Please join us for the Glasgow launch of A Portrait Of A Woman And A Still Life Of Her Burger by Candi Saenz Valiente, published by Cutt Press.

A portrait of a woman and a still life of her burger is a critique on the current social landscape and its effect on love from the point of view of a Gen X cynic. It is set in 2022 Berlin and is a contemporary portrait of Peter Pan adults biting the dust, a sort of belated coming-of-age. It touches upon friendship, grief, desire and the bureaucratisation of intimacy. 

Francis Laurie Schaffer—an artist in her mid-40s—has recently separated from her husband after a two-decade long marriage and has fallen in love with a polyamorous young man who doesn’t fully reciprocate her feelings. In an attempt to express her dissatisfaction, she begins writing about the relationships between the people she imagines belong to her polycule. But things begin to shift into a game of mirrors when Francis meets some of the people she’s written about. A series of events will then culminate with Francis and her friends crashing the 40th birthday party of her husband’s new girlfriend. A disastrous outcome serves as a rite of passage, delivering the protagonists onto the other side of that experience with a transformed sense of self.

 “Yes, but I like pricks!’ I said. ‘Cause being a prick always comes in a combo. And the other thing in the combo is usually really good. Like, he’s a prick but he’s so good at tennis. He’s a genius  on the guitar. He’s incredibly funny. He’s very good at cards. He’s also a prick. I’m interested in that other thing. Oh, he’s a prick? What’s he good at? Nothing? Then he’s a moron. A common man. You’re not gonna fool me.”

Candi will be reading alongside Kirsty Dunlop & Elle Nash.