Summary of the Mythmakers a Novel by Keziah Weir

By Willie M. Joseph

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This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of the Mythmakers a Novel by Keziah Weir

 

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

Sal Cannon, a journalist struggling with inaccuracies in her profile, discovers a short story by Martin Keller in her unpublished manuscript. Despite her initial disbelief, she learns that Martin is deceased. To escape her life, Sal finds Moira, Martin's widow, and eventually finds herself in Moira's life. The story explores the question of ownership and the role of the muse and artist in a story. The Mythmakers is a captivating literary mystery that explores perspectives, memory, creative ambition, and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Jul 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223713401

Willie M. Joseph

Willie M. Joseph summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.  

Book preview

PART I

ONE

The author reads a short story on a spring day in New York, where she is at work with her husband, Hugh, who is fastidious and prone to imagining her living in the apartment alone. The author's life has changed since the author's time in college, and she has been tempted to trade her relationship with Hugh for solo artistic pleasures. However, her job at the magazine has changed, and she has been struggling to find a worthy idea for nearly four months.

One day, she finds a short story by Martin Scott Keller, which she reads and finds a familiar byline. The story begins with the author recognizing that the engines of our lives run on a xed track, and that fate is the only way for the girl and the author to meet. The author is reminded of the story's narrator, a married writer who meets a colleague's teenage daughter at a literary salon and becomes infatuated.

The author starts reading the story, realizing that it is about her, a sensation well known to anyone who loves reading. The story is based on Martin's and her evening at the New York Public Library six years earlier. The narrator becomes infatuated with the girl's silver rose, and the author begins to read the story again, realizing that it is about her. The text describes a man who attends a literary event with his wife, Martin, and their daughter, Georgia. The man is unsure if he should wait until the girl's older, leaving his wife for her.

Instead, he fantasizes about the girl's life without him, and they discuss the girl's ambition and the love preserved by literature. The author, who had been a student at a college, is unsure of the story's introductory lines and decides to jump into the narrative.

As they wait for the reading, the author is reminded of their time together at the New York Public Library. They are excited to meet Martin, who has shifted his age and is in his seventies. Martin describes the girl as wiser than her age and more comfortable around adults than her peers. The author's excitement is fueled by the prospect of meeting a future boyfriend, who has started dating an editor.

The event takes place in a wood-paneled antechamber, with two empty seats in the rows of folding chairs. The author and Georgia are introduced by a red-haired author and a blonde interviewing her, who both wrote about the banal aspects of life. They are introduced to the Women's Fiction section of the bookstore, where stories by men about anxiety and having sex with younger women do not get a special section.

The author is used to Georgia's overshadowing, as she is a person to whom eyes are always drawn in a crowded room. She has adopted a remote air that makes people want to impress her. The author's parents have their names on the walls of two New York museums and an elevator that opens into their apartment. The protagonist, Salale, is at a party with her friend Martin Scott Keller, who is a erudite man who has presided over classes in contemporary literature, postwar politics, and the Iliad. They are friends who have a strong desire to be like them and of them. They are discussing a museum show they haven't seen and are drinking wine.

As they sit at the bar, they are interrupted by a man who asks about Salale's identity. Sal is a writer, but she doesn't know him, and he points to a nearby author who is also a writer. He tells her that she graduated and gives tours of Central Park to Italian tourists. The author explains that she doesn't speak Italian, but she is a student of his best.

The conversation turns to the author's work, and the protagonist feels that she is exactly where she needed to be. They wish he would be their teacher, and they talk for an hour or longer. The author is serious about her work and encourages her to reach into herself and rip it out.

The author mentions that nobody tells her they've reread her more recent novels. She is drunk enough to ask why they think that is. He agrees that Mailer has had a wild year, with the Pulitzer, the business with the murderer, and divorced and married twice. He also mentions the six merry wives of Norman Mailer, just like Henry VIII.

The protagonist questions if two of his wives were killed, and Norm agrees that they did give it the old college try. The conversation is filled with possibilities and the protagonist's desire to be like these men and to learn from them. The author recounts their encounter with Martin Scott Keller, a renowned author of three novels and a professor of creative writing at Linden College. They were friends and had a close relationship, but their relationship seemed to be strained due to their age difference. Martin's friend, Georgia, was a more mature person, and they had a more open relationship. However, Martin's friend's hair was loose, and he had lost his clip, which he had been wearing for years.

The author began applying for writing-adjacent jobs and became an editorial assistant at a legacy men's magazine. They had a brief delusion that Martin would read their work and mentor them. However, they never saw him again.

Martin's death was announced online, and a local newspaper posted his obituary online a week after his death. The author was interested in the posthumous work, but the publisher declined to publish it. The author then searched online for more information about Martin, but was unsuccessful.

The author's friend Hugh, who was reading the story, was unable to read it, and the author emailed the story link to Georgia, who was dating Bennett and had spoken to the old author. The author's friend's experience with Martin's writing and his relationship with him left a lasting impression on the author. The author discusses their fascination with Martin, a playwright, and how he became a muse. They discuss Martin's abstract paintings, his devotional mania, and his time spent designing marketing materials for a sock disruptor. They contemplate Martin's last moments, wondering if he thought of them during his last moments.

The author describes their life as late-night musing and anecdotes, and how their relationship with the playwright led to an embarrassing disaster or Hugh's departure. The author believes that this is a part of existence, with buildup leading to a decision that is monumental only in retrospect.

TWO

The author is a writer who has been working hard to secure an interview with the secretive sensation Martin Scott Keller, who never gave interviews. The play, when performed in a workshop production, was described by a New Yorker critic as a "slow burn, high raunch thriller that just might bring the youth back to