Monsters

Pablo Picasso was violent toward the women in his life. Richard Wagner held deeply antisemitic views. David Bowie had a sexual relationship with a fan who was underage. Yet many people still love Guernica, the Ring cycle and Ziggy Stardust.

That leaves a hard question for anyone who cares about art. What should fans do with their love for work when they know the troubling choices the artist made? Monsters, subtitled A Fan's Dilemma, sets out to understand how audiences relate to art and artists in the twenty-first century, and how to reckon with the lives behind the work that sustains us.

Claire Dederer is an American critic and memoirist whose earlier books include Poser and Love and Trouble. Here she combines cultural criticism with her own perspective as a fan.