Notes from an Exhibition

I heard about this book on Tony Delroy’s Nightlife program and while I never take book recommendations from radio programs the reviewer was so taken with this novel by Patrick Gale that when I saw it in the bookshop on Lygon St in Melbourne after dinner with my brother the other week, I thought I’d give it a go.

It is a story about a bi-polar artist and her family. She dies and the story of her and her family is slowly revealed in flashbacks while the present brings us to resolution. In fact when you think about it Patrick has written this book as one might view a painting.

You don’t look at a painting in a linear view… your eye is captured and you’re drawn to bits and pieces of the “story” the artist is trying to portray. When you stand back and view the complete artwork, you get a wholistic view.

Bob Dylan tried to do this with his song “Tangled up in Blue“.

Many positive results have been reported with recreational use of anti-impotent drugs. levitra tabs There are many reasons or causes of sensorineural lowest prices viagra hearing loss as its main symptoms. Increasing the quantity of medicine viagra 5mg for quick results will not provide a real or a speedy relief. As you age, your married life gets surrounded by many health experts also. cialis sale comes in tablet and gel forms. In fact – in reading an interview with Patrick after writing this – the novel structure is that of an exhibition:

“…and I then realised that what we were doing was arranging an exhibition, we were thinking, well, this one [chapter] will really offset that one, and it will set up a sort of vibration.”

I can’t tell you how satisfying a read this is. The characters are so engaging. The art – you wish Rachel really existed so you could go to an exhibition. I’m even intrigued now with Quakers. I have been dragging out the end to make it last just a little bit longer. It has replaced Perfume by Patrick Suskind as my all-time favourite book. And Perfume has been top of my faves list for more than a decade.

It was – to quote Stephen Fry – “Complete Perfection”.

Transcript of an interview with Patrick Gale