Life Drawing
By Robin Black
★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10
179 pages
What’s it about?
Augusta (Gus) and Owen move to the country to save their troubled marriage. After a few quiet years Allison moves in next door. Things quickly begin to unravel in Gus and Owen’s relationship. The novel opens with Owen’s death- but what caused it?
What did it make me think about?
This book was about the complexity of a long marriage. It also touched onbetrayal, isolation, grief, and art.
Should I read it?
So I must admit this novel sat on my bedside for months. It has a cover that almost looks like a Harlequin romance. It just put me off. I am so glad I finally picked it up. This was the best novel I have never heard of! It reminded me in some ways of “Rebecca” or “Wuthering Heights”. So much atmosphere and tension- so many multi-dimensional characters. This was a most unexpected surprise!
A passage I marked
But Owen was Owen. Owen was me. I was Owen. Anger and all. Owen would walk into a room and I might well want to kill him-so to speak- but at the same time, for much of my life, I couldn’t really of told you where I left off and he began. And then he died. Leaving me standing at a window, staring into a landscape as though, well, as though he might just reappear one day. Of course.”
