Having recently visited the MOMA, it was especially meaningful for me.

This book is just wonderful. The story is compelling and the creative way it is told works. The book is about Lilly who leaves the Midwest for New York to follow her passion for photography. Much to her parents' dismay, Lilly becomes pregnant (while unmarried) and decides to live in New York City. The story traces Lilly's life and her relationship with her daughter and is told through letters to Lilly's first NYC roommate, narration by her daughter and as descriptions to her photographs. The book reads as if it is a catalogue of Lilly's work through which her life story is told. It's different and it works.

I loved this book! Myla Goldberg does a brilliant job creating the world of Lillian Preston in Feast Your Eyes. The narrative form as retrospective is utterly engaging and works well for the topic. This book is sure to be a pick for many book clubs.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg brings the life of photographer Lillian Preston into focus. As a female photographer establishing her career in New York City in the mid 1950’s, Lillian encounters many obstacles. Her passion for photography rivals her affection for her daughter Samantha. Her obsession with her art creates tensions in her relationships. This story is unique in its format. Lillian’s story is told through the eyes of her now adult daughter Samantha, who provides her memories and insights of photographs for a catalog of her mother’s work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1990. Additional information is provided by interviews with friends and lovers as well as excerpts from Lillian’s journals and letters. It is a powerful story of Lillian’s art and her life as well as her sacrifices.

This book is brilliant and at times heartbreaking. It takes the reader on a moving story of struggle and creativity. It explores the life and work of a skillful, motivated , and scandalous woman who roused both admiration and disgruntlement in her closest friends and acquaintances. I loved this story and I highly recommend it. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

”Just as I was beginning to worry that waiting was all there would ever be, I picked up a camera – but you know this already. You’re the only one who understands when I say that making pictures makes me fully and truly myself.”

Lillian’s love of photography began through her high school photo club, and her love led to a desire to pursue her passion, hoping that one day she would be working as a photographer for a magazine or newspaper. Shortly after her graduation, she forgoes her parents’ plans for her to attend college and moves to New York City in the mid-1950s.

Her story is shared, in part, as a catalog of a photography exhibit, so you are able to see much of her life through her eyes and her vision of capture-worthy moments, her journal entries as well as letters, interviews of friends and lovers, and through her daughter’s eyes and memories. There is in one way, Lillian’s personal story, her journey to become the photographer that would not only shoot beautiful photographs, but one that could share a truth that would move people, never imagining her work would alienate them.

Inspired by photographers such as Sally Mann, Diane Arbus and the stories of their struggles as females, as well as female photographers in an era when that was an anomaly, the main story of this is one that Sally Mann is perhaps more associated with. An innocent photograph of a young girl, in Lillian’s case her daughter Samantha, wearing underwear only, is photographed. Sally Mann photographed her children at play, sometimes without clothing, and the description of the censored photograph in Lillian’s story closely matches the newspaper article that followed one of Mann’s photographs on a 1990 cover of Aperture, a photography magazine. The Wall Street Journal, using the same photograph of Mann’s daughter Virginia, placed black bars across her eyes, her chest and her groin, when publishing a decidedly damning article which was written, oddly, by a food critic. Mann’s daughter, Virginia, wrote a letter, in return, saying simply: ”DEAR SIR, I DON’T LIKE THE WAY YOU CROSSED ME OUT.
“I WILL BE 6 ON FRIDAY”

Keeping in mind that there is less nudity in the photograph taken by Lillian than in the Coppertone billboards that used to populate the entire USA from the 1950s on - featuring a little blonde girl with pigtails, wearing the bottom half of a swimsuit, and a puppy pulling that down – the reaction to the photograph in question might seem questionable, but there is also a story behind the photograph that triggers the headline ”Judge Rules . . . MOMMY IS Sick” in a pre-Roe v Wade era.

The politics of public opinion, and the unequal opportunities afforded women are focused on in a more obvious way, but underlying this is a story of love and passion, a love and passion for doing what we love and loving what we do, what brings us joy, shapes our lives. How those we love can build us up, or bend us and sometimes even break us, and how to rebuild that which has been bent and broken. The bond between mothers and daughters that is sometimes frayed beyond measure, but is always a part of who we become.

Lovely, if sometimes heartbreaking, I loved this story, fell completely under its spell, and highly recommend it. I’m pretty sure I left a piece of my heart in the last pages.


Pub Date: 16 Apr 2019

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Scribner

Good job. This novel, pitched somewhere between literary and middlebrow, takes the reader on an evocative story of female creativity and struggle. Yes, the tropes are familiar - breakaway child, nonconformist adult, late recognized genius. But it’s done with commitment and sound technique, making good use of a split screen format. Likely to be a commercial success.