It can be rare to find novels that showcase the kinds of collaboration that make certain types of art possible. There are exceptions, to be sure --- Michael Chabon’s THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY, for example, or Chip Kidd’s THE CHEESE MONKEYS and its sequel, THE LEARNERS --- yet it seems that most of the time the artist is depicted as creative but also isolated.

In THE ANIMATORS, however, debut novelist Kayla Rae Whitaker depicts a true creative partnership, one in which each member contributes something essential and also gains both ideas and energy from the other, resulting in a product far stronger and more compelling than anything they could have produced independently. This doesn’t rule out the “tortured” part, though --- far from it --- but it does illustrate a different model for artistic production and the creative process.

"Perhaps surprisingly, given the novel’s title and its boldly colorful book jacket, THE ANIMATORS takes readers to some very dark places. But it also offers some really inspirational, even downright joyful, depictions of what it feels like to lose oneself in a creative endeavor..."

Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses meet when they are undergraduates at an exclusive liberal arts college in upstate New York. Both visual arts majors, they bond over their shared affection for animation --- not the mainstream Disney stuff but edgy, underground cartoons --- and over their similar backgrounds. Sharon hails from a small town in rural Kentucky and was the only one in her high school class to leave the state for college; Mel is also from the South, raised by a neglectful single mother who was continually in trouble with the law.

After a brief introduction to the two young women, the novel fast forwards more than a decade. Mel and Sharon are now in their early 30s, about to receive a prestigious fellowship to allow them to work on their next animation project. Their first feature film, based largely on Mel’s childhood and her troubled relationship with her mother, has been a hit on the festival circuit, and everyone is eager to see what these creative and talented ladies will do next. Mel and Sharon are casting about for their next big idea when they receive word that Mel’s mom is dead, killed in a prison fight. When they travel to Florida so that Mel can identify the body, their trip starts a series of journeys, both literally through Sharon’s childhood geography and figuratively through her childhood memories, potentially plumbing some dark incidents as well as more recent traumatic events for their next animation project.

Along the way, Whitaker (and Sharon, who narrates the novel) considers some fundamental questions that will resonate with anyone who has made art: What are the ethical implications of mining your own life story to make art? What about other real-life figures whose stories get co-opted in the service of art? Is it possible to continue making art if your primary muse, your inspiration and your foil, is no longer there to bounce ideas off of?

Perhaps surprisingly, given the novel’s title and its boldly colorful book jacket, THE ANIMATORS takes readers to some very dark places. But it also offers some really inspirational, even downright joyful, depictions of what it feels like to lose oneself in a creative endeavor and ultimately makes the argument that art is worthwhile, even essential, although we may not always understand what drives us to create it.