A review from pre-blog days - Notes from an Exhibition - Patrick Gale

I'm sharing a book review I wrote before I started my book blog and which originally appeared elsewhere. My 'before the blog' review posts are inspired by Karen at My Reading Corner and Janet at fromfirstpagetolast.

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale 

(originally read and reviewed in 2008, I purchased my copy of this novel)


Synopsis

When troubled artist Rachel Kelly dies painting obsessively in her attic studio in Penzance, her saintly husband and adult children have more than the usual mess to clear up. She leaves behind an extraordinary and acclaimed body of work - but she also leaves a legacy of secrets and emotional damage that will take months to unravel.

This is the first Patrick Gale novel I have read, but I am interested to read more after finishing this one. The central character, known as Rachel Kelly for the most part, is, we quickly come to learn, a talented artist, but she is troubled throughout her life with periods of mania and depression.

At first I was not sure if I was very keen on the way the chapters move suddenly and unpredictably in time backwards and forwards between the characters, but I think as the novel progresses, this pattern becomes more comfortable and even adds to the enjoyment once the reader has come to terms with it.

A painting or item by or relating to Rachel is depicted with exhibition style background/information notes to introduce each chapter, and is linked either physically or as a theme with the chapter it proceeds, a clever idea which gives a kind of clean break for each chapter to begin at a different point in time, and focussing on a different character in particular.

Patrick Gale delivers very believable and interesting characters in this novel. I loved to read about the events in the lives of the various children, and of those of Rachel and her husband Antony, who is a calming, patient influence on them all, with his strong grounding in the Quaker faith. This itself was fascinating and made me go on beyond this novel to look into what it means to be a Quaker, purely because of how Gale has written about it here. 

He also deals with the illness Rachel suffers from and the impact it has on her, and her children and the others around her in her wider circle, with great insight and sensitivity. It is moving indeed to see how this might affect children and how they think about it and about her.

The plot weaves together very cleverly indeed, and there are some moments that caused me to gasp or think, ah I see, that's what happened regarding such and such, as it all comes together. I would actually enjoy re-reading this novel as I think the nature of the book means it would enable a better and deeper understanding of the twists and turns and the characters to go through it again.

A recommended read.

Author Guest Post - Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn - The Piano Player's Son - Blog Tour

Today I am pleased to feature a guest post from Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn, author of The Piano Player's Son.

The Importance of Settings in Novels by Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn

There's a tendency in modern fiction to neglect setting for fear of boring the reader. Writers in the past had no such worries. We've only got to think of Hardy's descriptions of Dorset, the wild moors of Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights', and the London that Dickens evoked. But the argument that today's readers are not interested in descriptions of place and will either skip those bits – or worse abandon the book altogether – is enough to frighten writers off.

But I think this is a mistake. Characters need to be rooted in place, as 'real' people are. Whether we're by the sea, on a mountain peak, in a kitchen, in an operating theatre, in a hot place, a cold place, a prison, at an airport, in conflict with or at home in our setting, our moods will be different. Different things will happen to us. We will meet different people. We will be different people. Without a strong sense of place, it's hard for a writer to fully realise character, and to achieve suspense and excitement.

So, how have I used setting in my novel ‘The Piano Player’s Son’? There are four main places in the novel, all ones I know and love. I was brought up in north London, and I decided to make the family home in Highgate. I went back to the area and identified the house where they lived. Not sure what the people who really lived there felt when I started taking photos of their house!

Some years ago, I spent time in Penzance and Northumberland and think they are both wonderful places, so I decided I wanted to make each ‘home’ for two of my characters – the eldest son, Rick, lives in a beautiful house in Rothbury, and the youngest, George, runs an art school in Penzance. Again, I went back to each area,‘found’ the houses where they live and took photos. Obviously I had to make up the insides! At a book group I visited recently, I was delighted when several people said they ‘knew’ the house in Rothbury as well as if they’d been there.

However, perhaps my favourite setting in the novel is Ischia, an island in the Bay of Naples, Italy, known for its health-giving hot springs, but often overshadowed by its more famous neighbour Capri. I've spent several holidays there, and it didn't take me long to decide one of my characters in 'The Piano Player's Son' would live there.

The character is Grace, one of Henry's four grown-up children. At the beginning of the novel, Henry dies, and gradually secrets emerge which overturn the family's view of the past and their parents' relationship. Grace wasn't there when her father died - she hadn't made it back from Italy in time - and she struggles to cope with this, especially when she returns to Ischia, where she and her Italian husband run a ristorante.

The ristorante looks out over the sea towards Castello d'Aragonese, a dramatic and compelling place with a rich history which Grace is fascinated by. This is almost the view of the castle from the ristorante.

