Short Takes By Barbara Fisher

THE AMERICAN PAINTER EMMA DIAL
By Samantha Peale
Norton, 336 pp., $24.95

Silver haired and long legged, Emma Dial works as an assistant to a famous painter. She travels with his downtown New York crowd of artists, dealers, collectors, film directors, actors, musicians, and models. She is the assistant, the one who carries the burden of the work - provides the youth, the talent, the sexual energy, the actual brushstrokes.

Emma has been employed as Michael's assistant for seven years, while moonlighting as his lover. There are many superficial rewards for sharing the glamour and the urgency of his life. But there are also the obvious drawbacks - public humiliations, personal sacrifices, and regrets. It had seemed easy for Emma to bask in the reflected glory of a great man, but after seven years, the comfort has transformed into unease and then disgust. Unsure of herself, she first considers swapping Michael for Philip, his archrival, substituting one lazy, greedy, needy man for another. We know that eventually Emma will cast off these cloying and cumbersome men to emerge as an artist, but we are fully engaged in her struggle. We want her to claim her rightful place in this scene that she sees so clearly and among these people she judges so astutely - not as an decorative accessory but as a respected and recognized artist. Emma is a fully developed character, a smart young woman who must choose between an easy pass into a world of excitement and glamour and the hard work and heavy risk of personal achievement.

ON THE ORIGIN OF STORIES:
Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction
By Brian Boyd
Belknap, 560 pp., $35

After recapitulating much of social evolutionary theory, Brian Boyd brilliantly makes the case for literature as necessary for the survival of humankind. Step by step, he builds his argument that we have evolved to engage in play and, in particular, in storytelling. "Storytelling sharpens our social cognition, prompts us to reconsider human experience, and spurs our creativity in the way that comes most naturally to us."

Using as his examples Homer's "Odyssey" and Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who," Boyd supports the belief that fiction is central to human life. The extreme situations of Homer's story allow him "to explore solitude and society, competition and cooperation in fundamental ways." Odysseus' flexible intelligence, which rescues him from many difficult situations, is repeatedly demonstrated and recommended. Dr. Seuss' traditional rhyme schemes, his verbal playfulness, and his exuberant loopiness of line are attractive to children and adults alike. Horton's independence of mind, courage, tolerance, and compassion provide laudable lessons. Both Homer and Dr. Seuss must catch and hold our attention with their artistry, their universality, and their moral tone. Boyd forcefully and elegantly supports his view that art is not simply pleasurable for humans but crucial to our survival.

THE BOLTER
By Frances Osborne
Knopf, 320 pp., $30

Without the fine irony of Nancy Mitford, who first introduced the "Bolter," this portrait falls flat. Having bolted from her first marriage to the fabulously wealthy English aristocrat Euan Wallace and abandoning her two toddler sons, Idina Sackville earned the title by which she became known. She bolted from several more marriages, but it was her precipitous lurch from her first in 1919 that made her name and reputation.

She tried to hold her first marriage together during World War I, entertaining her husband when he was home on leave with dining, drinking, and dancing (with changing partners). But when he found another partner who pleased him more, she insisted on her freedom. Quitting London society, she ventured into Kenya to start a farm with her second husband, Charles Gordon. Despite more drinking, drugging, and dancing (again with shifting partners), the marriage and the farm went bust. Idina returned to England to cause scandal on her home turf. Marrying a third time at age 30 to Josslyn Hay, 22, she returned to Kenya to become the "High priestess of the Happy Valley set." Despite having a daughter with Idina, Joss continued his womanizing and was murdered by the jealous husband of one of his lovers. The murder trial caused a sensation, hard to do amidst the usual monied madness and mayhem of the Happy Valley crowd. Idina married again, met her two grown sons, lost them to World War II, and died estranged from her one daughter.

Frances Osborne, Idina's great-granddaughter, writes about her ancestor with a familial tact and tenderness she hardly deserves. Call in Mitford.

Barbara Fisher is a freelance writer who lives in New York.