What You Make of Me

“Dess’s recently released novel, What You Make of Me, convincingly articulates art’s role in mourning—exhibiting that loss is never entirely individuated, always presupposing a public . . . The book’s form, as an exhibition catalog, invokes precisely this principle of mourning . . . However, What You Make of Me is irreducible to a clinical case study: the novel offers a different, more particular understanding of the relationship between artistic production, mourning, and meaning.” —ASAP Journal

“What You Make of Me’s poignant prose and reflective narrative dives headfirst into the complexity of identity, vulnerability, and the sense of reckless abandonment that plagues artistic siblings, Ava and Demetri.” —Condé Nast Traveler

“In the face of tragedy, Dess’s narrator memorably dramatizes the anxiety-inducing exigencies of the creative arts, and the need of artists to remain focused on their craft.” —The New Yorker

“There is no club more exclusive than that of brilliant, close-knit siblings, and Ms. Dess’s challenge is to ensure that readers aren’t also excluded from her characters’ particular mind meld. She does this by focusing on the ruptures that drive them apart, partly in the person of a chic gallery owner who becomes a love interest to both . . . In the juxtaposition of Ava’s paintings with her memories, Ms. Dess shrewdly explores the intersections between intimacy and possession.” —The Wall Street Journal

“In What You Make of Me, [Dess] has written not only a very good novel about painting but also a believable painter’s novel . . . What You Make of Me is a dialectical novel, the story of an artist working through a creative divergence to move herself forward. Demetri represents Dess’s worst fears about being a critic, Ava her worst fears about what it might mean to be an artist, and their synthesis is the exciting young author who wrote this novel.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“A compelling story of a sibling relationship bonded by trauma, art, and their charmingly alien approach to socializing in New York City. The writing in What You Make of Me sold me on the story: it is unmooring, odd, and thoroughly engaging . . . [T]here is a fantastical edge to how Ava’s narration sees being a young, promising artist . . . It’s evocative and surprising, and made me wish I could go to the opening. Comms managers at galleries, take note!” —Artnet

“My first impression of What You Make of Me was that [Dess] has an eye for the visual. I shouldn’t have been surprised, of course . . . Dess’s critical voice combines meticulous art history knowledge with singular insights. In her fiction, this visual acuity transforms, becoming daring, luscious, and occasionally sacrilegious . . . She possesses the rare talent to shift between styles and voices, challenging readers intellectually while sometimes making them blush—often accomplishing both at once . . . What You Make of Me unfolds at an engaging pace, with energetic twists and wonderfully perverse characters . . . Dess masterfully depicts crowded rooms with their inevitable politics of artistic gatherings (woe betide us), the unsettling experiences of desire, and the destabilizing yet consuming nature of creation itself.” —BOMB

“A brother and sister’s artistic rivalry intensifies when they fall for the same woman in Dess’s electrifying debut . . . Dess harnesses her characters’ feelings of sorrow and dread as their bond unravels, and she skillfully untangles the complexities of their all-consuming relationship while offering keen insights into the pressures they face as artists, both from others and from within. It’s a tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[A] soulful debut . . . A haunting . . . exploration of the weight of guilt’s millstone and the power of forgiveness.” —Booklist

“The dynamics in this book are unfiltered in the best way possible. Dess tackles art, creative drive, and drama with a fresh voice.” —Debutiful

“Extraordinary . . . Despite the raw candor Ava seems incapable of hiding, readers will doubt her . . . But they will not question the energy coursing through What You Make of Me nor the undeniable talent that created it. This is a fierce and unapologetic debut from a writer to watch.” —Shelf Awareness

“Really written (as T. S. Eliot, decades ago, said most fiction is not—as true then as now), with a propulsiveness to the language that I have since encountered in others of Dess’s stories, it was so in an elliptical way, sustaining but not occupying the center of attention. It was wild, finely tuned, and, above all: enigmatic . . . The sense you get is one of sleight-of-hand. The magician’s patter is one thing, but the real action is hiding in plain sight . . . What You Make of Me inhabits the magic circle of childhood, with its limited cast of characters that no outside force can penetrate . . . As in the portraits that compose it, and in Ava’s erratic career, there is tremendous energy in this novel.” —Real Clear Books

“Speckled and wondrous and strange and fun–What You Make of Me reveals to us the transformations of thoughts, of art, of love. A marvel of a novel.” —Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch

“What You Make of Me is a stunning novel of art, love, memory and death written with exquisite wit and deep feeling. Sophie Madeline Dess has conjured one of the most unique and heartbreaking family narratives in recent memory, and with her rendering of the dynamic between Ava and Demetri, she’s given us a sibling duo for the ages.” —Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask and No One Left to Come Looking for You

“Sophie Madeline Dess may be the freshest debut in this year’s literature. What You Make of Me is a brilliant novel as well as a provocation to all great readers.” —Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends