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Author Erica Katz stated that she wanted to explore the ever-thinning line between what's real and what isn't in our lives today, and she does just that in her latest novel, FAKE.
Emma Caan attended Yale to become an artist, but when her own creations were deemed technically perfect but without soul, she turned to legally copying masterpieces for billionaires and museums. It's definitely not Emma's dream job, but most months, it pays the bills (barely) and allows her to work with a good friend. However, when one of the billionaire clients she works for offers Emma a way into the glittering world of top-of-the-line Manhattan art galleries, international art shows, and high-end auctions, she gladly accepts and soon finds herself flying around the world on a private jet, living in a 5,000-square-foot art art-studio/apartment in SoHo, attending exclusive parties, and watching her number of followers on Instagram skyrocket. Of course, not everything is as it seems, and what's too good to be true probably isn't.
Each chapter in FAKE opens with a portion of a transcript of an interview between Emma and two FBI agents who are looking into Emma's involvement in an art forgery operation, so it's clear from the start that crimes have been committed; following Emma's entrance into and through the NYC art scene and uncovering exactly which crimes have been committed, how they were committed, and by whom is where the fun lies. And FAKE is a fun romp. Getting an insider's view of lives most of us will never lead offers an entertaining escape. Emma, who serves as our guide through the experience, is a likable character with her own secrets that she has to come to terms with, and those secrets add extra layers of interest. They also keep Emma from being entirely unbelievable: her gullibility and naïveté are just about over-the-top, but her youth and her struggles with her past enable the reader to suspend enough disbelief to make the novel work.
Tying the question of fake art to fake lives (on and off Instagram) also gives the novel some added depth. Overall, FAKE is a rather scathing portrayal of the world it depicts, revealing the secret and not-so-secret workings of the industry that those running the chic galleries and buzz-worthy art shows may rather not have so blatantly exposed. But not every art deal and dealer in the novel is bad, and those who are still have a lot of likable qualities. Even the unlikable characters are just more irritating than anything else, for while this novel may be an exploration of real and fake, legal and illegal, it's not a story of good versus evil; it's gentler than that, but the fuzzy moral lines drawn between acceptable illegal activities and unacceptable ones further highlight the overarching commentary on our modern aspirations.
Even though by the end of the book, everything is nicely wrapped up, questions are answered, and justice is, in one instance, at least being pursued if not entirely meted out, none of that is really what the reader will enjoy about FAKE. The slowly rising action that picks up pace as the book proceeds and the insights, real and/or fictional, into the glitzy world Emma moves through for a time are the real stars of the story, while the underlying examination and critique of the prevailing trends of life today gives it an added bite.
§ Meredith Frazier, a writer with a background in English literature, lives in Dallas, Texas
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier, January 2022
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