Hubert's Freaks

I bought the book Hubert's Freaks by author Gregory Gibson last week before leaving town. I'm loving it.

Here is what the publisher says it is about:

This is the story of Bob Langmuir, a brilliant but troubled rare-book dealer whose headlong pursuit of an archive from a 1960s Times Square freak show leads to the discovery of a trove of hitherto unknown photographs by the great American genius Diane Arbus. The find is so exciting that Bob commences an affair with Arbus, even though she's been dead for 35 years. When he is released from the intensive treatment area of the Behavioral Health Evaluation unit, Bob determines to redeem himself and the Arbus archive by finding a home for it in New York's high-end art world.

So far, the story brings us into the brain of Bob Langmuir, someone whom the reader has never heard of. It brings this curious and still pretty common guy to life. The author uses his situation as a way for all of us to address the push and pull that goes on in the creative/ambition lobes of our own brain. It runs a parallel story line that illustrates the power the work of Diane Arbus holds and the odd psychic connections people have had with her work over the years since her death.

I'm in the middle of the book and really couldn't wait to bust something up on the blog. If you identify with any of the things wrestled with on this blog, you'd most likely be attached to this book. More later, when I finish it...