This book received much attention when it came out last year (now in paperback); it was a finalist for the Booker Prize and also chosen as one of the Times 10 best books of 2015. Ali Smith is an accomplished and creatively original writer, this is her sixth novel. The book is essentially divided into two parts and was published with some copies beginning with one part and others starting with the other. Depending on which book you bought, you would have a different character starting the novel.
My copy began with the story of a troubled teen whose mother had just passed away of an allergic reaction to an antibiotic. She was only 50 years old, and it was an unexpected and shocking death to her family. She was a politically leftist blogger with a degree in art history. The young girl called "George" was left with a father drowning his sorrow in alcohol, and a younger brother who still needed attention and nurturing. George was close to her mother and they had recently travelled to Italy, drawn there by her mother's fascination with a medieval fresco in the Palazzo Scifanoia in Ferrrara. The fresco and painter are real, you can Google it and see the premise this story is built on.
The second half of the book is about the 15th century painter, Francescho del Cossa who died of the plague in his forties. For centuries his work disappeared, and was rediscovered when some white wash fell off his painted-over masterpiece. This, and an old letter asking for more pay from the d'Este family who were his patrons, led his rediscovery. George and her mother made their pilgrimage to his medieval fortress town of Ferrara in northern Italy, often called the birthplace of the Renaissance.
Sexual ambiguity is a theme running throughout both sections of the novel. There is the question of the sexual identity of Francescho, and what is the relationship between George's mother and a mysterious woman named Lisa Goliard, who could also be spying on the mother's political activism.
In her effort to heal, George becomes immersed in the painter's life and times, with daily visits to a gallery in Cambridge where a piece of his work is displayed. The author presents us with the power of art and history and how they can affect us. What hold does the past have on us? George, somewhat of a loner, makes friends with Helen, a girl in her class. The girls are drawn together by their intelligence and creativity. Again, there is ambiguity about their relationship. They begin working together on a class assignment on the topic of empathy. They choose Francescho for their project.
George's story ends and Francescho's begins, or vice-a-versa depending on which copy of the book you have. I am glad I had a copy with George's story first because I found the section on Francescho, with its stylistic change, more difficult to read. The reader is left to make what he/she will of this. As I read I could see these two main characters were trying to understand each other across the historical void, and this was part of the healing process for George. Then I came to believe that the section on the painter was the project that George and her friend Helen had completed for their school assignment. Other readers may have different interpretations.
I found this novel interesting and creative and unique. It is also challenging to the reader. I would recommend that should you read it, you look for a copy with George's story first.
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