Grouping Information

Book Cover Information

Hoopla Extract Information

stdClass Object
(
    [year] => 2020
    [artist] => Evan S. Connell
    [fiction] => 1
    [coverImageUrl] => https://cover.hoopladigital.com/bsa_9781094174204_270.jpeg
    [titleId] => 13765561
    [isbn] => 9781094174204
    [abridged] => 
    [language] => ENGLISH
    [profanity] => 
    [title] => The Connoisseur
    [demo] => 
    [segments] => Array
        (
        )

    [duration] => 5h 35m 0s
    [children] => 
    [artists] => Array
        (
            [0] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Evan S. Connell
                    [artistFormal] => Connell, Evan S.
                    [relationship] => AUTHOR
                )

            [1] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Robertson Dean
                    [artistFormal] => Dean, Robertson
                    [relationship] => READER
                )

        )

    [genres] => Array
        (
            [0] => Drama
        )

    [price] => 2.49
    [id] => 13765561
    [edited] => 
    [kind] => AUDIOBOOK
    [active] => 1
    [upc] => 
    [synopsis] => Acclaimed author Evan S. Connell sends us through the complete experience of a man initially intrigued and then enslaved by art: a curious interest, a rapt fixation, and the becoming of a connoisseur. The Connoisseur trails the evolution of Muhlbach, an insurance executive on a business trip in Taos, New Mexico, who develops an obsession with pre-Columbian figurines after meandering through a curio shop. Entranced yet bewildered by his sudden affinity for a little figurine, Muhlbach succumbs to his intrigue and, thirty dollars later, begins his journey as a connoisseur.

With superb delivery and subtle clarity, Connell allows us to see and feel Muhlbach's emerging mania, with its impending tension and sudden exhilaration. He illustrates how a new fixation alters our lens on life and shapes our actions.

"Perhaps you won't recognize-in yourself-middle-aged, conservative, really formal Mr. Muhlbach as readily as you did Mr. or Mrs. Bridge - he's really the disembodiment of any obsession which can and often does overtake us at any time...He is last seen looking at a little hunchbacked dwarf in a window who expressionlessly returns his gaze, speculating on how dangerous is that little knowledge and how insidious that impulse to acquire...The Connoisseur is for fastidious others like him - a finely drawn, hooded entertainment which teases and appropriates the reader."
    [url] => https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/13765561
    [pa] => 
    [subtitle] => A Novel
    [publisher] => Blackstone Publishing
    [purchaseModel] => INSTANT
)