RaveFinancial Times (UK)Scintillating ... Prideaux draws on new material to foreground the artist’s earlier \'sexual abstinence\' and loyalty to his wife, but it can feel as if she is overcompensating, and only makes his later exploits more jarring. But presenting us with these contradictions is part of the book’s triumph. Prideaux casts little moral judgment on Gauguin, leaving the inconsistencies of his beliefs and actions a problem for the reader ... Colourfully fleshes out his story with nuance and detail.
Yelena Moskovich
RaveLos Angeles Review of Books...deliciously mysterious ... Like Moskovich’s dark debut, The Natashas, Virtuoso depicts stark, casual brutality toward women. But sexual exploitation isn’t the star of this show. The range of themes — dislocation, exile, capitalism, and LGBTQ love — are all explored in such depth and visceral detail that it is impossible to determine a main theme ... Virtuoso isn’t a \'start-to-end\' novel, in that it doesn’t rely on a build-up of momentum to achieve its goals. Many of its most dramatic, profound moments are spliced into the narrative, rather than waiting for you, like a reward, at the conclusion. Moskovich deftly flicks between narrators, timeframes, and tone ... Moskovich wanders quite far down the path of the weird but stops short of the absurd ... Nevertheless, the stream of episodes that reel with a riotous unpredictability may knock even the most steady reader off course ... Virtuoso is powerfully mysterious and deeply insightful, a page-turner precisely because you have no idea what to expect ... The true virtuoso, in both substance and style, is the author herself.
