A review from pre-blog days - Footsteps - Katharine McMahon

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.

(originally read and reviewed in 2009, I was given my copy of this novel by a colleague)

Synopsis

The women in Helena Mayrick's family have always led secretive and tragic lives, and when Helena's comfortable marriage is devastated by her husband's violent death, it seems that she, too, is locked into the cycle.

Helena is invited to research a book on her grandfather, H. Donaldson, the celebrated Edwardian photographer. At first she is reluctant to immerse herself in family history, particularly as Donaldson's relationship with her grandmother, Ruth, is shrouded in mystery and turmoil.

But gradually, as the story of enigmatic Ruth and the elusive, passionate Donaldson unfolds, Helena finds that the past, like the present, was shaped by cruel dilemmas and the demands of love...

~~~~~

I was given this novel by a colleague as a recommendation, and I'm so glad I was! It is the most enchanting, beautiful novel I've read for awhile. Wonderfully written, it tells the story of Helena Mayrick close to the present day, trying to overcome tragedy and embarking reluctantly at first on writing a book about her relation Donaldson, who was a famous photographer, and of her Grandmother Ruth Styles in the early part of the twentieth century, with a chapter alternately set in the present and then the past throughout the book.

Ruth Styles is the lynchpin to the whole novel and the most intriguing and devastating character, to whom all else somehow relates. She grows up by the sea in Suffolk, in a small village, and it is this place which shapes much of the lives of those involved. Young Ruth is intelligent, bright, and sparky, and has a profound and lasting effect on many around her, most noteably on Donaldson, the photographer who comes to Westwich and so begins his lifelong fascination with Ruth. As a reader, I was intensely curious and compelled to read on and find out what would happen to her, and so much does!

There is a marvelous sense of place within the novel, and it is clear the bearing the proximity of the sea has on several of the characters. The book is about the repercussions of the past; about love, forbidden love, lost love, unfulfilled love; it is about the draw of a particular landscape and how it can free or restrict a person, and it is about choices and fulfillment of potential, especially for women, which is a key theme of this author. Highly recommended.

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.