Aim of Art

How does a straight soldier come home from a tour of duty in Iceland with The Works of Oscar Wilde as his cherished souvenir? The answer is the story of Michael Lenihan an orphan with an eighth-grade education who spent the Great Depression on the bum and Jay Gold an art student from Chicago who takes a special interest in Michael and introduces him to the world of art and literature before going off to England and Normandy. Their friendship illustrates the Wildean aphorism from The Picture of Dorian Gray To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.