Larissa Pham is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn. She’s previously had success with her non-fiction book ‘Pop Song: Adventures in Art and Intimacy’, but ‘Discipline’ is her first novel. It concerns Christine, a young author who is criss-crossing the US in order to promote her debut novel. We learn that Christine was once an art student but had pivoted to writing. We also learn that her novel is a thinly disguised account of an affair she had with her older art professor some ten years earlier. In the first half of the novel, Christine’s first-person narrative details her journey. These sections read like Rachel Cusk’s celebrated autobiographical trilogy – ‘Outline’, ‘Transit’ and ‘Kudos’ – as Christine recounts the conversations she has with the sundry people she meets en route including old friends, strangers, and the odd hook-up. But while on the road Christine begins to receive unsettling emails, including the message “That’s not how I remember it”, which she assumes must be from her old professor. The second half of the novel sees Christine visiting an island off the coast of Maine to visit the professor’s house. ‘Discipline’ is a story of ideas, but it combines deep philosophical inquiry with thriller vibes. It explores notions of why artists stop creating, along with the rigor required for making art. It also examines who “owns” a story when a relationship ends; Christine scrabbling for agency while trying to break free of the gaze of the person who inspired her book in the first place. RM

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Serpent’s Tail