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The Animators
I quickly got swept up in this story, as narrated by Alex McKenna. Mel and Sharon are two friends with rough childhoods in common (poverty, addiction, neglect), who escaped through their art and then found creative success. They meet in art school and form a personally and professionally beneficial partnership, making two groundbreaking films together. But their individual lives and working relationship are ever fraught, marked by unaddressed trauma and substance abuse. This novel was terribly painful at times, but I so appreciated its treatment of the central friendship, the business of art, and the struggles of sublimating a painful past into creative work. But what I LOVED was its unabashed praise of my hometown of Louisville, KY, where a big chunk of the book takes place. Kentucky is an easy punching bag in fiction, and seeing Mel fall in love with it on the page and lay out its charms and quirks in detail was the counterpoint I didn't know I was longing to read.
About the Book
Publisher’s description:
ONE OF THE BEST DEBUT NOVELS OF THE YEAR—Entertainment Weekly
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—NPR, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage
She was the first person to see me as I had always wanted to be seen. It was enough to indebt me to her forever.
In the male-dominated field of animation, Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses are a dynamic duo, the friction of their differences driving them: Sharon, quietly ambitious but self-doubting; Mel, brash and unapologetic, always the life of the party. Best friends and artistic partners since the first week of college, where they bonded over their working-class roots and obvious talent, they spent their twenties ensconced in a gritty Brooklyn studio. Working, drinking, laughing. Drawing: Mel, to understand her tumultuous past, and Sharon, to lose herself altogether.
Now, after a decade of striving, the two are finally celebrating the release of their first full-length feature, which transforms Mel’s difficult childhood into a provocative and visually daring work of art. The toast of the indie film scene, they stand at the cusp of making it big. But with their success come doubt and destruction, cracks in their relationship threatening the delicate balance of their partnership. Sharon begins to feel expendable, suspecting that the ever-more raucous Mel is the real artist. During a trip to Sharon’s home state of Kentucky, the only other partner she has ever truly known—her troubled, charismatic childhood best friend, Teddy—reenters her life, and long-buried resentments rise to the surface, hastening a reckoning no one sees coming.
A funny, heartbreaking novel of friendship, art, and trauma, The Animators is about the secrets we keep and the burdens we shed on the road to adulthood.
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