Coming, Aphrodite! Book

A great novella (1920) about the price of artistic goals, hopes, dreams by the great American writer Willa Cather, found in many Cather collections like "Youth and the Bright Medusa." The price of success, which in America only equals money, honey, herein gets a stab through the heart. We constantly hear, X or Y is "successful," which means money, money without guilt.

Young artist Don Hedger, age 26, lives in a rooming house in Greenwich Village - (the only w.c. is at the top of the stairs) - and a new nabe, Eden Bower, age 20, has set her goal on being an opera singer -- whatever it takes, whatever the cost. Damn the physical, emotional, sexual. This is the story of their friendship, and, maybe, love over a short period. It's the best thing I've ever read about "artistic achievement." I can't find anything similar in international fiction. Only Willa Cather could produce it.

Cather's finale - devastating - line : "A big career takes its toll, even with the best of luck."