If you were to create a book for me, that fit into my special niche interests perfectly, you could do little better than OPTIC NERVE. It's a book told from a woman's perspective, and she's an art critic... which the author herself is, too, in Argentina. Each chapter focuses on a piece of art or an artist, and Gainza uses that art as a prism into her own (character's?) life and history; or even Argentinean history, world history. She treads on topics of how people choose to present themselves, the arc of a friendship, motherhood, family, marriage, and death. It's about how perception of art can shape lives; I mean, what do we do here but share how we perceive art (books)? It seems plotless, but it culminates in a particularly poignant last chapter. It welled my eyes with tears.

So:
✅ Meta-Fiction
✅ Art
✅ Applying One's Perception of Art to Life
✅ Women's Friendships
✅ Philosophical Meanderings

IT ME.

I'd recommend it if this description speaks to you, but I know it may turn a lot of people off. And that's fine. That's how art works—differently for everyone. It left me searching for the paintings online, and with a severe itch to spend an afternoon wandering in an art museum.