Discipline

Reviews

“A debut novelist’s thinly veiled account of her exploitation by an art professor looks like a career maker—until the teacher starts messaging her, and the lines between them get smudged all over again. While Discipline sounds like a thriller, Pham makes room for terse reflections on ambition, envy, creative exhaustion and the paintings of Vija Celmins.”—New York Times Book Review

“Maps out the ambiguous intersections between art-making, truth-telling, and survival.”—Harper’s Bazaar

“Pham is a writer to keep a close eye on.”—The New York Times

“Pham dazzles while navigating through the complexities of our pasts.”—Debutiful

“A tight, invigorating read.”—Our Culture Magazine

“Discipline is an amazing, sharp excoriation of so many things: damage, creativity, ambition, and determination.”—Bidisha, author of The Future of Serious Art

“Art bleeds into life in Larissa Pham’s exhilarating, exquisite book, full of an eerie intelligence and startling compassion.”—Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists

“Prose with a clarity and edge like glass, with a crispness that gives the atmosphere of a thriller . . . Discipline braids life, art, and the fictions we tell ourselves.”—Marlowe Granados, author of Happy Hour

“Discipline wrecked me in the best way. To say that it is a brilliant excavation—of artistic production, of how to craft a meaningful life as an artist and a person, of radical generosity—is an understatement.”—Elaine Hsieh Chou, author of Disorientation

“With prose that is both lush and precise, Discipline reads like a taut thriller even though it is really an elegant exploration of creativity and commitment to one’s craft, and how when we don’t value our craft almost anything can rob us of it.”—Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist

“A delicate, wry, taut, suspenseful reading experience, Discipline captivated me from beginning to end. Pham is an original, real talent.”—Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours

“Intensely smart, evocative, and gorgeously written.”—Stuart Nadler, author of Rooms for Vanishing

“A nerve-tingling feat exploring how a person and an artist are made . . . I’m in awe of Pham’s talent, sensibility, and intellect.”—Alyssa Songsiridej, author of Little Rabbit

“This is electrifying.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A brilliant, entrancing, and provocative mirror-within-mirrors tale of art, story, and power, is all that and more.”—Booklist, starred review

“Beautiful and evocative.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Larissa Pham’s debut novel packs quite the punch. Discipline . . . was inspired by a tricky past relationship with a professor, which led to [Pham] giving up painting—and by writing it, she’s gained a sense of control over the past and her choice to give up her craft.”—Bustle

“Lovely and smart . . . about artmaking, love, ambition, and loneliness.”—Literary Hub
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