Saturday, 18 November 2017

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale



Decided to read this as a follow up to watching Gale's “the Man in the Orange Shirt”.

While it was an enjoyable read, I had this strong sense of deja vu reading this book – I am not sure why this was.

Maybe I have read it before, but if I had my recall was not that strong, and it must have been before I started to blog about books.

Maybe it was something about the authenticity of the characters…

or maybe, just maybe, this was actually fairly generic writing filled with standard tropes played together in the guise of creativity? The maverick artist mother, the strong and silence father, 3 children – one a big shot in London, one loyal and close to home, one off the map altogether.

I feel bad if offering that last possible conclusion seems to rip into the book – I enjoyed it, the ebb and flow of their lives were believable and engaging. The picture of Quaker life and worship was deeply appealing. But somehow it never surprised me, and never really moved me beyond the safe space of the observer.

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