The Medium of Desire

In this novel, we see an unlikely romance develop between Olivia—a computer programmer—and Brett—an accomplished artist. The story begins with Olivia leaving her high-powered Wall Street job after her carefully developed algorithm is stolen by her boss. With a new job waiting for her in San Francisco, she is still at loose ends, unable to start work for six months due to a do-not-compete clause in her employment contract. She returns to her parents’ home in Richmond and takes up art lessons with Brett, hoping to revive a youthful passion. It isn’t long before she and Brett develop a passion for each other, and complications ensue from there.

A strength in McGlothlin writing is his three-dimensional characters. Just as competitive, straight-laced, computer geek Olivia has her free spirit and artistic impulses, so is Brett a fully developed character. At a young age, he is already a recognized artist. But he doesn’t descend into an egotistical, temperamental stereotype. Rather, he is sensitive to others, at times filled with self-doubt. He has vowed never to again leave Richmond due to difficulties experienced traveling abroad. His friends and family create significant complications in his life and the story plot. He lends a friend thousands of dollars to start a food truck, and brotherly roughhousing with his sister is misinterpreted by Olivia.

Another strength of the work is the amount of detail gone into about both Olivia and Brett’s work, the various aspects of creating spreadsheets and artwork, and the relationships that develop with firms and galleries and coworkers. As it turns out, the computer and artistic geniuses have more in common than they would have thought. They are both passionate about their work, even with all of the difficulties that come from that work. They both have trouble forming and maintaining relationships, perhaps because of their commitment to their jobs. In the end, their passion for each other overcomes their differences.