(proximacharter.com)

~~~~~

The following extract from 'The Piano Player's Son' describes the morning after Grace's return from England where her father's funeral took place:

Chapter Ten

When Grace woke, the shutters were ajar and a sliver of light slanted across the room. She stretched, easing her limbs into the cool reaches of the bed. There was no sign of Franco.

She turned on her back and listened. The ristorante was gearing up for another day. The familiar sounds calmed her, like waves breaking on shingle. She slipped from the bed and crossed to the window. She pulled back one of the shutters. The sun was shining and the light glinting off the sea was sharp and clear. It was a shock after the leaden skies of England. She drew a cardigan over her flimsy nightdress and stepped out onto the balcony.

Her eyes sought Sant'Anna's rocks, sturdy tuffs rising steeply out of the sea. On summer mornings, while it was still quiet, she liked to scramble down the steep path to the beach and swim across to the rocks. Franco had attached a rope to one of them so that she could haul herself up. She'd found a spot, where the sea had washed the rock smooth. She could sit in it, almost like an armchair.

She lifted her gaze from the rocks to the castello, her favourite place on the whole island. Like something from a fairytale, it stood on its cone of volcanic lava, mysterious and compelling. Grace had lost count of the number of times she had crossed the bridge and climbed up to the remains of the castle cathedral, where in the sixteenth century the poet, Vittoria Colonna's wedding was celebrated. She always took her copy of Vittoria's poetry with her and read in the shadows of the high vaulted arches. To her it was the most romantic place in the world, but Franco scoffed at her obsession with that old ruin.

***

Thank you, Lindsay, for the opportunity to talk about ‘The Piano Player’s Son’, and in particular the settings in the novel. I’ve really enjoyed remembering all those lovely places, and it’s made me want to return to each of them as soon as possible!

www.lindsaystanberryflynn.co.uk

Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn

Website: www.lindsaystanberryflynn.co.uk

Blog: http://lindsaystanberryflynn.co.uk/blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindsayStanberryFlynn.Author

The Piano Player's Son on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/The-Piano-Players-Lindsay-Stanberry-Flynn/dp/1907090932/

SilverWood Books: www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silverwoodbooks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SilverWoodBooks

Ghostwritten - Isabel Wolff

'...we should embrace all our memories, whether joyful or painful. They're all we ever really own in this life.'

Jenni is a ghostwriter; she loses herself in the details and intricacies of the lives of others partly to avoid facing up to aspects of her own life in the present and the past. At her friend Nina's wedding, Jenni meets someone who suggests his mother, Klara, now approaching her eightieth birthday, may be ready to record her memoirs; she has a traumatic, moving, life story to share, and has thus far never divulged many of the details to anyone else, even her family. Jenni is keen to follow-up on this, but when she discovers exactly where Klara lives, a little village in Cornwall named Polvarth, she hesitates to take the job on, as the place holds distressing memories. 

I was soon drawn deeply into this moving, compelling story, it offered me an insight into a setting and a part of history and the world that I knew little about. Klara was Dutch and spent her childhood in Java (now Indonesia) where her father had gone to run a rubber plantation. She grew up happily there at first, with friends amongst other workers' families and amongst the locals too. Then the Second World War, which at first seemed distant from them, arrived on Java, and brought with it huge changes for them all, and terrifying times, her father taken away, then Klara and her mother and brother Peter interned in a camp and kept there in deprivation by the occupying Japanese troops. I learned about tenko, the experience of the roll-call faced by the women and children, and I read how badly people were treated; some of their experiences are very upsetting and harrowing indeed to read about. I was interested, and saddened, to learn not only of these times, but also the period immediately following the end of the war, when it was still so difficult for some of the survivors to find a place to call home where they would be welcomed - neither Indonesia nor Holland seemed entirely hospitable.

Isabel Wolff has evidently researched the period and the setting thoroughly to authenticate her story of Klara’s experiences. In Klara, she has created a strong, admirable and brave woman who has endured and thrived despite her terrible experiences as a girl. I felt that having read this story I had been through it with her, the time and place is brought to life by the author and I got to know them. The voice is clever too, though Klara is an older lady now, she recounts her childhood experiences very much with that child's voice I felt, which felt right. 

Jenni’s story also grabbed me. I wondered if she would ever be able to discuss and reconcile herself to the events of her past, and move forwards. Would her relationship with her partner, schoolteacher Rick, be strong enough, would they be able to reconcile over the fact that Rick would like to have children and Jenni doesn't. I felt an understanding of her, and also very sad for her, that she still carried such a burden regarding events when she was a child, and that they still affected her life so deeply, keeping her in the background of her own life. The author touches insightfully on the experiences of those with a close family bond as a child versus those who have a lonely childhood.

The friendship and trust that grew between these two women was wonderful to witness, I loved how they got on. They share a common bond, how the past has affected them both; both had aspects of their childhoods in effect stolen away from them and are carrying a deep sadness from the past, and the novel explores the gradual facing up to what happened. Memories are recalled, painful, difficult, at times awful, but there is hope and friendship, love and the opportunity for overcoming loss and tragedy to move forwards. Klara is inspiring to Jenni: 

'She'd coped with her memories, in silence, and despite her sadness had made a good life for herself. I needed to do the same.'

I was impressed by this novel, it was a fascinating, absorbing and well-researched read with the historical and present day aspects combining well, and with two engaging, resilient lead female characters, the kind of story that will linger in my mind. I loved the beautiful book cover design which fitted the story very well. The title is fitting; as well as Jenni's career, there are the ghosts of the past in both women's lives which still haunt them.

Thank you to the author for kindly sending me a copy of this novel for an honest review. 

Author links - twitter @IsabelWolff | facebook 

Published by HarperCollins