What to read to understand artistic partnerships

Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett (2004)

This is a beautiful and at times devastating memoir of a friendship between two writers – the novelist Ann Patchett and the poet and memoirist Lucy Grealy. The two met studying creative writing and, in the way of many intense friendships, began living in each other’s pockets immediately. Grealy died in 2002, after a lifetime of illness and addiction, and Patchett is unflinching in examining the pair’s bond, including the uncanny feeling of watching a close friend’s success from the outside, while also seeing her innermost pain and heartache up close.

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad (2023)

An Arabic production of Hamlet in the West Bank is the setting for this exploration of everything from diaspora and intergenerational trauma to celebrity, surveillance and life under occupation. Sonia, an actor visiting Palestine for the first time in years, ends up taking part in the play and finds herself questioning the point of art in political struggle. The interesting partnership comes between Sonia and the rest of the cast, a group of Palestinian men who bring their own opinions and experiences to the rehearsal room, forming a strange kind of surrogate family around her.

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (2003)

What I Loved is a novel that contains multitudes: along with complex discussions of painting, ethics and medical hysteria, it’s also a page-turning thriller set in Manhattan’s art world. This is all explored via the friendship between Leon, an art historian, and Bill, the enigmatic painter who lives next door. It’s the attention given to this friendship that makes me come back to this novel again and again. Their love for each other becomes a narrative and emotional force for both men, shaping their lives, love and work. 

Frida Slattery As Herself by Ana Kinsella is published by Scribner (£16.99). Order a copy from The Observer Shop for £14.44 (15% off RRP). Delivery charges may apply

Photograph of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol by Everett Collection Inc via Alamy