It might not sur­prise you that as a read­er I’ve always been drawn to nov­els about visu­al artists, writ­ers, and musi­cians. Here’s a list of eight of my favorite nov­els from the last cen­tu­ry or so that focus on cre­ative souls who are torn between their desires for fame, accep­tance, and artis­tic integri­ty and their duty to their fam­i­lies or com­mu­ni­ties, the lim­i­ta­tions imposed by finan­cial strain, and the oblig­a­tion that comes along with suc­cess itself.

My Name is Ash­er Lev by Chaim Potok

I pulled this one off my par­ents’ shelves as a teenag­er, and it made a huge impres­sion on me. It’s the sto­ry of Ash­er Lev, an unusu­al­ly tal­ent­ed painter from an insu­lar Ortho­dox com­mu­ni­ty who feels com­pelled over time to push the bound­aries with his brush and can­vas. First by paint­ing nudes, and then even­tu­al­ly by paint­ing a cru­ci­fix­ion that fea­tures his moth­er—who suf­fers from trau­ma—as the cen­tral fig­ure. The sto­ry of how his com­mu­ni­ty accom­mo­dates him up until a cer­tain point, makes for an unex­pect­ed­ly com­pelling line of nar­ra­tive ten­sion. The sto­ry is hyp­no­tiz­ing; bonus, some of the paint­ings ref­er­enced were Potok’s own work!

Dear Edna Sloane by Amy Shearn

This one just came out this year. It’s a hilar­i­ous, poignant, and sharp satir­i­cal nov­el — all epis­to­lary, too! — about the dis­ap­pear­ance of a lit­er­ary wun­derkind from the 1980s named Edna Sloane. As it turns out, in addi­tion to being an ​“it girl,” Edna has had to con­tend with sec­ond gen­er­a­tion Holo­caust trau­ma, the intense demands of moth­er­hood, and the pres­sure that comes from instant suc­cess. The sto­ry is told through the eyes of Seth, a smar­tass and self-styled lit­er­ary sleuth who’s try­ing to fig­ure out what hap­pened to Edna. The sto­ry builds us up nice­ly, but it’s when the reclu­sive author’s voice itself comes into the book that things real­ly take off in unex­pect­ed directions.

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

Meg Wolitzer is a huge influ­ence on me. So much of her work deals with the push and pull between art and life. This break­out nov­el is the sto­ry of a frus­trat­ed woman who works in her hus­band’s shad­ow and hides her own lit­er­ary tal­ent… or does she? There’s a great secret in the nar­ra­tive so I won’t say too much more to avoid spoil­ers. It’s a bril­liant com­men­tary on some of the sim­i­lar themes Dear Edna Sloane reck­ons with, such as the deifi­ca­tion of mid­cen­tu­ry male writ­ers and how women can find their place in such a heady landscape.

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

This one is a throw­back to the ear­ly twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry and is set in the fic­tion­al town of Moon­stone in Col­orado. Willa Cather’s won­der­ful nov­el tells the sto­ry of Thea Kro­n­borg, a tal­ent­ed con­cert pianist who, it turns out, has an angel­ic singing voice that could be her tick­et to star­dom. Like most of Cather’s char­ac­ters, this group lives in the strik­ing and scarred land­scape of the West and—much like Ash­er Lev’s—Thea’s sto­ry is one of genius and ambi­tion flow­er­ing from a small com­mu­ni­ty. With help from a few choice friends, Thea leaves home and achieves her dreams, thanks to unusu­al tal­ent and a series of qui­et­ly heart­break­ing choices.

Lau­ra Lamont’s Life in Pic­tures by Emma Straub

This is a delight­ful ear­ly nov­el from the great Emma Straub. It spans the entire career of a young Amer­i­can girl who gets swept up in the Gold­en Age of Hol­ly­wood stu­dio sys­tem rides the waves of fame as she ages, matures, and becomes a woman. Lau­ra Lamont’s Life in Pic­tures was a big influ­ence on me—fun­ny, wise, and com­pul­sive­ly read­able in a way that leaves you satisfied. 

Moth­er­hood by Sheila Heti 

Sheila Heti’s aut­ofic­tion mas­ter­piece is a philo­soph­i­cal debate over whether the nar­ra­tor wants to be a moth­er or just a writer. Even as some­one who nev­er hes­i­tat­ed in my own plunge into moth­er­hood, I found so much to chew on, laugh at,and agree with in Moth­er­hood. I revere it as an essen­tial fem­i­nist text. Heti is a pio­neer of expand­ing the con­tem­po­rary novel’s form and work show­cas­es her immense skill: it is intense­ly per­son­al and anec­do­tal while also ask­ing big ques­tions about female exis­tence in a patriarchy. 

Sweet, Soft, Plen­ty Rhythm by Lau­ra Warrell 

This swirling, jazz-like debut nov­el from Lau­ra War­rell cir­cles its way around a tal­ent­ed, dif­fi­cult, and com­pul­sive­ly wom­an­iz­ing jazz musi­cian, a trum­pet play­er named Cir­cus. He’s not the only tor­tured artist in this some­times har­mo­nious, often cacoph­o­nous ensem­ble. He attracts oth­er artists like mag­nets. But what is per­haps most sur­pris­ing and love­ly about this nov­el about the tan­gled webs artists weave is the sweet, redemp­tive note it hits at the end.

Ani­ta De Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

This nov­el tells two sto­ries: there’s that of the tit­u­lar artist, a Cuban fem­i­nist fire­brand whose earth and body cre­ations were just get­ting recog­ni­tion for their genius before her mur­der at the hand of her art-world macho hus­band. The fram­ing sto­ry is of Brown stu­dent and art his­to­ry schol­ar Raquel who finds her­self on Anita’s trail as she con­tends with her own place in the rar­efied Ivy League envi­ron­ment that prizes art, but can be snob­by, sex­ist, and racist. Enter this world for the art-world dra­ma, stay for the qui­et fem­i­nist tri­umph of a young woman com­ing into her own by find­ing a semi-buried foremother.